The Fall 2020 semester has not, to put it mildly, been the high point of my academic career. Having elected to teach remotely (thanks to my employer’s decision to give faculty autonomy to do so...
I woke up this morning to the sounds of “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” as NPR informed me what I had already expected, that Roy Moore had defeated barely-incumbent Senator Luther Stran...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/current-events/singingtheirwaytotheballotbox/
When I was writing my second book, Doctrine and Race: African American Evangelicals and Fundamentalism Between the Wars, I wrote with a pretty specific audience in mind. Perhaps selling myself a ...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/uncategorized/who-lives-who-dies-who-reads-your-story/
The pundits have declared students as “special snowflakes” once again, after an unruly group protested a speaker at Middlebury. Commentators from conservative to liberal have decried the stud...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/current-events/when-every-day-is-a-teachable-moment/
Yesterday (Sunday, November 6th) was a beautiful day to be outside in my neighborhood, which probably explains why I missed Mike Huckabee‘s call. According to my voice mail, he (or his robo rec...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/current-events/jesus-wants-my-vote/
For the past few weeks, I’ve been pondering how the changes in the religious make-up of the United States have influenced the worldviews of my students. According to the Pew Center for Religion...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/reflections-on-teaching/teaching-the-nones-and-the-millennials/
A few months ago, after retelling a bit of family folklore to my husband’s siblings, I decided to Google the name of the relative involved in that epic adventure (which I will not relate on ...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/uncategorized/keep-your-digital-mitts-off-my-great-grandmother/
A couple of weeks ago in a Northern Virginia suburb, I saw a car festooned with four bumper stickers, From top to bottom, they read “got diversity?” “Ben Carson President 2016,” “Ted Cr...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/uncategorized/got-religious-diversity/
As the winter break draws to a close, I’m revising and editing my syllabi for the upcoming semester. Actually, I’ve already finished them, but as I was working on them this week, I pondered w...
http://www.marybethmathews.org/reflections-on-teaching/whos-this-syllabus-for-anyway/
Next up in course planning; when and what (also known as the framework of the syllabus). Below is a really rough draft of how I envision the course proceeding in the first two weeks, but by the e...