Earlier this year, as COVID forced Bethel online and Minnesotans sheltered in place, I spent about four weeks writing daily Lenten devotionals. Spurred by a midweek sermon from my brother-in-law, the series was meant to help me focus on spending time each day encountering God in Scripture. I called the series “The With-God Life,” the … More The With-God Life: Part Two
This week I reflected on the state of American democracy under Donald Trump and considered the importance of history and memory to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Elsewhere: • I don’t think it’s appropriate for the GOP to rush through Ginsburg’s successor mere weeks before Election Day, four years after refusing to vote on Barack Obama’s nominee … More That Was The Week That Was
This week: • Michael Gerson’s argument for not voting on the basis of abortion alone was compelling when he wrote it on Thursday… but all the more so after the Supreme Court abruptly reentered the presidential campaign on Friday night. • I’ll write more about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a couple of days, … More That Was The Week That Was
I’ve taken some time off from blogging here at Pietist Schoolman in order to get my fall courses launched under unusual circumstances and to finish revisions to my Lindbergh manuscript. Before I share some of what else I’ve been reading, here’s good news on the latter count, courtesy of my editor at Eerdmans: Thrilled that @cgehrz's terrific … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I studied African American responses to Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight to Paris and celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by looking at the role of religion in the suffrage debate. Elsewhere: • I didn’t watch a lot of the online Democratic National Convention, but I thought that Michelle Obama (in making … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I wrote a letter to my students about the coming fall, recorded a podcast about sports under COVID, and introduced readers to a Lindbergh biographer who never got to finish her book. Elsewhere: • I’m worried that masks are going to make it harder for my students and me to get to know … More That Was The Week That Was
Even as he grieves over the loss of Ohio State football for the fall, Chris Moore joined Sam Mulberry and me for a new episode of The 252, “sports talk radio as done by academics.” While Chris and I won’t be teaching our History and Politics of Sports class again until 2022, we mean to continue producing occasional … More Saturday’s Podcast: Checking In on Sports under COVID
This week I learned about a pagan, white supremacist movement that is rededicating a church in Minnesota and looked at how Bethel and its peers scored on a financial stress test. Elsewhere: • Bethel caught flak on social media for establishing a scholarship named after George Floyd, but to his great credit, our new president … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I considered the importance of Christian friendships between women and men and shared a bit more about the origins of our Faith and History devotional. (Click that link to learn how to pre-order with a publisher’s discount.) Elsewhere: • We’re now less than a month away from starting face-to-face classes at Bethel… I hope someone’s … More That Was The Week That Was
This week I started turning my attention to a fall semester unlike any other, researching reopening plans for schools like Bethel and thinking through how I’ll teach two of my courses in a “modified face-to-face” format. Then over at The Anxious Bench, the story of Bethel’s first student of color provided bookends for a review … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 