Early America
Book Review: Believe Me by John Fea
As someone who grew up steeped in the conservative political world of the Evangelical Christian movement in the US, I was continually stunned by the ability (and willingness) of Evangelicals to continue to make excuses for the seemingly un-Christian behavior, attitudes, and rhetoric of Donald Trump. In his book, Believe Me, John Fea (my colleague at […]
Nothing New Under the Sun: Racism in America (Again)
My friend, and fellow MennoNerd, Drew Hart shared a link on Twitter this morning to a piece he wrote in August 2013. The piece speaks to the relationship of 400 years of discrimination from the origins of black slavery through the modern day. While the most recent incident mentioned in the piece is the Trayvon Martin […]
Was 4 July Really Independence Day?
Set aside for a second when the Declaration was first drafted (2 July), when it was signed (August, I believe) or when it was finalized (reportedly as late as November). None of these have anything to do with the question in the title. The question is about the word independence, but not whether the United […]
The Hidden Side of Monticello
Thanks to John Fea for the link to this video from a new project about the slaves that once called Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello “home”. Just Friday I was reading about Jefferson in Fea’s Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? The book is an essential read for those wanting a full historical treatment of that question. […]
On the “Plain” Meaning of Scripture
Over at the Pangea Blog on Patheos, Kurt Willems explores what he considers to be a flawed way of reading Scripture. He represents it by the concept of what Scripture “plainly” means to the reader. The idea seems reasonable. Why would God make Scripture “tricky” such that the meaning wasn’t clear? The problem with this technique is […]
Correcting David Barton’s Version of History
I found this post by John Fea over at The Way of Improvement Leads Home to be useful. Since it is so short, I will take the liberty to quote it in its entirety here. The interesting things are in the links Fea provides. Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College in western […]
Update: John Fea on Jeremiads
Dr. John Fea, Chair of the Department of History at Messiah College, in his weekly Patheos column, expands on his recent post on Pat Roberston and the long history of Jeremiads in the United States. I previously linked to his blog post in this post on Robertson and those of his ilk, and followed up […]
Some People Need to Be Quiet
Thanks to Dr. John Fea, chair of the Department of History at Messiah College, for pointing out something that was pretty much inevitable. Ever since the earthquake hit this past week, I was sure that some loud-mouthed, self-appointed Christian “leader” would surely blame the earthquake on the wrath of God about something or someone. Leave […]
No Longer Normal 