Here is the Post's editorial board: Some 82 million Americans are expected to make annual pilgrimages for Thanksgiving dinner by plane, train or automobile. Long journeys will leave many of them tired and eager to reach their destination. Unfortunately, the scourge of automatic hand dryers in public restrooms ensures that the misery will continue long after the journey has ended.

...Now we have "evangelical" Christian churches where Jesus's ideas are scrutinized for their excessive wokeness, while Trump is celebrated without demur from the pulpit, churches where "Christianity" is celebrated as a sort of inborn racial trait or triumphant cultural acquisition: something we lord over others. The instant Christianity of any kind becomes a belonging of ours, rather than something we hope to belong it, it always turns hopelessly toxic.

Tim Galsworthy is Lecturer in History & Military History at Lincoln Bishop University. This interview is based on his new book, The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and…

The best, most sincere sort of conservative hopes that any necessary redistribution can be achieved through personal or institutional charity, thus avoiding the coercion of taxes and the heavy arm of the state. I had better quickly say why this doesn't appear to me as a serious possiblity. One, the arguments that conservatives typically make against a welfare state prove too much: they end up being arguments against charity as such.

In an op-ed at The New York Times, the Democratic political consultant known for his Clintonesque centrism now sounds like his fellow Louisianian, the late governor Huey Long. Carville calls for a "sweeping, aggressive, unvarnished platform of pure economic rage." The next think you know he we be reviving Long's "Share Our Wealth" program. (And that might not be a bad thing, if the Democratic Party can separate such economic populism from Long's fascist tendencies.)

The Kentucky governor, a Democrat, has left the door open for a presidential run in 2028. His piece today at The Washington Post sure seems like another step towards that open door. Here is a taste of "How Democrats can start changing rural red to blue." Democrats won huge victories up and down the ballot this month. We won statewide in Georgia, held the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, broke the supermajority in the Mississippi State Senate and took two gubernatorial elections by double-digit margins.

Michael Sean Winters writing at the National Catholic Reporter, nails it: “Can everyone please stop talking about ‘Christian nationalism?’ The phrase is way too polymorphous to be…

A few things online that caught my attention this week: Ross Douthat interviews National Conservative intellectual Yoram Hazony “Everything is television” Small town hockey What is the …

Here is a taste of Leo XIV's apostolic letter on the 1700th anniversary of the Nicean Creed, In Unitate Fidei: 1. In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy. This is expressed in the words of the Creed, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God… for our salvation he came down from heaven,” that were formulated 1700 years ago by the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical gathering in the history of Christianity.

Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008. I have had to remind myself of this piece a lot in the last couple of years.–JF It was a typical 1970s weekday evening. The sky was growing dark and I, an elementary school student, was sitting at the kitchen table of a modest North Jersey cape cod putting the finishing touches on the day’s homework.

A few things online that caught my attention this week: Ross Douthat interviews National Conservative intellectual Yoram Hazony "Everything is television" Small town hockey What is the "Esther Project?" and what does it have to do with Israel and American evangelicals. Peter Wehner reminds us that Donald Trump had anti-semite Nick Fuentes over for dinner. How the Christian Right has "

Michael Sean Winters writing at the National Catholic Reporter, nails it: “Can everyone please stop talking about ‘Christian nationalism?’ The phrase is way too polymorphous to be…

Here is how Ken Burns describes Philip Vickers Fithian in his PBS documentary, “The American Revolution.” (I quoted some of this in a post from earlier this week.) Narrator: Philip Vick…

Here is a taste: These were the two visions of the United States as a Christian nation that would clash in the Civil War. The Northern vision of Christian America would ultimately prevail. With Lin…

Martha Biondi is Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Black Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University. This interview is based on her new book, We Are Internationalists: Prexy Nesbitt …

Michael Sean Winters writing at the National Catholic Reporter, nails it: "Can everyone please stop talking about 'Christian nationalism?' The phrase is way too polymorphous to be useful and all it does is exacerbate the disposition of believers to view liberals as their enemy, and to vote accordingly." Here is a taste of his piece: The Pew Research Center's Greg Smith…

The Lumen Center is growing. Come join us in Madison! Here is the job announcement: The Lumen Center, an initiative of the SL Brown Foundation, seeks applications for a full-time, permanent, Madison-based appointment as Resident Fellow in Theology to begin September 1, 2026. We welcome candidates with expertise in systematic theology, ethics (moral theology), public theology, or historical theology. Regardless of specialization, the successful candidate will possess broad knowledge of the Christian theological tradition.

Last month Politico journalist Heidi Przybyla told Michael Steele of MSNBC that people who believe human rights come from God are Christian nationalists. We addressed her comments here and here. As we covered last week in one of our Evangelical roundups, Przybyla's comments triggered the Christian Right outrage machine. Since then, Przybyla has responded. Here is a taste of her…

Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair - Kindle edition by Moss III, Otis. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair.

Here is how Ken Burns describes Philip Vickers Fithian in his PBS documentary, "The American Revolution." (I quoted some of this in a post from earlier this week.) Narrator: Philip Vickers Fithian of Cohansey, New Jersey, was a newly married 28-year-old Presbyterian clergyman, recently appointed chaplain of a militia brigade. He was a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, where his classmates had included Aaron Burr and James Madison.

Here is a taste: These were the two visions of the United States as a Christian nation that would clash in the Civil War. The Northern vision of Christian America would ultimately prevail. With Lincoln, many northern clergy believed God was moving the nation forward by ushering in a “new birth of freedom.” But the Confederate theologians’ view of slavery would continue to linger for decades in the form of segregation, Jim Crow laws, and white supremacy. 

Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Are Republicans migrating away from MAGA? Why Harvard historian Jill Lepore was hours away from leaving academia What is going on Calvin University? Mark Silk: “Judeo-Christian values are out and Christian nationalism is in.” Christian colleges respond to Trump’s higher education policies What is post-liberalism?

In the last couple of weeks several newer subscribers have noted that they get a lot of emails from The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog. That is because we post multiple times a day (and have be…