As I have been reminding my students at John Brown University, we are officially in the home stretch of the semester. A little less than two weeks of coursework remains, followed by a week of final exams. And then, seemingly as quickly as it came, Fall 2023 will be done.
The last few weeks have been busy, but they have also brought some encouraging and exciting developments. Three stand out:
I received some news about my forthcoming book. Uneasy Citizenship officially has:
Endorsements! From great people!
A cover!
I can’t wait to share these with you in full in the weeks and months ahead. My publisher has not yet scheduled a firm release date, but based on their proposed schedule, it could be any time between June-October 2024. Stay tuned.
I made my debut in The Dispatch, profiling new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s connections to Christian legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom. As I wrote in the essay, Johnson’s meteoric rise from little-known lawmaker to House speaker is the latest feather in ADF’s cap:
With a solid majority on the Supreme Court—including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, herself once a contributor to ADF’s Blackstone program—and a former employee now the speaker of the House, ADF’s influence on American law and politics could not be greater.
Purdue University’s Logan Strother and I published research in The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics, showing how people’s attitudes toward different groups color their support for constitutional rights and liberties. Specifically,
We find that there are in fact differences in people’s support for religious freedom protections, depending on both religious identity and affect toward various religious groups.
In the months ahead I plan to roll out content and developments from Uneasy Citizenship, as well as announce ways folks can be involved in the book’s release. This is a new experience for me, and I’m excited to see how things shake out.
As always, thanks for reading.