I read James Emery White’s The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated (2014) this morning in preparation for a new specific topics course I am teaching this spring–Atheists, Other “Heathens,” and 20th C. United States. White writes from the perspective of a long time pastor and a follower of Protestant Christian theology and forContinue reading “Book Review–“The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated””
Monthly Archives: November 2017
“TODAY ONLY” Extra Credit Opportunity – A Surprising Teaching Experiment
On Sunday, November 5, 2017, I had an idea. I immediately emailed all of my students during the middle of the afternoon. The email announced an extra credit opportunity that would only be available until 11:59 pm. I gave students a few blog articles to read and requested that they leave a meaningful comment onContinue reading ““TODAY ONLY” Extra Credit Opportunity – A Surprising Teaching Experiment”
Book Review – “Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South”
Thanks to “Google Scholar Alerts,” I learned first thing this morning that I officially have another publication–although just a book review I wrote in March 2017–under my hat. This publication is an academic book review of Adrienne Berard’s Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim CrowContinue reading “Book Review – “Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South””
The final conservative position is to do nothing?
The trajectory of history in the United States continues. In the face of violence, death, and suffering, conservatives opt to do nothing. Opting to do nothing when solutions are readily available amounts to moral failure. Even scant acknowledgments of the United States’s past makes evident the vital role liberalism, progressivism, and socialism have always hadContinue reading “The final conservative position is to do nothing?”
Walt Disney and the Acceptance of Authoritarianism
While eating my supper of crackers, deli turkey, and strawberries, I had a question: What is the relationship between Disney’s children’s movies (and alphabetic fairy tales) and the current–baffling–acceptance of authoritarianism in the United States? Why are people–who proclaim to love the United States, their country, and their freedom–still supporting the Republican party at all?! ThinkContinue reading “Walt Disney and the Acceptance of Authoritarianism”
Moving Beyond Gendered People and Gendered Personal Pronouns
Why do we separate some 7 billion (that’s 7,000,000,000) humans currently living into two categories: “he” or “she”? Likewise, why do we also separate trillions (quadrillions?) of non-human forms of life into “he” or “she”? Such structuralist thinking is completely inadequate for 2017. Present-day English–in contrast to Old English, Spanish, and other languages–is already well-equippedContinue reading “Moving Beyond Gendered People and Gendered Personal Pronouns”
Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda 