I love the story of an underdog. I find myself drawn to histories and narratives of folks who were disadvantaged but made good anyway. I’m not sure if it is particular to U.S. culture, or if it is connected to the mythologies scholars have noticed transcend geography, but it does seem that many of us enjoy the heroic narrative of the little guy (usually an actual male) making good and coming out triumphant over their enemies or obstacles. We associate... Read more
My last post explored how America’s imperial expansion reshaped its attitude to other religions, which were commonly viewed according to some grim racial stereotypes. Specifically I looked at how visions of Voodoo affected views of Black Americans, and that stereotype extended to Black variants of Islam. In fact, there is a lot more to say about those imperially-formed visions of Islam. The American encounter with Islam must be seen in the larger context of the European imperial project, which for... Read more
Summer for many academics means visiting archives or writing, and I’m certainly not an exception to that rule. As I’ve been working through the (many) archival photos I took last summer and writing on a book project on emotions in medieval York, I’ve spent a lot of my summer thinking about the ways that the teachings and preaching we listen to shapes our assumptions, actions, and emotions. A March study highlighted the fact that fewer Americans attend church at all... Read more
A couple of weeks ago, browsing books in a thrift store (one of my favorite decompressing pastimes), I came across an odd book I’d never seen before: Pat Robertson’s America’s Dates with Destiny. Published by Thomas Nelson in 1986, the book opens with a lament of “revisionist” history (apparently unaware of its own openly revisionary frame!). “Public school students,” Robertson claims, “can go twelve years of elementary and high school and another four years of college without one lesson featuring... Read more
A gecko popped its head over the open window to peer at us, its bright green throat tracking its heartbeat. My children squealed with delight as it crept cautiously toward a violet flower balanced on the white windowsill. Rising on its hind legs, the gecko delicately leaned against the rounded glass vase. Through the open window, the wide expanse of Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island spread out below us. It was here that Captain James Cook, a surveyor in... Read more
Empires affect religions and religious life in many ways, often unintentional, and the American empire was no different from its counterparts. I have described how, on occasion, metropolitan populations are influenced by the religions of subject peoples, and actually adopt them. But a quite different response was also possible, namely that ruling groups are appalled and disgusted by what they encounter on the frontiers of empire, and that reaction affects their attitude to quite separate kinds of religious behavior. Stereotypes... Read more
Outrage aptly describes the evangelical response to the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremonies this past week. I, like many, did not have the luxury to watch the opening ceremonies on live TV. Rather, I found out about the purportedly offensive and objectionable content second-hand through social media. Evangelical Leaders Respond to Living Art The first evangelical response I saw to the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony was a strident condemnation that came from Ed Stetzer’s X account. The account accompanied the post... Read more
In October 1962, the New York Times ran an article entitled “U.S. Negro Baptist Hails Council.”[1] The “U.S. Negro Baptist” in question was Joseph Harrison Jackson, pastor of Olivet Church in Chicago and president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. (NBC). The “council” referred to the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican held in Rome. Whereas the World Baptist Alliance declined to pursue an invitation to Vatican II, Jackson was the only Baptist observer invited by Pope John XXIII.... Read more
A series of overlapping internal crises and a steep decline in church membership over the past decade has led to much handwringing in American Evangelicalism. Sexual abuse cover-ups, the public fall of several megachurch pastors and controversial decisions regarding COVID-19 have grabbed headlines, dominated Twitter feeds, and resulted in a broad feeling of burn-out among American pastors. To make matters worse, these pressing crises took place against the backdrop of a precipitous decline in the percentage of Americans who call... Read more
I have been working on the religious dimensions of American empire, and particularly some of the unintended consequences of that story. We all know about empires sponsoring missions among conquered peoples, but on occasion ideas spread from colonized and subjugated peoples to infiltrate the metropolis, where they might even establish a kind of spiritual bridgehead. I have mentioned this in the context of the New Age and esoteric ideas as they developed during the twentieth century. Native Prophets Spreading official... Read more
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