Tuesday Merry-Go-Round: From Oprah to Rob Bell to Chick-Fil-A to R. J. Rushdoony's Righter-Than-Thou Economics (And Why They all Matter)

Paul Harvey

If you're like me and pushing your red pen up a Sisyphean pile of papers, you may not have time to get to any of these good reads right away, but I'll put some good stuff to read later for you up here so you can get to it when you can get to it. Yes, it's miscellaneous but good links day here.

First, we've noted here the great set of dialogues going over at Immanent Frame (with 12 substantive and engaging responses now) on Kathryn Lofton's Oprah: Gospel of an Icon. The latest entrant in the conversation is our friend Tracy Fessenden's O Tedious Selfhood, a wonderful and very funny take. A brief taste:

How has the trajectory of American religious history brought us to this place, this Oprah?

A thumbnail history might go like this: The Protestant sanctification of the commonplace, the discovery of divine light in the mundane array of objects and acts taken up by a priesthood of believers, proves a boon to American merchants and clerics alike. As Protestantism finds itself more and more at home in the New World, its religious dispositions and their modes of production become less separable from everyday life—indeed, they come to make up the fabric of everyday life. This means your life. The erstwhile Puritan discipline of self-scrutiny brings the things of the world increasingly into its purview, reading them for the shimmering glint of spiritual favor. Advertising, the most aspiring of evangelical preaching’s bastard offspring, offers the promise of entry into a more charismatic life in exchange for the dissipation of spiritual and economic capital: buy, believe, buy and believe more. Consumer choice and religious option open along the same paths, obscuring relational possibilities and imperatives that might bind you to a particular past, a more circumscribed future, to anything that might constrain the unfolding of your own best life. Women gain ground in the commercial revolution faster and more easily than they wrest standing from church authorities, leaving the latter to play catch-up with the consumer culture they helped to foster. Buy and believe. Find what works for you. Purveyors of spirituals and temporals alike ratchet up the “imperatives of comfort nestling modern women in a language of self-service.” “Self-service,” here, is pitch-perfect: Because you’re worth it. And by the way, you’re on your own. We’re now in Oprah’s world—“a world in which we find alluring the templates to which we are fitted,” as Jason Bivins gorgeously puts it, “a melancholy whose song of empowerment sells us resignation as the hope we know will be dashed.”

Next up, for you American Historical Association members, is Darren Dochuk's piece in the latest Perspectives, the monthly newsletter of the AHA: "Searching Out the Sacred in U.S. Political History." You'll have to be a member to get it online, or track it down in your library, and it's well worth the short read. Accompanying this, by the way, is the new anthology edited by Darren and Michelle Nickerson, Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region, another fine volume from the University of Pennsylvania Press' "Politics and Culture in Modern America" series. The volume includes Darren Grem's great piece (which we blogged about here before) "The Marketplace Missions of S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A, and the Sunbelt South," and it also includes a statistical political science-y analysis of "Religion and Political Behavior in the Sunbelt."

And what would a week here at the blog be without a little discussion of hell. We noted before Lauren Winner's take on the Rob Bell Love Wins controversy; I neglected then to note Krista Tippett's take on the same, also in the Washington Post.

Finally, those of you who follow Religion Dispatches will know of Julie Ingersoll's fascinating work there tracing down the significant, if somewhat hidden, influence of Christian Reconstructionism on various aspects of the contemporary right, (she is currently, I believe, writing a book on said subject). See, for example, "Huckabee Channels Rushdoony," and "Reconstructionists Celebrate 'Ruling Over the Earth' Day."

Mark Oppenheimer discusses this further in his piece "Christian Economics Meets the Antiunion Movement," from the New York Times a couple of days ago. Aside from discussing the topic of Gary North's economic views, the article also gives a brief (and funny) history of the dysfunctional family history of "Christian Reconstructionism" from its intellectual godfather R. J. Rushdoony to its contemporary exponent North. If you have no idea what any of this is, here's a very brief summary, from the piece:

Mr. North, who is Mr. Rushdoony’s son-in-law but was not on speaking terms with him from 1981 until Mr. Rushdoony’s death, focuses on how that biblical libertarianism applies to economics. He concluded that the Bible forbids any welfare programs, is opposed to all inflation, and requires a gold-coin standard for money.

Oppenheimer's piece addresses the always difficult historical question of tracing influences. He writes:

Professor Ingersoll concedes it is difficult to prove direct connections between Mr. North’s writings and Wisconsin antiunion conservatism. On the other hand, Mr. North might like to think he has influenced the Wisconsin debate, and he has written in vociferous support of Gov. Scott Walker.

And, as Professor Ingersoll cautions, influence does not always announce itself:

“I like to say, ‘How many Christians know who is Augustine is, and how he influenced them?’ ”

Know Your [Digital] Archives

Michael J. Altman

I wrote a blog post for the Hacking the Academy project last week where I argued that digital collections could change the way we think about graduate seminars because they allow for easier original research without having to leave campus. A while back Michael Pasquier wrote a great post on digital humanities and religious history.  Building on his list of sources I wanted to point out two more great online archives I've used in the past year to write seminar papers that will eventually make their way (in some form) into my dissertation.

First, there is the pair of Making of America collections--one at Cornell and one at the University of Michigan.  As the websites describe them, they are:

Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

 The Cornell collection contains 267monographs and over 100,000 journal articles while the Michigan collection contains about 10,000 books.

The second collection is, I believe, a little less well known.  The University of Pittsburgh has a digital collection of 19th Century Schoolbooks that is fascinating to browse through.  It is a smaller collection, only 140 volumes, but there is some great stuff in there for folks interested in American civil religion throughout the century.

Both of these collections have titles and journals that deal with missions, religious education and other things of obvious interest to historians of religion.  However, the full-text searchability of these collections makes them even more useful.  In my own research I've turned up really interesting references to South Asian religions in places I would have never found in a traditional brick and mortar archive.  I also think these sorts of collections have a lot of potential in the classroom--both for teaching and as resources for original student research.  It's one thing to lecture on the tensions between North and South in the 1850s, but reading a southern schoolbook versus a northern schoolbook offers a very different feel for those tensions.

If anyone knows of other good digital collections for religious history let us know.

Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008

Paul Harvey

Since we're into politics season (John Fea's post below on Sarah Palin's Pentecostal background immediately leaped to most-hit post in this blog's history!), scholars who follow this blog should know about this new and pretty damn amazing site: Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008. The AHA blog describes the site in more detail here.

Jeremiah Wright on PBS

Art Remillard

To compliment to Professor Murphy's post and other Wright-related discussions on this blog, I would encourage those interested in the subject to watch Bill Moyers' interview with Jeremiah Wright. If nothing else, it offers insight into the person, his life and ministry.

While watching the interview, I was surprised to learn how significant a role Martin Marty has played in the intellectual formation of Wright. Marty wrote about this, and the controversy in general, in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Below are his concluding thoughts...

It would be unfair to Wright to gloss over his abrasive — to say the least — edges, so, in the "Nobody's Perfect" column, I'll register some criticisms. To me, Trinity's honoring of Minister Louis Farrakhan was abhorrent and indefensible, and Wright's fantasies about the U.S. government's role in spreading AIDS distracting and harmful. He, himself, is also aware of the now-standard charge by some African-American clergy who say he is a victim of cultural lag, overinfluenced by the terrible racial situation when he was formed.

Having said that, and reserving the right to offer more criticisms, I've been too impressed by the way Wright preaches the Christian Gospel to break with him. Those who were part of his ministry for years — school superintendents, nurses, legislators, teachers, laborers, the unemployed, the previously shunned and shamed, the anxious — are not going to turn their backs on their pastor and prophet.

Doesn't "Elite" Mean "Good"?

BY ART REMILLARD

Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge's Idiocracy isn't a great movie. I wouldn't even call it good. But as this election cycle unfolds, I'm reminded of it's underlying social commentary, which suggests that current trends in anti-intellectualism will over time purge any hint of thoughtfulness from society. The main character, played by Luke Wilson, is average in every conceivable way. Through a predictable chain of events, he is frozen and forgotten about for 500 years. When he emerges, he discovers that humankind has become stupider with each passing generation. As a consequence, Luke Wilson is the most brilliant person on a planet where brilliance is not valued. Even his seemingly normal speech patterns earn immediate scorn from those who consider him improperly thoughtful.

This brings me to western Pennsylvania, where I supposedly live alongside many "bitter" people, as Barack Obama has infamously commented. Let me briefly conjecture that he is absolutely correct—there is bitterness in the region over unemployment and the economy. And this probably indirectly motivates the culture warriors who argue about religion, guns, and immigration. What's more distressing for me, though, is the unfortunate set of talking points that have emerged, collectively labeling Obama an "elitist." It's a good thing we have Jon Stewart, a comedian, who brings sanity to the situation, asking, "Doesn’t 'elite' mean 'good'?” Finally! Someone who can echo my thoughts by exclaiming before his many viewers, "I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me!"

Please watch the clip below and share it indiscriminately. I hope to God(s) that historians 500 years from now don't remember Mike Judge as the Nostradamus of our time.

Job Search Tip Carnival

Some readers of this blog may be on the academic job market -- as a 6-year veteran of said market, I feel for you.

Check out Tenured Radical's post on academic job-searching, and then read the 25 (and counting) comments -- a carnival of entertaining and contradictory advice. Mostly, it seems to come down to applying general principles to specific cases, and knowing when to adapt those principles to specific situations. For readers here who are looking around, good luck, and be careful out there.

John Wilson and the Religious History of the 1960s -- a Rejoinder

John Wilson has posted a rejoinder to my post on his original Wall Street Journal column on incorporating religion into the story of the 1960s.

It makes for good reading. When I emerge from my grading cave, I'll respond a bit further.

Suffice to say for now, part of our disagreement stems from referring to different kinds of books. If we look at some standard textbooks and major synthetic surveys (such as that of Patterson), and probably some popular literature like some of the Summer of Love books coming out (a singularly overrated event in my view), Wilson's laments make sense. If we instead analyze the monographic scholarship and the general "direction of the field" based on what younger scholars are writing and many senior scholars are incorporating into their work, I think the picture is brighter than he makes it out to be, and this will eventually find its way into the texts and synthetic surveys. On the two specific examples he mentions in his piece, I agree with his assessment of Patterson (see the article for details), and also am in accord with his original assertion that "when the revisionist dust has settled, we'll have an understanding of that tumultuous time that is richer and more capacious." I will argue with him on McGirr, whom he sees as condescending and I see as, mostly, on target.

And note that we have not yet gotten into discussing myriad other books, some self-proclaimedly in "religious history" and some not, that feature religion centrally. Obviously, civil rights movements books generally do that; in that field, religion's central role is in fact an entrenched orthodoxy, to the degree that those who argue with it are staking out deliberately contrarian positions. And, for my money, the CRM stands as far, far more important than much else that was evanscent about that decade, including a good deal of the counterculture that draws too much press and historical attention.

Then, of course, there are works on Catholics, Mexican migrants and C. Chavez, the explosion of Asian immigration and religions, Vatican II in America, the evolution of ideas of freedom among Catholics (a la John McGreevy), as well as the religion of the truly radical right (Christian Identity and others).

Stay tuned! Or, run screaming, if you're already bored. At any rate, thanks to Wilson for his tough but thoughtful response.B

Update: Randall Stephens lists some other important major texts in the comments section; that list could be extended a long ways further, and represents the kind of works I had in mind in my original post.

Another American Religious History Blog

I've been remiss in not linking to American Religious History, a fairly new blog kept up by a former student at Cal State-Sacramento. The blogger has a good archive of pieces, including reviews of some older classics in the field, and has posted a good starter bibliography on religion, politics, and American culture. I look forward to future posts there and would point our readers to check him out.

Progressive Historians

A shout back at you, Progressive Historians, a "community blog" that I've followed and enjoyed for most of its existence. Tuesday's "Open Thread" on 09/18 gives our little fledgling effort here props for substantive posts in spite of our (so I gather) rather primitive blogspot format, and quotes from Kelly's post on "The Disciple Generation" (scroll down) as an example of what they like here. They conclude: I highly recommend adding this site to your Favorites list -- along with Street Prophets and Talk to Action, it's rapidly becoming one of the most hoppin' spots for religious discourse on the Net.

A good start for readers of this blog to dip into the variety of topics/posts at Progressive Historians is here, with one contributor's "diary" entry/reflections on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. Religious historians tend to "miss" labor issues often times -- as least I do -- and that doesn't need to be the case, given the historical connections between the two, most especially during the Progressive era.

Her conclusion: But how does a horrible tragedy from 1911 have anything to do with today?
Simply put, the work isn't done.

Wednesday Notes and Noted

Baldblogger concludes his 7-part series of interviews with Edward J. Blum, regarding Blum's religious biography of Du Bois. Ed talks about the process of thinking about writing as a musical endeavor: that one should try to write musically, to hear the rhythm of the syllables, to groove to the spirit of narrative. I found myself doing that a bit this summer trying to write to Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, but I loved the CD so much I would descend into the music and forget to write! And don't forget that reading liner notes is always a great procrastination tool -- especially the wonderfully informative ones to Goodbye Babylon, the six-CD compilation that "that culls strange, rare and fiery finds of American gospel and other religious music from the early 20th century," and should be required listening for all American religious historians -- also read about it here and here, and listen to an interview with the compiler and annotator here).

Tim Burke gives some further thoughts on thinking about going to graduate school, in his typically thoughtful and provocative manner.

Matthew Hall points to a recent poll, conducted by the First Amendment Center, suggesting that
Most Americans believe the nation's founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do.

That seems a little high to me, although the poll claims a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points. I may follow up and try to learn a bit more about the poll.

On the other hand, maybe I'm the naive one. I just gave some upper-division history majors here a few documents by Jefferson (including a famous letter to John Adams in which Jefferson hopes that the biblical stories of miracles will soon be classed with the fables of Minerva) and asked them to do a writing exercise in which they wrote successive paragraphs crafting an answer to the question "Was Thomas Jefferson a Christian," and then revising their paragraph after reading the next document. It was just an exercise in historical writing, and this is not a religious history class, but I was startled to see all but one student proclaim Jefferson a Christian even after reading the document in which he says that Jesus had every human excellence and never claimed any other. Clearly, ideology, or something, trumped reality.

Finally, I don't know about the U.S. but the Crimson Tide nation is a Christian one, that's for sure! (HT to University Diaries --click and then scroll down to "Scathing Online SchoolMarm" for her wonderfully tart interjections on this story).