This week I recalled my late friend G.W. Carlson’s admiration for the Baptist activist Clarence Jordan, shared my friend Ruben Rivera’s passion for diversity and shalom, and talked about our favorite sports movies with my friends Sam Mulberry and Chris Moore. Elsewhere…
• A reminder that Africa is fast becoming the home to the world’s largest Christian population.
• A reminder that Winston Churchill really, really didn’t like one of the world’s most beloved leaders.
• And a reminder that anyone tempted to call themselves part of “the Resistance” in 2019 America should probably understand just what it cost to be a historical resister under Nazi occupation.
• Last weekend I shared a couple of pieces on fast-rising Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg that focused on his faith. I think it’s also worth considering what he means to LGBTQ Americans like Lucas Grindley.
• At the same time, David Brooks thinks that part of Buttigieg’s appeal is “that he transcends many of the tensions that run through our society in a way that makes people on all sides feel comfortable.”
• Another conservative columnist argued that “our economic and social systems have been massively rigged in favor of whites and that the unrigging is a continuing political responsibility.”
• The latest piece arguing for the value of the humanities is worth reading on several grounds. I found especially insightful Amanda Ruggeri’s point that the average salary of humanities graduates might be lower because such workers are more likely to be women, who continue to be paid less than men for similar work.
(See also Michael Massing’s essay, arguing that the humanities “incubate ideas, provide ethical standards, and raise questions about the status quo—functions that are becoming ever more important as the tech world, ridden by scandal and crisis, faces a moment of reckoning.”)
The Pietist Schoolman 