by Randall Balmer | Feb 9, 2023 | Opinion
America enters its high holy days this week: the run-up to Super Bowl Sunday. When thousands of spectators and millions of viewers witness the Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday, they will be participating in a ritual that has become every bit as entrenched in American life...
by Randall Balmer | Dec 14, 2022 | Opinion
A colleague once remarked, “I teach for free. They pay me to grade.” I suspect anyone engaged in pedagogy understands that sentiment, especially those of us who teach in the humanities. In the STEM disciplines, at least it appears to me from afar, you’re more likely...
by Randall Balmer | Nov 10, 2022 | Opinion
I resolved some years ago to stop tracking birthdays, although I do have to calculate several times a year. Let’s see, 1954 to 2000 is 46, then add … what year is it again? This birthday, number 68, would be unremarkable but for the fact that my father succumbed to...
by Randall Balmer | Oct 19, 2022 | Opinion
I wept in church recently. Didn’t see it coming, but during the refrain of “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder” there it was. No one sings the old gospel songs like that anymore. Evangelicals perform what they call “praise music,” a kind of dreamy meditation that makes...
