Here are a few stories for your beach reading. What do the radical creationists say to the flat-earthers? What do politically liberal Christians say about Trumpism? Why do some conservatives think colleges have grown more racist? All that and more…

What do Christians have to say about “Christian Nationalism?” At RNS.

Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation.

Radical creationists resort to poetry to prove they aren’t flat-earthers. At AIGKHB.

It’s not just atheists arguing the Bible teaches a flat earth—it’s some Christians, too, who’ve sadly fallen for flat-earth arguments and now believe that’s what the Bible teaches. But does it?

No, it doesn’t. Now, flat earthers will frequently bring up poetic passages, such as verses from Psalms or Job, and say those verses teach a flat earth because phrases like “ends of the earth” or references to a setting sun appear. But those passages are poetry—by definition poetry is filled with literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and figures of speech. The biblical text is meant to be interpreted naturally, according to the genre. And poetry is clearly intended to be understood within the context of abundant literary devices that are not meant to be taken so woodenly and literally (i.e., God does not literally lie us down in green pastures as per Psalm 23:2).

Guess what? Rich people have advantages in school. The latest non-surprise: Affluent students tend to get more time on tests. At NYT.

From Weston, Conn., to Mercer Island, Wash., word has spread on parenting message boards and in the stands at home games: A federal disability designation known as a 504 plan can help struggling students improve their grades and test scores. But the plans are not doled out equitably across the United States.

In the country’s richest enclaves, where students already have greater access to private tutors and admissions coaches, the share of high school students with the designation is double the national average. In some communities, more than one in 10 students have one — up to seven times the rate nationwide, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.

Race and Man at Yale. New conservative National Association of Scholars report critiques Yale’s segregationist practices, at NR.

Yale’s segregationist practices have been in place for a generation before today’s students were born. Yet 40 years of neo-segregation seems to have increased, rather than decreased, racial resentment.

Is Professor Wax a “repugnant” racist? Or a perfect example of why we have tenure? It’s both, at CHE.

Many have described Wax’s case as a difficult test of academic freedom and its limitations. It’s not. Tenure and academic freedom, as we currently understand them, were literally created in response to another prominent scholar’s getting canned for making inflammatory statements on race and immigration.

• Not keeping up with the Wax story? See the ILYBYGTH archives here, here, or (related “racist professor” post) here.

Florida man: No evolution in public schools, at FCS.

I won’t support any evolution being taught as fact at all in any of our schools.

The GOP just got a little bit whiter. The last black Republican in the House of Reps is retiring, at NYT.

For white evangelicals, the question of “civility” in politics is…complicated. At RIP.

Remember John Allen Chau? The aggressive missionary killed last year at an isolated island in the Pacific? Outside Magazine offers a gripping new portrait.

John stuck to his belief that it was his duty to go to North Sentinel. The islanders were damned to “eternal fire” if they never heard the Gospel, and as an outdoorsman with a knack for making friends in new places, John was one of the few souls in Christendom who could save them. It felt ordained, John said, like God was calling him. Patrick [John’s father] believed his son was deceiving himself. This wasn’t just about helping the Sentinelese or obeying God. This was about John’s Messiah complex. He described his son as a victim of fantasies, fanaticism, and extremism.

What is the nation’s largest non-profit charter-school network up to? Moving from “no excuses” classrooms to “joyful” ones. At Chalkbeat.

• Why do white reformers keep making the same mistakes about poor kids? The view from 1819 here at ILYBYGTH.

Did a recent commission mistake the causes of racial disparities in school discipline? One member says yes, at WE.

The commission purports to find, however, that “students of color as a whole, as well as by individual racial group, do not commit more disciplinable offenses than their white peers.” According to the commission, they are simply punished more. Readers are left to imagine our schools are not just occasionally unfair, but rather astonishingly unfair on matters of discipline.

The report provides no evidence to support its sweeping assertion and, sadly, there is abundant evidence to the contrary. For example, the National Center for Education Statistics surveys high school students biennially. Since 1993, it has asked students whether they have been in a fight on school property over the past 12 months. The results have been consistent. In 2015, 12.6 percent of African-American students reported being in such a fight, while only 5.6 percent of white students did.