Category: History
“has anyone asked working-class families if being sucked into a frantically achievement-obsessed rat race is a benefaction they are interested in?”
This essay from Helen Andrews is just too enjoyable not to share: Does Currid-Halkett have anything bad to say about the new elite? She has just one complaint, which she repeats again and again whenever she senses that she is sounding too...
could a Christian political party be… good?
Bryan McGraw delivers a great history lesson about Christian political parties in Europe and the promise such a party might hold for us in America. I’d love to see him discuss the American Solidarity Party in a follow-up, since that’s the...
Africa as antidote
Melani McAlister has an incisive interview with David Swartz in Christianity Today on her new book, The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals: What do you mean when you describe Americans as “enchanted” by...
Alma Ata at 40
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration (PDF) — the landmark 1978 World Health Organization statement by 134 countries affirming the vital role of primary health care. This article explains why it’s so important to still focus on...
black homeschooling in America
This piece about black families in America choosing to homeschool captures many of the elements that families struggle with over the public school system: Yet Fields-Smith made a point of noting the respect black families had for the people running...
the necessity and history of corporate social responsbility
I very much look forward to reading Kyle Edward Williams’ thesis on corporate social responsibility whenever it comes out. For now, he’s got a great piece in the Washington Post on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to bring responsibility back to corporate...
“the joy of cryptozoology”
How can you not love an essay like this? Clare Coffey is a delight to read: That the movements of the human mind, its bent for narrative and order, might correspond to something real besides raw evolutionary fitness simply does...
Christians and AIDS
The history of Christians and health services is a complicated one. This article by Michael Igoe is a great summary of evangelical advocacy for PEPFAR, which has provided billions of dollars for HIV treatment, and the difficult needle different parties...
there aren’t good short-term fixes for migration, either
Last week I highlighted a really good article about the long-term migration problem that the world is facing. Here is more evidence from The Atlantic that things aren’t holding in the short-term, either: When I asked immigration experts this week...
the long-term migration problem
This is hard to read, but it’s necessary to ponder. It begins with the story of Jose Matada, who climbed into the landing gear of a plane and died when he fell out as the plane was descending in 2012....