I’m trying to get to the heart of what’s happening in Portland—60-plus straight nights of downtown demonstrations—and is apparently spreading to other cities. How violent are they? What do protesters want and when do they want it? What’s the endgame? Here’s what I’ve put together based on stories filed by two journalists—WORLD correspondent Andrew Shaughnessy with the protesters, Mike Balsano of the Associated Press with the federal agents—and my own experience.  

We interrupt our regularly scheduled reviews to warn readers who have absorbed my annual praise for Daniel Silva’s usually exquisite novels. Like clockwork a new book featuring Israeli spy hero Gabriel Allon has appeared each July. Two summers ago I set my one-day record for steps (40,500—20 miles) while reading the new arrival slowly and relishing it. But I feel painfully obligated to say this: Despite Bob Woodward’s “Can’t put it down” recommendation, you should save your money and not pick up Silva’s latest, The Order (Harper, published on July 14).

I try to reply cordially to every letter WORLD members send me. During June I briefly apologized 20 times to reprimands for a mistake I made, but with letter 21 something broke, and I responded at greater length.

Also in this issue, Mary Jackson reviews four books about women, so here are some highlights from a book about men by Leon Podles, a retired federal investigator with a doctorate and six children. His Losing the Good Portion: Why Men Are Alienated From Christianity (St. Augustine’s Press, 2019) investigates why men are less likely to attend church and listen to sermons than women—not just in 21st-­century America but in many cultures at many times. 

Baseball is starting up again and COVID-19 is still throwing fastballs. This isn’t the first time such good and bad news coexisted: Johnny Smith, professor of sports history at Georgia Tech, is co-author (with historian Randy Roberts) of the excellent War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War (Basic, 2020). Here are edited excerpts from our April interview.

I should do a victory dance—and I’m very sad to do it.

When Joel Belz started WORLD in 1986, I was writing a book entitled Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media. He and I did not yet know each other, but we had arrived at the same conclusion: The days of Christians being able to write on the pages of big secular newspapers and magazines were coming to an end.

Here’s a talk I gave in Washington in 2004 at a gathering of the White House Christian Fellowship. Also, see my “stump speeches” about how concerns over corrupt Anglicanism helped spur American colonists to revolt and how President Andrew Jackson often went against the tide.