Saturday Good Reads - Aug, 31, 2024

It was 1993 or 1994, and I was attending a men’s weekend conference in downtown Indianapolis. At lunchtime, there was a break, and people wandered all over downtown, or were checking out the conference sales booths. I was wandering inside the convention arena, and I heard some music. I strolled over to what turned out to be a 45-minute impromptu concert by Steven Curtis Chapman. This past week, Chapman reflected on his career and what’s next. 

Mark Zuckerberg wrote an extraordinary letter to Congress this week. Whether it was getting out in front of bad news, damage control, an apology, or all of the above, it still made headlines. Yes, Facebook was pressured to censor news on COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, and other topics. And, yes, it did occasionally cave. And now we see that our Federal Bureau of Investigation interfered in the 2020 presidential election. See “Zuckerberg Defies the Borg.”

 

In the 1970s, few religious topics gathered more interest that the Shroud of Turin, purported to be the burial cloth of Jesus. It was supposedly definitively debunked as a medieval creation, but the legend lives on. A new form of X-ray dating says the cloth dates to at least 73 A.D., and an artificial intelligence image generator has recreated the face of the figure in the shroud. And “A Face in the Shroud“ is indeed haunting.

 

More Good Reads

 

British Stuff

 

Shattered Illusions: The record of the authorities defies denials of two-tier policing – Alex Story at The Critic Magazine.

 

The rise of cultural Christianity – Madeleine Davies at The New Statesman.

 

Faith

 

My Church Weeps with Me – Lara d’Entremont at A Faithful Imagination. 

 

The Doves Didn’t Go Anywhere – Shane Morris at Digital Liturgies.

 

Life and Culture

 

Beyond Scandal: The 2024 presidential election invites a sense of realism – Christopher Rufo at City Journal. 

 

Who Has Children Anymore Anyway? – Ben Christenson at Front Porch Republic.

 

Music

 

“Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin – Debra Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Writing and Literature

 

On the Trail of Five Red Herrings, a Sayers Novel That Stands Apart – Martin Edwards at CrimeReads.

 

How Henry VIII accidentally changed the way we write history – Raphaelle Goyeau at The Conversation.

 

Poetry

 

“The Loon,” poem by Lew Sarett – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

How Coleridge plays with your mind with “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” – Lucasta Miller at The Spectator. 

 

Sitting Down Discipline –Eva Pankratz at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“Ulysses,” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

American Stuff

 

An Opinion of Doubleday – Chris Kolakowski at Emerging Civil War.

 

The red star returns – Gary Saul Morson at New Criterion.

 

Ode to Joy – Royal Albert Hall, London

 

Painting: The Reading, oil on canvas by Vittorio Reggianini (1858-1938).

The calling, at the end

After I Corinthians 7:17-24 

Inventory time:

Did you honor me

  with the skills and

   talents I gave you?

Did you honor the parents,

   the teachers, the pastors,

   the authorities I placed

   into your life?

Did you use the skills

   and talents I gave you

   to provide for your family?

Did you use the skills

   and talents I gave you

   to promote the public good?

Were my people’s legitimate

   prayers answered

   through you?

 

Photograph by Charles Deluvio via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Lamplight – poem by Andrew Lansdown at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The Maker – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

The Biggest Evangelical Divide Is No Longer Between Wesleyans and Calvinists – Nicholas McDonald at The Bard Owl.

 

Igniting Hope: MLK’s Powerful Washington March Address – Jason Clark ad This is the Day.

 

"Hillary's Back!" by Faith Martin

I knew the last DI Hillary Greene mystery novel wasn’t Hillary’s last case. Hillary’s Final Case looked like it might be, but author Faith Martin still had a few tricks up her sleeve, and a few more cases for Hillary to solve. 

Appropriately enough, the title of the next (and eighteenth) installment in the series is Hillary’s Back!. She’s back, all right, and still working as a civilian consultant in the cold case unit of the Thames Valley Police in Kidlington, near Oxford. But she’s experienced personal loss, and her boss is wondering how she’ll do.

 

She also has a new team, a retired soldier injured in an IED explosion and a formerly retired sergeant who seems like everybody’s favorite aunt until you know what she used to do for the police. The retired sergeant knows Hillary and what she can do, and the retired soldier soon comes to realize that he’s landed on his feet with an incredibly capable, competent, and experienced boss.

 

Faith Martin

Their cold case: the stabbing murder of a young man that everyone was glad to see the end of. He’d been a pusher, a pimp, and an all-around wastrel, probably killed by one of his drug clients. While there were plenty of suspects, there were also plenty of alibis or no way to prove someone was at the scene, which was in the woods near the victim’s house (where he liked to do his drug transactions).

 

Watching Hillary unravel an impossible case is just as much an education for the reader as it is for her new team. Hillary’s Back! is an enthralling story. 

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 

Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.

 

Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin. 

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

An Ode to Charles Willeford – Michael Ledwidge at CrimeReads.

 

Dark Academia – Pamela Steiner at Closed Doors, Open Windows.

 

A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam’s Masquerades in the Civil War Era & Gilded Age by Frank W. Garmon Jr. – Aaron Stoyack at Emerging Civil War.

 

The Socialite Kidnaper – Laura Shimel at Missouri Historical Society.

"Decisions of the Vicksburg Campaign" by Larry Peterson

I’ve completed for reading and research for my Civil War novel, tentatively entitled Brookhaven. It’s been something of a relief to see the conclusion of this phase of the project, and I’ll have more to say about the next phase soon. 

The Civil War is something of a publishing mini-industry; new books are coming out all the time. I think we keep examining the war, what left up to it, and what came afterward to try to understand our own times. I can say that much of what I thought I knew has undergone some serious revision.

 

I’m still following news of new articles and books on the conflict, and one was recently published that I couldn’t resist. Decisions of the Vicksburg Campaign: The Eighteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Operation was written by Larry Peterson and published recently by the University of Tennessee Press. And I couldn’t resist it because it was precisely the operation that framed the Civil War experience of my ancestors. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

‘We called her mastadon’: infamous New Orleans orphanage’s abusive history ran deeper than ever known – Jason Berry at The Guardian.

 

Sigmund Freud’s Grief – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.

 

Suspected burglar caught after sitting down with book – Zahra Fatima at BBC.

 

“The Clouded Morning,” poem by Jones Very – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Poets and Poems: Joshua Hren and “Last Things, First Things, and Other Lost Causes”

Sometimes you don’t need a flood of news or events or ideas to remind you that bad things exist in this world. Sometimes just a few drops will do.  

The chapbook Last Things, First Things, and Other Lost Causes by Joshua Hren is short, including only 26 poems. And I have to say that when I started reading the collection, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I should have paid closer attention to the title. But I had read his short story collection, In the Wine Press, dark stories, to be sure, but well written and each offering some hope. 

 

The poems in the chapbook smacked me upside the head. The words that come to mind include disquieting, disturbing, and troubling. The poems are about the state of the culture, the state of the world, and the state of the individual. It’s a small collection about the need for humanity’s redemption. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

New Verse Review – the first edition of a new poetry journal.

 

The Tyger – poem by William Blake at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

The Golden Ages of English Literature – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Poetry Prompt: My Poem is an Oasis – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“To an Athlete Dying Young,” poem by A.E. Housman – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Pure Absence – poem by David Whyte.

“The River Caught Sunlight” by Katie Andraski

It’s a story not unlike the parable of the prodigal son, except without the prodigal’s riotous and self-indulgent living. 

Janice Westfahl grows up on a farm in upstate New York with her older brother and their parents. She has a longstanding boyfriend, but it appears the relationship will never lead to marriage. Unlike her brother, Janice goes to college near Chicago, and she’s become a publicist for a Christian publisher, specializing in pitching Christian authors and books to secular, mainstream media. As young as she is, she’s become successful in her work.

 

She’s currently promoting and accompanying a highly controversial author on a publicity tour. The man has a broad following, and his book seems to advocate violence to stop abortion. He even has wealthy people ready to help fund activities. But he steps away from direct verbal advocacy in his interviews. Janice is conflicted; she opposes abortion but she also opposes violence, and she’s concerned that she’s becoming something of an accomplice.

 

The tour ends in New York City, just as Janice’s mother dies from cancer. And that sets into motion a family dynamic that will surface the underlying conflict between Janice, her father who always supported her ambitions, and her brother, who resents that Janice has left him with caring for their parents.

 

Katie Andraski

The River Caught Sunlight (2014) by Katie Andraski tells Janice’s story. It’s a serious literary novel with Christian themes that doesn’t fit into what we call the “Christian fiction” genre. While she deals with problematic relationships with her mother, father, and brother, not to mention clients and media writers, Janice is a heroine with flaws of her own. At one point, you almost want to shake her for how she treats her brother.

 

But the novel is a moving story, about family, relationships, grief and loss, and how grief can bring out the best and worst in us. It’s about the choices we make, and the course corrections sometimes offered to us. And it’s about faith – in God, in ourselves, and in each other.

 

Andraski drew upon elements of her own life to write The River Caught Sunlight. She attended Wheaton College in suburban Chicago, much like her heroine Janice Westfahl. For many years, she worked as a publicist for a Christian publishing house, where she routinely pitched mainstream media about Christian authors and books, including accompanying Francis and Edith Schaeffer on a publicity tour. She eventually settled in Illinois, where she teaches composition at Northern Illinois University and lives on a farm with her husband, their dogs, horses, and chickens.

 

The River Caught Sunlight, as I mentioned, is not a “Christian novel” in the conventional sense. A scene or two would disqualify it. And yet it is very much a Christian-themed novel about families, love, forgiveness, and redemption. Life doesn’t always, or even usually, give us beautifully wrapped gifts with big bows. The life, and lives, depicted in this beautiful novel are real and recognizable. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Delight in Disorder,” poem by Robert Herrick – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

A New Hope for Saving the Universities – Yuval Levin at Commentary. 

 

A Walk Along the White Cliffs – Spitalfields Life.

 

Writers Are Readers – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

A promise made and kept

After Revelation 7:9-10 

A promise was made,

a promise was kept,

a command to go,

a command was kept.

And through that keeping

came the blessing, 

the blessing to the multitudes

no one could number, multitudes

from every nation, every tribe,

every people, every language,

standing together, one body,

clothed in white, waving

palms, crying out salvation,

the salvation that belongs

to God, the salvation 

that belongs to the Lamb.

 

Photograph by Farrinni via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Interplay – poem by Joy Lenton at Poetry Joy.

 

The 3.5 Uses of the Law in Romans 7 – Dan Crabtree at The Cripplegate.

 

If the Men Aren’t Singing: 5 Questions for Worship Leaders – Jon Bloom at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 24, 2024

Many years ago, I read the two-volume History of Christianity by Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968). It’s unlikely that Yale University would hire someone like him today, as it did in 1921 – a Baptist minister and experienced as a missionary in China and Japan. He first joined Reed College in Oregon (think about Reed College today) and then the Yale Divinity School. His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees were all from Yale. He published numerous books on the history of Christianity, including two seven-volume editions. The year he retired from Yale, 1953, he also published the two-volume history that I read about 40 years later. 

Latourette’s thesis was that Christianity seemed to move in roughly 500-year cycles, in a pattern of growth, consolidation, scandal and collapse, and reformation. If that timeline is true, we’re due for a collapse and reformation period now, the last being the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century. I don’t know if John Seel has read Latourette, but I suspect he has. The Anglican “cultural entrepreneur” says we are standing at a civilization inflection point, which comes along about every 500 years. Western civilization is collapsing, becoming hostile to Christianity, and the focus is moving east and south.

 

One of the stupidest political moves in an era of stupid political moves was for the Transportation Safety Administration to target former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as a potential terrorist (don’t be surprised if you haven’t read about this in the legacy media). Now both the U.S House and Senate are investigating.

 

Fact-checking, which journalists used to do, has now become a political weapon. M. Anthony Mills at The New Atlantis describes how the refs are working us.

 

More Good Reads

 

Art

 

Walking – Sonja Banskin Mesher.

 

50 Years of Building Art on the Wall – Laura Shimel at Missouri Historical Society.

 

British Stuff

 

Identity politics has undermined policing – David Green at The Critic Magazine.

 

American Stuff

 

The 1864 American Insurrection That Wasn’t: Presidential Election Day and the New York City Fires – Stephen Romaine at Emerging Civil War.

 

Israel

 

No, Mr. President, the Protesters Don’t Have a Point – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Faith

 

What Makes Our Town (or Any Place) Great – Seth Lewis.

 

7 Things That Make the Gospel of John Unique – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder. 

 

Have You Ever Tried Praying Poetically? – Tim Challies.

 

Writing and Literature

 

All the Devils in “King Lear” – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Arsy-versey Argy-bargy: How Chaucer remade language – Camille Ralphs at Poetry Foundation.

 

4 Goals for Good Writing – Ian Harber at Endeavor.

 

Ludicrous But Memorable: Agatha Christie’s The Big Four – Curtis Evans at CrimeReads.

 

Harold Bloom in Silicon Valley – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Poetry

 

Gentle Surrender – Paul Wittenberger. 

 

“A Crowded Trolley Car,” poem by Elinor Wylie – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon in Hyde Park

Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas (1881) by Ivan Nilkolayvich Kramskoi (1837-1887).

A call to a new land

After Genesis 12:1-3 

A call to a new land,

a command to leave,

to turn away from the unknown,

the familiar, and turn

toward the unknown,

the unfamiliar, the different.

Leave your family, and

go. And my promise is this:

all the families of the earth

will be blessed. Those who

bless you will be blessed;

those who curse you

will be cursed. But

through you will come

the blessing for all.

 

The call to a new land

is not unlike the call

that happens generations

later, the call to leave

the fishing nets,

the tax table,

the tentmaking, and

embrace the unknown,

the strange, the unfamiliar,

and through those called

will come a blessing 

for all, a blessing called

salvation.

 

Photograph by Kameron Kincade via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Leper – poem by Brian Yapko at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Can a Story Change a Soul? – Annie Beth Donahue at Story Warren.

 

Sing, My Tongue, the Saviour’s Glory – poem by Venantius Fortunatus at Kingsom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Grief Can Be So Lonely – Tim Challies. 

 

True Story: The Surprise Ending is Joy – Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem. 

Some Thursday Readings - Aug. 22, 2024

Our Children Need Stories: The Power of Fiction in Forming the Heart – Betsy Howard at Desiring God. 

The Dynamism of Growth: William Kent Krueger on Milestones and Making the Familiar Fresh Again – John Valeri at CrimeReads. 

 

Manual Training for All – Connie Goddard at Front Porch Republic.

 

“Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?” - poem by Sir John Suckling – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

5 Personal Rules for Reading Disagreeable Books – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Another Flower of Scotland: Father Allan MacDonald – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

What Lasts and (Mostly) Doesn’t Last – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Online Dating Failed. Why? – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Photograph: Father Allan MacDonald, poet, scholar, translator, crusader. 

About Those 10 Books

There was a thing last week, I think somewhere on Substack, about “10 books that changed my life.” I tried to find the specific article again, but Google produced an abundance of listings about 10 books, 37 books, 100 books, 20 books, 23 books, 77 books, 25 books, 40 books, well, you get the picture. 

I asked myself the question. Could I identify 10 books that had changed my life?

 

My answer was no, I couldn’t, at least, not in the sense of some transformational change from what I was before reading the book and what I was after reading the book. But I could identify 10 that had influenced me, in some cases profoundly.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest. 

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Sorry, not sorry: Sincere apologies required a shared set of values – Jacob Phillips at The Critic Magazine.

 

Remembering H.L. Mencken – Ben Boychuk at Chronicles.

 

“When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted,” poem by Rudyard Kipling – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Poets and Poems: Katharine Whitcomb and "Habitats"

Welcome to Habitats, Katharine Whitcomb’s newest collection of poetry. You are entering a collection must like you would enter a large house, an old three-story house that seems new until you walk through the rooms. Each room is a piece of your life. 

You walk through the first floor, and the rooms are less a progression and more a representation of how memory works. Thinking of a thrush reminds you of winter weather, or that Saturday in winter when you fell asleep in front of the gas fireplace, “like an old dog.” You feel safe and secure, just like you did when you were a girl and dreamed of yourself inside of your books. Each room is a tree in the forest of memory, including the memory of people who have died.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Seeing possibilities – poem and artwork by Diane Walker.

 

Revisiting Larkin: The strength and pain of being young – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“Lucifer in Starlight,” poem by George Meredith – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

What It Feels Like – poem by Monica Silva at Every Day Poems.

 

Winners of the Inaugural First Things Poetry Prize – Micah Mattix at First Things Magazine.

 

"The Muralist" by B.A. Shapiro

It’s 1939, and Europe is on the verge of war. Alizée Benoit, a young woman born in France but now a naturalized American, is an artist working in New York City and eking out an existence because of the artists program with the Work Projects Administration. She works with a group of artists in a warehouse, unknowns all but who will eventually remake American art: Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, and Jackson Pollock.

They’re all painting murals for the WPA and struggling with their own art. It is Alizée who provides the creative spark that will eventually transform these artists into international celebrities. And she is increasingly driven by what is happening in Europe to her fellow Jews, including members of her immediate family – her brother, her aunts, uncles, and cousins. She’s spending increasing amounts of time trying to find visas but, like so many others, discovering the immigration roadblocks being erected by Breckenridge Long, once of Franklin Roosevelt’s top State Department officials. 

 

When the war starts, Alizée’s desperation becomes almost manic, leading to her involvement in an attempted assassination.

 

It’s also 2015. Alizée’s story is told in parallel with that of her great-niece Danielle, the granddaughter of her brother Henri. Seventy-five years after the start of World War II, Danielle works in the art department of the auction house Christie’s in New York. And she’s always wondered what happened to her great-aunt, who disappeared in 1940. The mystery deepens when Danielle is handed a square cut from a larger work, one she believes was painted by her great-aunt. Fellow workers think it might be an early Rothko or Krasner. Danielle thinks otherwise, and she’s determined to prove that the mural fragment was painted by her great-aunt – and to find out what happened to her.

 

B.A. Shapiro

The story of Alizée and Danielle are told in The Muralist, a 2016 novel by B.A. Shapiro. It’s a story peopled by both historical characters and fictional ones, describing the birth of and inspirations for Abstract Expressionism, how the war in Europe increasingly encroached upon America, and how prevalent anti-Semitism was in the America of the 1930s and 1940s.

 

The Muralist includes well-known political figures of the pre-war and war eras, including Brecjkenridge Long, Eleanor Roosevelt, and even a cameo appearance by Franklin Roosevelt. It’s generally a satisfying novel and an engaging read, even if you’re not a fan of Abstract Expressionism. For some reason I couldn’t identify, the scenes involving Eleanor Roosevelt seemed less satisfying, possibly because she comes across as more two-dimensional. 

 

Shapiro has published several bestselling literary thrillers, including Metropolis (2022), The Collector’s Apprentice, and The Art Forger. A sociologist y training and career, she has also worked as a systems analyst / statistician and headed the Boston office of a software development firm. She also worked as an adjunct professor in sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She lives in Boston and Naples, Florida. 

Some Monday Readings

 

Critical Editorial Decisions – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life. 

 

Salvaging Our World – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

 

Albert Jay Nock: A Return to the Liberal Arts? – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

The rib

After 1 Corinthians 6:16-20 and Genesis 2:18-25 

From the side

a rib was taken,

a rib fashioned

into something

entirely new,

yet the same flesh,

the same bones,

the same substance

yet new, a helpmate

to be glued, held fast

to the one from whom

the rib was taken,

the cleaving and

holding fast something

entirely new,

one flesh.

 

Photograph by Nino Liverani via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

“The Road Not Taken,” poem by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Confessions of a Loner – Sophia Lee at Christianity Today. 

 

An Irreplaceable Cog in the Wheel – Keturah Hickman at Plough.

 

Lunatic – poem by Peter Venable at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Three Reflections on Being a Pastor and a Professor – Andy Noselli at Bethlehem College and Seminary.

Saturday Good Reads - August 17, 2024

Little coverage is to be found in America’s legacy media, but strange things are afoot in Britain, following riots based on rumors, real riots, protests based on single social media posts that didn't happen, and a police and government response that seems rather harsh (people are getting jail sentences for what the police deem is hate speech). Conservative commentator Douglas Murray got caught up in this, when some nice online troll edited an interview Murray did to make seem like he was supporting and encouraging riots. The Free Press in the U.S. and The Spectator in Britain came to his defense. British police have been accused of two-tiered policing, which they adamantly deny, but their own training manuals seems to indicate otherwise. The elephant in the room is unfettered immigration (not unlike the United States), and many see the government as waging war on free speech. One of the most moving things I’ve read is “This Sceptered Isle: Reflections on the revolution in England“ by Joshua Trevino at Armas.  

Of course, the United States has its fair share of problems as well. I noted last week that former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard had been targeted as a suspected terrorist by the Transportation Safety Administration. There’s more to the story – far more. It was whistleblowers within the TSA who gave incriminating documents to eight Senate and House committees, and the TSA is going to have an impossible task of trying to explain why this wasn’t a case of political persecution. 

 

Elon Musk has been getting lots of free publicity. An EU bureaucrat publicly made vague threats Monday about Musk’s then-upcoming interview with Donald Trump. Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police in London, seemed to threaten to arrest Musk for allegedly encouraging the riots in Britain. And then a Washington Post reporter asked President Biden’s press secretary whether the White House should be doing something to censor the Musk/Trump interview. Since when did the Washington Post officially embrace censorship?

 

More Good Reads

 

American Stuff

 

U.S. Civil War soldier receives long overdue honors at London cemetery – Loretto Morris at Stars & Stripes.

 

A Revolution Captured on Canvas – Blake Scott Ball ay Acton Institute.

 

Israel

 

The IDF’s Boot Is on Hamas’ Throat – Andrew Fox at Tablet Magazine.

 

‘Friends no longer speak to me’: How it feels to be a British Jew after October 7 – George Chesterton at The Telegraph. 

 

Faith

 

Unqualified and Unwilling – Tim Challies.

 

Following Jesus in the Desert of Mental Illness – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies. 

 

The Historic Creeds vs. Passing Theological Fads – Thomas Kidd at Acton Institute.

 

Pliny the Younger’s Christian Persecution: 3 Lessons for Faith and Endurance – Bryan Schneider at Gentle Reformation. 

 

Life and Culture

 

The Haunting History of Fanta – Mark Milligan at Heritage Daily.

 

News Media

 

Bari Weiss Knows Exactly What She’s Doing – DNYUZ. 

 

Poetry

 

“Lucinda Matlock,” poem by Edgar Lee Masters – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Opening Fracture: The Beauty, Mystery, and Sorrow of the Southern Road – Pete Candler at Church Life Journal.

 

Use what’s happened to you to shape your writing – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

 

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova 

 Painting: “The Arrow Collar Man Reading Book” (1916) by J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951).