Category: Current Events

Entrance to The History Center: Archives of the Baptist General Conference and Bethel University

Congratulations to the Archives of the BGC and Bethel University!

May 13, 2014

Congratulations to The History Center: Archives of the Baptist General Conference and Bethel University — named the 2014 recipient of the Davis C. Woolley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Assessing and Preserving Baptist History. This puts our archives in very good company, as last year’s winner was the special collections and archives department of the Z. … More Congratulations to the Archives of the BGC and Bethel University!

He Qi, Praying in Gethsemane

“That They May Be One”: Evangelical Unity after World Vision

April 17, 2014

Ten minutes after I pressed “Publish” on Monday’s post about my struggle to find a way to blog well about the World Vision controversy, I found myself lecturing on the Catholic Reformation and Wars of Religion in Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class. While the fracturing of the Church into tens of thousands of denominations didn’t start or … More “That They May Be One”: Evangelical Unity after World Vision

John the Baptist - Russian icon

Not a Prophet, Not an Apostle: Blogging after World Vision

April 14, 2014

I’m not a member of the Organization of American Historians and so wasn’t in Atlanta last week for its annual meeting. Fortunately, John Fea was, and not only lit up Twitter but shared some reflections on panels he attended or participated in. I was especially interested in his reports on two sessions: “Is Blogging Scholarship?” and … More Not a Prophet, Not an Apostle: Blogging after World Vision

WV emergency response team

The Conclusion of My Interview with David King on World Vision

April 4, 2014

Yesterday I posted the first part of my interview with historian David King, in which he discussed the origins of World Vision and its child sponsorship program. In today’s conclusion to that interview I asked David to talk about World Vision’s relationship to evangelicalism, and then the international character of World Vision, an aspect of the story … More The Conclusion of My Interview with David King on World Vision

World Vision logo

World Vision and Evangelicalism: An Interview with David King

April 3, 2014

Last week the U.S. chapter of the international Christian humanitarian organization World Vision made headlines: first when president Rich Stearns confirmed to Christianity Today last Monday that the organization would employ Christians in same-sex marriages, only to reverse the decision two days later, in the wake of torrents of criticism from conservatives, some of whom threatened to withdraw … More World Vision and Evangelicalism: An Interview with David King

Soviet POWs in July 1941

Starvation as a Weapon

February 6, 2014

Today’s must-read article comes from Anne Applebaum, pointing to a perhaps underreported dimension of the crisis in Syria: mass starvation brought about by the policies of Bashar al-Assad. While the international community is haggling over [Assad’s] chemical weapons, the stuff of modern nightmares, he is following the example of his medieval and his 20th-century predecessors and … More Starvation as a Weapon

Singing at Lac du Bois

The French Are Coming! Language Immersion as Soft Power

February 4, 2014

After nearly three years of blogging, you’d think that I’d have exhausted my ability to reveal semi-embarrassing details of my life. But I’m not sure I’ve yet mentioned that, in the summers after 3rd and 4th grades, I spent a week at French camp. It was called Lac du Bois. I lived in a cabin … More The French Are Coming! Language Immersion as Soft Power