Beyond our newsroom
Public conversations on faith, culture, and civic life—gathered in one calm, readable place.
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Every returned set is displayed by current public upvotes. “Most upvoted” can be limited by time range.
1,061 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 3:26 AM UTC
Posted by /u/Arthur-reborn
My dad came from a poor family and turned 18 right at the height of the Vietnam era drafts. He knew he was most likely going to be drafted and there wasn't much he could do about it. So him and his brother both signed onto the Navy before he could get a draft notice. He ended up…
427 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Various_Implement_92
I'm from New England and on a trip to Minneapolis I visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which is terrific. That got me thinking: Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit are all institutes of art, unlike the major art museums in East Coast cities like New York, Boston and Philadel…
392 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 10:09 AM UTC
Posted by /u/ExternalBoysenberry
I get that we don't and can't have, like, a NYT "what percent Nazi are you?" needle. I'm also familiar with (and sympathetic to) that famous quote I'll paraphrase as: the term for the innumerable ordinary Germans who quietly loathed Hitler but out of fear or convenience went alo…
158 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC
Posted by /u/yellowbai
Caesar was a political gambler no doubt but he always seemed to have a grasp on reality. He was charming he had social skills. He was at pains to seduce everyone he met with his charm. Cicero went through phases of admiring him and being terrified of him. Then the year before he…
105 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 12:26 PM UTC
Posted by /u/-Razen-
The most notorious and known tanks of Germany are almost all using flat armour. The Tiger I, which rolled down the production lines in 1942, had a famously box-like appearance. Against smaller calibers, it's undoubtedly effective. But as soon as far more potent calibers appeared…
85 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC
Posted by /u/BrickFTL
I was born and raised Jewish. Now at age 71 Christ has found me and now I try my best to walk with him. I know there’s nothing I can or have to do to “earn” salvation as it’s already been gifted to me, but I want to show gratitude for that by doing right going forward. Yesterday…
69 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 11:14 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Known-Delay1371
I’ve seen this claim in many places, from Internet forums to my very own family and I’ve never been able to figure out if it’s true or not. It’s the kind of thing that sounds just real enough to make you wonder but just vague enough to leave you with no idea where to start when…
66 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 11:57 AM UTC
Posted by /u/minisculebarber
In "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow write We’d never have guessed, for instance, that slavery was most likely abolished multiple times in history in multiple places However, they do not go into the claim nor do they provide sources. I do remember that…
62 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC
Posted by /u/FantasticContact5301
I am aware, of course, that the modern idea of “ninja” is not historically accurate. There were spies and scouts and even assassins, but the idea of the ninja is just the result of folklore over many years. I am also aware that kabuki theater portrays ninja characters in all bla…
62 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Tough_Story_1024
How did the St. Thomas Christian Community survive while communities in China and some other parts of Asia disappeared?
54 upvotes
Jul 27, 2026, 12:25 AM UTC
Posted by /u/Proper-Teach-4210
I am a 26-year-old woman born into a traditional Muslim family, yet my heart found its way to Christ seven years ago. Ever since I was a little girl, I remember asking my father to take me to a church just so I could light a candle and pray. He would look at me with bewilderment…
43 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 10:44 AM UTC
Posted by /u/Ryu-Hayabusa2
I am a virgin guy and a Christian, and I want to get married one day—but completely without sex. The entire thought of sex honestly disgusts and bores me. I just don't see the point of it, and I find anatomy like the vagina completely unappealing. However, I still want a romanti…
35 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Wichiteglega
I am quite interested about the cultural history of bears, and I was intrigued by the book L'ours. Histoire d'un roi déchu by Michel Pastoureau, a French medievalist. The blurb on the back cover of the book says this, among other things: "In the Carolingian period, the bear was…
34 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC
Posted by /u/CatsDoingCrime
Since you're on the internet, you are likely well aware that literally everything is kind of on fire right now. We're very much all living in a "old order dying, new one being born" moment. That brings with it obvious crisis, but also opportunity. And in this contemporary moment…
31 upvotes
Jul 26, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Organic-Waltz-3726
Please excuse what I'm sure is a very dumb question, I don't know a lot about history. Mesopotamia had Sumer, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and eventually the Greeks and Romans. Sumer was settled around 5000-3000 BC. Humans crossed the land bridge to North America long before that. T…