White evangelicals have gained extraordinary political power, but, even though Tim Alberta is an experienced political writer, that is not the focus of his recent book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. Alberta is an evangelical himself. In acknowledgements he writes about the Trinity and continues, “I have endeavored to honor God with this book. If anything in these pages fail to do so, I pray that brings it to nothing, and that He carries to completion the good He has begun. Thank you, Jesus. I love you.” Alberta’s focus is on how the evangelical search for political and secular power, of which he has too many examples to summarize, has distorted the church and Christianity he loves. He sees that Trump has coopted evangelicals, but he also maintains that the problems with the church have existed before and apart from the former president. Trump exposed “the selective morality and ethical inconsistency and rank hypocrisy that has for so long lurked in the subconscious of the movement. To be fair, this slow-motion reputational collapse predated Trump; he did not author the cultural insecurities of the Church.” Alberta’s goals are not political; they are religious: “Christians are called to help God’s family grow both quantitatively and qualitatively. This is the enduring purpose of the Church: to mold fallen mortals into citizens of a kingdom they have inherited, through the saving power of Jesus Christ, to the everlasting glory of God, so that they might go and make disciples of their own.” I don’t pretend to identify with or even understand Alberta’s goals. However, if you have an interest in modern religion or in our modern politics, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism is worth a read.

Would you be happier if the Supreme Court treated its work as if it were a fulltime job and decided more cases? I ask because it is surprising to learn that even though its tasks can be done more efficiently than in most of our history, the Court now decides surprisingly few cases. For example, word processing makes writing and editing less cumbersome than in the days of pens or typewriters. Legal and other research has been computerized so Justices (or one of their clerks) can now easily find all the times “bump stock” has appeared in a legal opinion. Forty or fifty years ago finding that information would have been an onerous task. The Justices have more human assistance in their chambers now. Law clerks have assisted Justices since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. However, for most of the twentieth century the Justices had only one clerk at a time. In the 1970s and 1980s that changed. Now the Justices have three or four clerks each. This, however, has not led to more Supreme Court decisions. The opposite has occurred. For brevity’s sake let me give you the number of cases decided by the Supreme Court every twenty years starting in 1880 (see table). And it seems to be going downhill from there. The Court decided 77 cases in 2021, but only 47 in 2022, and 58 last year. The Supreme Court is expected to decide 61 cases this year. Too many books to write? Too many trips to take? What do the Justices do with their time?

A wise person said: “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”