5. THE EAST COMES HOME: RACE AND RELIGION

2017 ◽  
pp. 174-224
Keyword(s):  
Race And Religion

Compromising Positions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Dorrough Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Health ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Values ◽  
Sex Scandals ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
Christian Nation

Compromising Positions argues that sex scandals aren’t really about sex. Rather, they are a form of cultural theater—a moment of highly visible, public storytelling—the purpose of which is to use specific racial and gendered symbols to create a collective sense of national worth and strength. To arrive at this conclusion, the book charts the ways in which attitudes about gender, race, and religion are woven together to create a certain sort of rhetoric about what America is, who is eligible to formally represent it, and what types of religiosity such leaders must display in order to legitimize their power. The book shows that Americans simultaneously condemn and excuse the sexual indiscretions of their politicians depending on the degree to which those politicians reinforce longstanding, evangelical symbols—many of which are heavily raced and gendered—that are associated with “American values” and a “Christian nation.” Such values include not just moral fortitude but also strength, courage, and conquest. The upshot is that sex scandals are less likely to occur at cultural moments when the public is open to reading a politician’s moral lapse as a symbolic form of national dominance. Put simply, when he is perceived as strong, domineering, and necessary for national health, many people will find ways to either forget his illicit sex or somehow read it as an American act.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Hepburn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Oxford Movement ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The Right ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
The Church

In the 1940s and 1950s, Britain was relatively uniform in terms of race and religion. The majority of Britons adhered to the Church of England, although Anglo-Catholic leanings—the last gasp of the Oxford Movement—prompted some people to convert to Roman Catholicism. Although the secularization thesis has had a tenacious grip on twentieth-century literary studies, it does not account for the flare-up of interest in religion in mid-century Britain. The ecumenical movement, which began in the 1930s in Europe, went into suspension during the war, and returned with vigour after 1945, advocated international collaboration among Christian denominations and consequently overlapped with the promotion of human rights, especially the defence of freedom of worship, the right to privacy, freedom of conscience, and freedom of expression.

Puritans and Race

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Colonial America ◽  
Colonial New England ◽  
Race And Religion

In scholarly discussions about “race” in the Americas, colonial New England often receives little attention. While race-based slavery perhaps never commanded the same attention in the northern colonies as in regions farther south, “race” factored into nearly every aspect of life in New England from the outset. This chapter not only discusses how scholars have approached this conversation but also investigates some of the ways in which New Englanders made sense of themselves and the peoples of varying ethnicities, relying at times on the specific theological context of New England puritanism. Focusing on the ways in which New Englanders wrestled with the dilemma of racial thinking within their theological system brings New England fully into the discussion of the intersections between “race” and religion in colonial America.

Race, Religion, and Documentary Film

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Weisenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Independent Films ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race And Religion

This chapter uses Ingagi and The Silent Enemy, both independent films released in 1930, to examine the intersections of race and religion in the context of American documentary film conventions. The filmmakers claimed documentary status for their films, despite the fact that both were largely scripted and contained staged representations. Many audience members and critics nevertheless took their representations of the religious practices of Africans and Native Americans to be truthful and invested in the films’ authenticity because their visual codes, narratives, and advertising confirmed accepted stereotypes about race, religion, and capacity for civilization. Examining these two films in the context of the broader history of documentary representations of race and religion—from travelogues, adventure, ethnographic, and expeditionary films through more recent productions—this chapter explores how the genre has helped to shape and communicate ideas about race and religion.

Redeeming Santo Domingo: North Atlantic Missionaries and the Racial Conversion of a Nation

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-100
Author(s):  
Christina Cecelia Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Dominican Republic ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Santo Domingo ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
Alternative Future ◽  
Protestant Missions ◽  
Racially Ambiguous ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
Key Interventions

AbstractThis article examines North Atlantic views of Protestant missions and race in the Dominican Republic between 1905 and 1911, a brief period of political stability in the years leading up to the U.S. Occupation (1916–1924). Although Protestant missions during this period remained small in scale on the Catholic island, the views of British and American missionaries evidence how international perceptions of Dominicans transformed in the early twentieth century. Thus, this article makes two key interventions within the literature on Caribbean race and religion. First, it shows how outsiders’ ideas about the Dominican Republic's racial composition aimed to change the Dominican Republic from a “black” country into a racially ambiguous “Latin” one on the international stage. Second, in using North Atlantic missionaries’ perspectives to track this shift, it argues that black-led Protestant congregations represented a possible alternative future that both elite Dominicans and white North Atlantic missionaries rejected.

scholarly journals Generation-making narratives and responses to diversity in Poland

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199852
Author(s):  
Aneta Piekut ◽  
Gill Valentine
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Analytical Category ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
Depth Interviews

In this article, the authors move away from approaching generations as static categories and explore how ordinary people, as opposed to scholars, distinguish generations and justify their different responses to cultural diversity in terms of ethnicity, race and religion/belief. The analysis draws on 90 in-depth interviews with 30 residents in the Polish capital, Warsaw (2012–2013). Through approaching generation as an analytical category, the authors identify various differentiating narratives which the study participants employed to draw boundaries between generations, reinforcing the common belief that the youngest Poles are most accepting of diversity. Although generations are seen as the axis of difference, conditioning generation-specific responses to diversity, the accounts emerging from the interviews reveal their relational nature, as well as similarities and points of connection between their experiences.

The Role of the Christian Church in Combating 21st Century Racism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-231
Author(s):  
Clara M. Austin Iwuoha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Racial Harmony ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
The Church

The demons of racism, bigotry, and prejudice found in society at large are also found in the Christian Church. Despite the very nature of Christianity that calls on Christians to be a counter voice in the world against evil, many have capitulated to various strains of racism. Some Christian denominations have begun to explore racism in the Church and have developed responses to addressing the issues in both the Church and the world. This article examines the historical context of race and religion in the Christian Church, and addresses the current efforts of some Christian denominations to become proactive in the struggle against racism. Jesus, in His Word, calls believers to pursue peace and oneness. The paper holds that racial harmony and racial unity are possible, but there are many false, old and d beliefs that will have to be crushed under the hammer of God's Word in order to get to a place of real peace.

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