I nosed my Camry slowly towards the Palos Verdes Peninsula on a bright afternoon this week, my three children squeezed into the back seat along with boxes and bags of our belongings. We had just popped in “Meet Kirsten,” an audiobook of historical fiction from the American Girls collection. The day before we had finished the last story in the Josefina collection, which detailed the life of a 9-year-old in 1824 New Mexico, and it had resonated powerfully with us... Read more
I have been writing about the sequence of books I had published in an earlier phase of my career on the construction of social problems and panics. The constructionist approach I used still seems to me to be very valuable. So might I ever go back to writing and research in that sizable area? What follows is is an intellectual exercise rather than an actual game plan, but I hope that addressing that question might be of some interest. Mainly... Read more
One of my first public posts ever declared my first experiences of reading literature from Latin America especially from my father’s country Costa Rica. Sometimes I think about why I am constantly writing about literature. It seems every other essay I write I am advocating about reading fiction. Perhaps this because as someone tasked with teaching history, I have to convince myself that it is okay to escape to the world of fiction. Still, and it is not the point... Read more
A group of Palestinian kids in Gaza huddles around a phone screen. Their beaming smiles contrast with the utter destruction surrounding them. But they are transfixed by a just-released music video by an American rapper from Seattle, Washington, protesting Israel’s war on Gaza. The song calls for a ceasefire and invokes the name and story of Hind Rajab, a six-year old Palestinian girl from the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. The story of Hind’s death still haunts me. I... Read more
Donald Trump’s May 30th conviction by a jury of his peers on 34 felony counts inspired countless pundits to declare that America had entered a “new era.” For example, a Wall Street Journal editorial called the verdict the beginning of a “new and destabilizing era,” and Al Mohler called it “a major turning point in American history.” Even the response to the verdict has been declared a turning point. Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic claimed that Republicans’ denunciation of the... Read more
Memory Loss, Identity, and Whether History Matters My mother was diagnosed with memory problems in her 60s, and doctors eventually labeled her challenges as Alzheimer’s Disease. Almost ten years into living with this disability, she is still socially engaged, travels to see family, enjoys entertaining her grandchildren, and enjoys caring for the pets she and my father fill their home with. While the lively and charismatic entrepreneur and professor that she once was has evolved into a sedentary and careful... Read more
I have been describing my work on social problems and nightmares, and how that approach affects our understanding of mainstream American religious history. Last time I discussed the Satanism Scare of the 1980s as a critical factor in our understanding of modern evangelical and Pentecostal history. Today, I will talk about the role of clergy sexual abuse scandals as a factor in American Catholic history. The Roman Catholic church has long been the largest single institution in the American religious... Read more
Last month, I read two recently-released books grappling with trends within evangelicalism: Sarah McCammon’s The Exvangelicals and Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.: American Evangelicals in An Age of Extremism. While certainly different in tone, aim, and scope, both authors identify (and personally corroborate) fractures within evangelicalism and disillusioning trends. Taken together, a striking portrait emerges not only of this historical moment in evangelicalism but its intimate effects. (*Note: Both authors read their own audiobooks!) A quick... Read more
Summer. The time of year for slower days, sunshine, summer camps, outdoor adventures, and… the ongoing modesty discourse in certain circles. Matthew Pierce’s April Substack “2024 Summer Swimsuit Guide for Christian Women” is a humorous take on the seemingly endless discussion of appropriate attire for women, with its suggestion of things like force fields and traffic cones as “wholesome, stylish suggestions for swimwear that honors your brothers in Christ.” But all joking aside, the discussion of women’s responsibility to dress... Read more
Today’s post is a little bit angry so be forewarned. I guess I have a new pet peeve. And frankly, it is not merely a pet peeve. It is a trespassing of the third commandment: that we not misuse the name of the Lord our God (or as we popularly refer to it, taking the name of the Lord in vain). This is often understood as meaning that we have to be careful not to use God’s name as an... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In