Most astute social observers today agree that the United States is in the throes of a “culture war,” with issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and drug legalization taking center stage in many political debates.  But what if I told you that such “culture wars” are not uncommon in US history?  Indeed, Prof. Barry Hankins of Baylor University makes the argument that “cultural wars” are the default position in American history, and it was only during the 1930s – 1970s that we seemed to have been immune from such conflict.  He illustrates this point with a detailed discussion of The Roaring Twenties (and the decades leading up to that time), when issues such as Prohibition, evolution, obscenity, and a weakening of Christianity were the hot topics of the time.  We begin our discussion by noting the dramatic changes that the U.S. experienced around the turn of the 20th century, roughly from 1880 to 1920.  Rapid industrialization and urbanization, combined with new forms of immigration, set the stage for wide array of new cultural challenges facing the nation, in general, and Christianity in particular.  As the Roaring ’20s were known as the era of Prohibition (and the time of the “speak easy”), we start with that topic.  Prof. Hankins reviews the history of the temperance movement and reveals some surprising findings, such that alcohol consumption in the US during the 1820s was among the highest in the world and that temperance movements did help to sober the country up.  He notes this was true of Prohibition, as well, countering an often-used argument today regarding the legalization of drugs that such legal restrictions don’t really affect usage much.  Our conversation turns to some of the more charismatic characters of the era with a focus on Billy Sunday, a forerunner of today’s “megachurch” pastors.  Barry recounts Rev. Sunday’s life and how he harnessed his athletic fame in the name of evangelization.  Billy Sunday’s story is a nice reminder that “media star preachers” are not just a phenomenon of the late 20th century but emerged in an era when people were becoming increasingly concentrated in cities and mass media such as radio and theater was becoming more common.  We also cover some of the more scandal-plagued preachers of the time including Aimee Semple-McPherson, J. Frank Norris, Daddy Grace, and Father Divine, reminding us that there probably is nothing new under the sun.  We then take up the topic of the factionalization occurring within Christianity that is going on during this time — fundamentalists vs modernists.  We discover that the liberal modernists tended to win these battles, often forcing more fundamentalist groups to break away and form new denominations.  Again, this is reminiscent of our current time.  The conversation then moves to an interesting puzzle that Barry is still thinking about, which is why the culture wars subsided between the 1930s and (roughly) 1980.  We both offer us some speculation on this topic and finish off with additional thoughts about what the culture wars of the 1920s has to tell us about our culture wars today.  Recorded: May 2, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

Barry Hankins bio at Baylor University’s Department of History.

Jesus and Gin: Evangelicalism, the Roaring Twenties, and Today’s Culture Wars, by Barry Hankins.

American Evangelicals: A History of a Mainstream Religious Movement, by Barry Hankins.

The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists, by Barry Hankins.

RELATED PODCASTS

Matthew Sutton on Aimee Semple McPherson.

Mark Driscoll on the Growth of Mars Hill Church.

Thomas Kidd on the Great Awakening.

Following some light banter about puppies, Prof. Baker provides us with a definition of what the Religious Right is, noting that it has been a term that has been ill-defined and often used to refer to poor and uneducated religious voters.  Hunter points out that this movement has some deep and surprising intellectual roots.  While religious involvement in American politics has a long history, he dates the current movement back to William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes Monkey Trial and then picks up the story in the mid-20th century with the emergence of a number of “neo-evangelical” thinkers such as Carl F.H. Henry and Frances Schaeffer.  We review the interesting influence these thinkers had and note the surprising activist background of these individuals, including Schaeffer’s willingness to “listen to hippies” and pro-labor attitudes (things that are not normally associated with the media caricature of the Religious Right).

We then talk about the emergence of the movement in the 1970s with individuals such as Chuck Colson arguing for religion to take on a more public profile and events such as the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision playing an important mobilizing effect.  This is where Hunter explains how Christians began to reject “functional differentiation” and helps Tony understand what that social scientific-sounding terms means.  While many neo-evangelicals supported Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976 and that many Democrats were supporters of the pro-life movement that was gaining ground, Hunter points out the shift that occurs to the Republican Party in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s embrace of these individuals with his famous quote, “I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.”  Our conversation also covers the extent to which this movement was merely an evangelical Christian movement or whether it entailed non-Protestant thinkers such as Richard John Neuhaus.

We review the public rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s with reference to Falwell’s Moral Majority and Robertson’s Christian Coalition, but Hunter points out that it was James Dobson’s Focus on the Family that probably had the bigger and more lasting impact on the movement.  Again he points out that Dobson, who has a Ph.D., is indicative of the scholarly grounding of the movement contrary to a media opinion that paints the movement as anti-intellectual.  Although the demise of the Moral Majority and the election of Bill Clinton as president are often seen as indications of the waning of the Religious Right in the 1990s, Hunter asserts that the movement took on a more grassroots approach and was able to develop a “deeper bench” by electing adherents to office and placing them in the Academy.  He makes the claim that the real peak of the Religious Right movement was around 2005.  Disillusionment with the presidency of George W. Bush and the apparent failings of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aided in eroding the influence of Christian conservatives during this time.  We also discuss the politics surrounding same-sex marriage and how losses in the battle to ban gay marriage have also chipped away at the movement’s strength.

We finally turn our attention to the future of the Religious Right.  Tony asks to what extent the Tea Party represents a revitalization of the Christian conservatives, but Prof. Baker notes that the Tea Party represents a distinct social movement.  Nonetheless, he raises the issue of religious liberty and how Christians are now seeing this as a major issue that may allow them to align with the more libertarian leanings of the Tea Party.  We also chat about the recent writings of Jonathan Malesic and James Davison Hunter who argue that it may be a time for Christians to embrace secularism and perhaps take a “season of silence.”  Hunter provides his thoughts on this topic and we ruminate about the future of Christian political activism in the United States noting that there have been periods of waxing and waning throughout the long course of history and we may be witnessing one of those waning moments.  Recorded: July 23, 2014.

RELATED LINKS

Hunter Baker’s bio at his personal blog.

The System Has a Soul: Essays on Christianity, Liberty, and Political Life, by Hunter Baker.

The End of Secularism, by Hunter Baker.

Political Thought: A Student’s Guide, by Hunter Baker.

How Should We Then Live?, by Frances Schaeffer (mentioned in podcast).

RELATED PODCASTS

Hunter Baker on Secularism.

Hunter Baker on the Future of Higher Education.

Jon Shields on Democratic Virtues and the Religious Right.

Gerald de Maio on the Electoral Religion Gap.

Kevin den Dulk on Religion, Education, and Civic Engagement.

Luis Bolce on the Media and Anti-Fundamentalism.

William Donohue on Secular Sabotage.

]]> http://www.researchonreligion.org/christianity/hunter-baker-on-the-past-and-future-of-the-religious-right/feed 4 http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/barry-hankins-on-jesus-gin-and-culture-wars http://www.researchonreligion.org/historical-topics/barry-hankins-on-jesus-gin-and-culture-wars#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 08:00:22 +0000 http://www.researchonreligion.org/?p=2528 Most astute social observers today agree that the United States is in the throes of a “culture war,” with issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and drug legalization taking center stage in many political debates.  But what if I told you that such “culture wars” are not uncommon in US history?  Indeed, Prof. Barry Hankins of Baylor University makes the argument that “cultural wars” are the default position in American history, and it was only during the 1930s – 1970s that we seemed to have been immune from such conflict.  He illustrates this point with a detailed discussion of The Roaring Twenties (and the decades leading up to that time), when issues such as Prohibition, evolution, obscenity, and a weakening of Christianity were the hot topics of the time.  We begin our discussion by noting the dramatic changes that the U.S. experienced around the turn of the 20th century, roughly from 1880 to 1920.  Rapid industrialization and urbanization, combined with new forms of immigration, set the stage for wide array of new cultural challenges facing the nation, in general, and Christianity in particular.  As the Roaring ’20s were known as the era of Prohibition (and the time of the “speak easy”), we start with that topic.  Prof. Hankins reviews the history of the temperance movement and reveals some surprising findings, such that alcohol consumption in the US during the 1820s was among the highest in the world and that temperance movements did help to sober the country up.  He notes this was true of Prohibition, as well, countering an often-used argument today regarding the legalization of drugs that such legal restrictions don’t really affect usage much.  Our conversation turns to some of the more charismatic characters of the era with a focus on Billy Sunday, a forerunner of today’s “megachurch” pastors.  Barry recounts Rev. Sunday’s life and how he harnessed his athletic fame in the name of evangelization.  Billy Sunday’s story is a nice reminder that “media star preachers” are not just a phenomenon of the late 20th century, but emerged in an era when people were becoming increasingly concentrated in cities and mass media such as radio and theater was beoming more common.  We also cover some of the more scandal-plagued preachers of the time including Aimee Semple-McPherson, J. Frank Norris, Daddy Grace, and Father Divine, reminding us that there probably is nothing new under the sun.  We then take up the topic of the factionalization occuring within Christianity that is going on during this time — fundamentalists vs modernists.  We discover that the liberal modernists tended to win these battles, often forcing more fundamentalist groups to break away and form new denominations.  Again, this is reminiscent of our current time.  The conversation then moves to an interesting puzzle that Barry is still thinking about, which is why the culture wars subsided between the 1930s and (roughly) 1980.  We both offer us some speculation on this topic and finish off with additional thoughts about what the culture wars of the 1920s has to tell us about our culture wars today.  Recorded: May 2, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

Barry Hankins bio at Baylor University’s Department of History.

Jesus and Gin: Evangelicalism, the Roaring Twenties, and Today’s Culture Wars, by Barry Hankins.

American Evangelicals: A History of a Mainstream Religious Movement, by Barry Hankins.

The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists, by Barry Hankins.

RELATED PODCASTS

Matthew Sutton on Aimee Semple McPherson.

Mark Driscoll on the Growth of Mars Hill Church.

Thomas Kidd on the Great Awakening.

RELATED LINKS

Matthew Sutton’s website at Washington State University.

American Experience: Sister Aimee (PBS Documentary based on Matthew Sutton’s research).

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America by Matthew Sutton.

RELATED PODCASTS

Margaret Poloma on Pentecostalism, the Assemblies of God, and Godly Love.