Seventy years ago today, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy — opening the long-promised “second front” in the European experience of World War II and ultimately sealing the fate of the Third Reich. There’s plenty of coverage of the anniversary — let me just suggest a few links: • The Washington Post has a striking photo … More D-Day at 70
Over at Slate writer Ben Schreckinger argues that the seven-day week has outlived its usefulness: The pattern of living on a seven-day cycle—with one or two of those days set aside for rest—is a relative novelty. Only in the past few centuries, with Western colonization of most of the world, have the majority of human societies adopted it. … More The Week Is Dead, Long Live the Week!
Where did Memorial Day start? What does it mean? If pressed, most of us could probably guess that it emerged from the wake of the Civil War and perhaps explain that it differs from, say, Veterans Day or Armed Forces Day in specifically remembering those who have died in military service to this country. Writing in the midst of the Vietnam War, … More Revising Memorial Day
According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 21% of Americans age 5 or older speak a language at home other than English. Not surprisingly, Spanish is most common (38 million), but it’s hardly the only second language in this country. Over 11 million speak another Indo-European language, almost 10 million speak an Asian or Pacific Islands … More Beyond English and Spanish: America’s Other Languages
For the first time in nearly three years, the Washington Monument will be open to visitors today. So this seems like a good time to revisit my February 2012 post on the history of that monument, and of presidential memorials in general. Commemoration has been much on my mind since my trip to the battlefields and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Presidential Memorials
Before the final bell rings on National Teacher Appreciation Week, let me rerun the part of a May 2013 post in which I talked about the one teacher who had the greatest impact on my life: Maureen Conway of Mounds Park Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota. Not surprisingly, I’m far from the only person who feels … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Ms. Conway
For a while earlier this year, whenever I signed out of my Facebook account, I would see a full-screen ad for a Christian dating service. Now, this was troubling if only because my Facebook relationship status is very clearly Married; I hate to think what Facebook thinks it’s learned about me that makes me a good target for … More Christian Matchmaking: Past and Present
Earlier today I walked into my office and found a lovely little gift basket of chocolates, courtesy of our department’s wonderful undergraduate teaching assistants. “Happy May Day!” read the card. Of course, given the way that May Day is celebrated in most of the world, this should prompt me not only to endorphin- and Toblerone-fueled good … More Happy Loyalty Day
Attention to David Barton’s treatment of Thomas Jefferson has died down since the controversy that led to Thomas Nelson rescinding their endorsement of The Jefferson Lies back in 2012. But Barton remains active and his popularity among the evangelical right’s rank and file has rebounded. Barton’s continued popularity, it seems to me, raises several issues … More Should Christian Scholars be Watchdogs? An Interview with David Barton Critic Warren Throckmorton
The first time I heard about Winona Lake in northeast Indiana was during my research for my Masters thesis at TEDS. My project was a study of two Mennonite congregations in eastern Pennsylvania that were heavily influenced by American evangelicalism during the 1950s. The pastor of one of these congregations, an evangelist named John S. … More Introducing the Winona History Center at Grace College
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