Barbara J. Elliott is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. She is the President of the Center for Cultural Renewal and Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts in the Honors College of Houston Baptist University. She is the founder of the WorkFaith Connection, which transitions people from prison, homelessness, and unemployment into a new job and a new life. She is the author of five books, including Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities. She received the Roosevelt Award for Human Rights from the President of the United States in 2001.
Russell and Annette Kirk with the author
Driving across the snowy landscape of Michigan the day after Christmas in 1973, I was somewhat apprehensive. I had been invited to take part in the first seminar...
Authentic discipleship transforms all aspects of life, every day, at work, at home, in all relationships. My discipleship to Jesus is, within clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. Brother Lawrence, who was a kitchen worker and cook,...
I went with Peter to make the arrangements for the Passover supper. When we arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus had told us to look for a man carrying a pitcher of water. We were to follow him into the...
The floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey washed away the dividing lines of race, religion, and class, revealing character and the basic decency at the core of what it means to be human. What makes Houston’s heart beat most truly is faith in God...
It was utterly ludicrous, stepping out of a chauffeured White House limousine to go hear Mother Teresa. Even then I recognized that, as a twenty-something working at the locus of political power. Her simple sari...
The musical Hamilton is star-spangled patriotic and worthy of attention, even though hip-hop may not be the favorite musical genre of most Imaginative Conservatives. Why? Intelligence finds the answer to a question, but genius answers a question no...
(Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Barbara J. Elliott as she examines the True, the Good, and the Beautiful in her conservative credo. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher)
The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain seemed to be permanent fixtures of the political landscape of Europe after 1961. But to everyone’s surprise, the Berlin Wall opened on November 9, 1989. This stunning...
The song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams has gone viral, topping the charts in the United States and twenty-two other countries. It was nominated as Best Original Song for the Academy Awards on March 2, 2014, nudged...
Still slightly hung over from too much French champagne and cognac at the wedding of a French Count, I was driving from France to Germany on June 6, 1994, the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day. The perfunctory wedding ceremony had...
After changing health insurance providers and having difficulty getting prescriptions filled, I was getting testy. Very testy. Then I read that the new national insurance program would be released on
Through unnamed sources involved in the proceedings, these notes were smuggled out of the Celestial Courtroom, where the ongoing evaluation of the Nations takes place in Committee Hearings in preparation for...
If you’re feeling depressed about the culture around you, Dr. Elliott has a prescription for you: one full dose of Whit Stillman’s most recent film, Damsels in Distress, followed by tap dancing. I am perfectly serious. This charming story...
