The Pietist Schoolman

This week I considered a recent survey showing that more and more non-evangelicals are embracing the language of being “born again.” Elsewhere:

• I’m excited that Bethel will host John Inazu next month. Hopefully he’ll revisit some of the themes from his most recent piece for Christianity Today, on the need for white evangelicals to reject insularity.

• Take a wild guess what kind of response an evangelical pastor (a Republican) received from fellow Christians after he wrote an op-ed denouncing Donald Trump.

• Maybe those people, like childhood bullies, are taking their cues from the president.

• Of course, many evangelical Trump supporters emphasize their opposition to abortion. But here’s why pro-lifers should strongly consider voting for a pro-choice Democrat instead of Trump.

• Most Democratic presidential candidates haven’t made that easy, but one surging contender has tried to appeal to pro-life voters as her campaign heads South.

• I’ll likely vote for whomever the Democrats ultimately nominate. But whenever I start to feel too politically partisan, I should reread Nathan Hatch’s critique of Christian political captivity.

• Sometime soon I’m planning to update my 2013 posts on the history of colleges closing. No doubt I’ll write about the stunning announcement that Concordia University Portland — a Lutheran member of the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities — will close at the end of this academic year.

• I usually try to come up with a sentence or two of summary for any link. But let’s just let this article’s title speak for itself: “The Pious World of Christian Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Art.”

• Meet a different kind of Christian climate denialist: the Amish farmer.

• There’s some evidence that the growth of religious “nones” is slowing.

• But Americans whose religion is “nothing in particular” still make up a significant (and relatively youthful) share of the population. What might that mean for Christian missions in the 21st century?

• In a couple weeks, my Western Civ students will again act out the story of Gawain and the Green Knight as we start a unit on the Middle Ages. But soon they’ll be able to see the story dramatized by professionals.

• It’s not often you find extant diaries kept by a 19th century farmer — let alone one who wondered whether or not homosexuality was natural.

• How did early Americans relate to the dead?

• You’ve probably heard of Civil War reenactment. But what about reenacting the Underground Railroad?

• It’s been 100 years since Rube Foster led the way in organizing the Negro Leagues.

• It’s been 75 years since the Allied bombing of Dresden, which has taken on new meaning in German politics today.