Research On Religion » Martin Luther King

David Dixon on Religious Rhetoric and the Civil Right Movement

tonygill — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 08:00:27 +0000

It is well known that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century had a strong religious character to it, with individuals such as Rev. Martin Luther King playing a prominent role and with churches being the locus of organization. How far does the influence of religion extend, though? Prof. David Dixon, professor of political science at St. Joseph’s College, discusses a major undertaking the he and his colleague Davis Houck have been working on in documenting the amazing breadth of religious influence in that social movement. Both Prof. Dixon and Prof. Houck have spent countless hours sifting through audio and video archives looking at how religious rhetoric was used broadly in the fight for African American civil rights.

Dave begins the podcast detailing how this project came about, a particularly interesting story given that he specializes in Latin America and not mid-20th century U.S. history. He also tells the enormous effort he has put forth to locate rather obscure sermons and other speeches from individuals who are not household names. The discussion about the methodological issues surrounding this project are fascinating, including commentary about how he and his colleague had to track down the survivors of the Civil Rights Movement or their children in order to get permission to publish some of these transcripts.

We then take our discussion into some of the content that Dave has uncovered. He notes how the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement reflected a growing confidence between 1954 and 1965 (the boundaries of their study). We also review some of the common themes that crop up, including references to the books of Exodus and Amos in the Old Testament. There are other interesting observations that Dave makes, including the importance of missionary movements in Africa and how it was difficult for many pastors to preach the liberating effects of Christianity to Africans only to bring some of their leaders back to the United States and have those individual experience various forms of segregation and oppression. Dave then recounts some of his favorite sermons from his two volume collection (plus an additional one on women in the Civil Rights Movement), noting how all forms of rhetoric from anger to humor were used to make salient points to diverse audiences.

We finish the podcast with some miscelleneous thoughts about how this project dovetails with Dave’s work on Latin America. He notes the various themes of liberation that are common between the two areas of research. He also has some reflections upon Pope Francis and how all of this might be related. The interview is peppered throughout with personal stories, making this a deeply personal interview. Recorded: March 7, 2014.

Melissa Matthes on Sermons after Tragedies

tonygill — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 08:00:22 +0000

With the 12th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks upon us, we examine how clergy respond to national tragedies in their sermons. What does a priest or pastor say to a congregation looking for answers to an unimaginable and shocking event? Are there any common themes that emerge among clergy when confronted with national tragedy, or are their responses conditioned by the specific context. To address these questions, we invited Prof. Melissa Matthes – associate professor of government and the humanities at the US Coast Guard Academy – to talk about her research project examining sermons following such momentous events. She has been reading sermons that were delivered in the weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941), the assassinations of John F. Kennedy (1963) and Martin Luther King (1968), the Los Angeles riots of 1992, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (1995), and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (2001).

We begin with Dr. Matthes’s account of how she came to undertake this study, which was prompted by her personal experience with the events of 9/11 given that her husband was working in NYC at the time and that she knew several victims of the tragedy. Melissa attended services at her local parish within 48 hours of 9/11 and talked with a number of other colleagues who did as well. The fact that people all around the country flocked to houses of worship almost immediately is an indication of how important religious denominations remain as part of our civic education. Melissa notes that people turn towards the clergy in times of crisis for answers on how to make sense of what seems unimaginable.

Interestingly, Melissa noted her disappointment with the relative lack of mourning for the victims of 9/11 in many of the sermons at that time. This prompts an interesting discussion about the role of public mourning and grief in times of tragedy. Prof. Matthes references the famous Greek play Antigone and notes how Adolph Hitler not only banned that piece of literature but also prohibited German citizens from attending large scale public funerals for fear that they would be a rallying point for political opposition. Tony notes how important funerals have been in recent years with the publicly expressed grief surrounding death of a Tunisian street vendor setting off what we today call the “Arab Spring.”

Dr. Matthes then details the nature of her study, explaining the choice of crises she examined, how she selected the sermons, and the questions she set out to examine. Primarily, Melissa wanted to investigate the nature of public mourning, how church-state relations were viewed by the clergy during moments of crisis, and how the clergy conceived of patriotism. Tony then asks a series of questions about whether many of these sermons – dating back to Pearl Harbor and ending with 9/11 – contain common theological themes or references to biblical passages. He also inquires whether she noted denominational differences in the nature of the sermons or whether or not there was a call to be find more ecumenical common ground in our nation’s responses.

We then walk through several of Dr. Matthes’s case studies, with particular emphasis on Pearl Harbor, the JFK and MLK assassinations, and September 11. Interestingly, we discover that the sermons immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor do not contain “rally around the flag” messages, but instead emphasize the need to promote a peaceful response. In part, Melissa argues that this emphasis is due to clergy feeling somewhat betrayed by their close association with the US government during World War I and a desire to stand back from the government at the time, much to the dismay of President Franklin Roosevelt. With respect to the two assassinations occurring in the 1960s, Melissa notes that John Kennedy’s death was conceived as an act of martyrdom and in Christ-like terms, a surprising response given that Kennedy was not necessarily all that popular just prior to his death. Moreover, she observed that many clergy tended to blame society for “pulling the trigger,” and use JFK’s death as a moment of national reflection. The response to Martin Luther King’s assassination was different. Surprisingly, far fewer sermons were saved following that event (as compared to the Kennedy assassination where people actually sent sermons to the JFK presidential library). Melissa notes a sense of “national resignation” amongst the clergy following the death of MLK and also notes how the response of black clergy differed from white pastors.

In terms of the response to September 11, and in much contrast to the much-analogized attack on Pearl Harbor, clergy responded with sermons that advocated “lining up with the state” to fix the problem and then to move forward. Gone, to a significant extent, was the sense of public mourning that had accompanied earlier tragedies. We finish with Melissa’s broad reflections on her study. She is most impressed with the fact of how relevant churches remain in the life of the U.S. even while participation in institutional religion seems to be on the wane. Recorded: September 8, 2011.

Ron Mock on Pacifism, War, and Terrorism

tonygill — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:00:02 +0000

In light of the eleventh anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and with an eye towards more recent assaults on US diplomatic missions overseas, we explore the topic of Christian pacifism in the face of war and terrorism with Prof. Ron Mock, associate professor of political science at George Fox University and the director of GFU’s Center for Peace & Justice. Our interview begins, though, with Tony posing a questions he has asked several other guests in the past: As a Christian, would you have fought in the American War of Independence in the 1770s? We offer up this question early in the podcast as a means of exploring the dimensions of Prof. Mock’s own pacifism. In the process of this discussion, Ron talks about his background growing up in the Church of God and why he joined the Religious Society of Friends (i.e., Quakers). The conversation then returns to whether or not Ron sees the War of Independence as a just war and what the colonists could have done differently at that time. We then fast forward to the contemporary era and Tony asks Ron where he was on the morning of September 11, 2001 and how he reacted to the news of those terrorist attacks. We use this discussion to set the table for our discussion of pacifism by realizing that there is a natural, perhaps innate, tendency for humans to react to such events with anger and a desire to strike back. This leads Ron, who is a self-identified pacifist, to offer up an intriguing critique of pacifism wherein he notes that pacifists have rarely struggled with the dual Christian mandate of loving both your enemy and your neighbor. Sometimes, as we note with a couple hypothetical scenarios, can be difficult. If an enemy is attacking your neighbor, can you sit by idly or be so forgiving of the aggressor that you neglect your duty to the victim? This prompts us to look at the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who during World War II faced a difficult choice as a Christian pacifist. We then turn to the issue of terrorism in the contemporary world and Prof. Mock offers us his five-part definition of terrorism as a means for understanding how to respond to this threat. He proceeds to offer a critique of contemporary US foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in particular the use of unmanned drones. Ron is concerned with the process that many militaries (or terrorists) have to dehumanize their enemies and drone attacks only augment this problem even more. He then offers up his solution from a pacifist perspective on how to deal with such threats. Recorded: September 14, 2012.