Category Archives: Culture War
The Devil You Think You Know
Whitney Phillips is Associate Professor of Information Politics and Media Ethics at the University of Oregon, and Mark Brockway is Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. Their book, The Shadow Gospel: How Anti-Liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, … Continue reading
Evangelical Narratives / Exvangelical Memoirs
The success of evangelical youth culture in the 1990s has yielded a soul-searching generation of disillusioned exvangelicals in the first decades of the 21st century. Some of these have written books about their experience, and this paper examines the ways … Continue reading
Started on the Margin Now We’re Here
Matthew Dallek is Professor of Political Management at George Washington University. In his most recent book, he identifies the John Birch Society as the vanguard of an insurgent right-wing extremism in American politics. Known for their early embrace of conspiracy … Continue reading
From Color Line to Colorblind
J. Russell Hawkins is Professor of History at Indiana Wesleyan University. Jesse Curtis is Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso University. Each is the author of a newish book about white evangelicals and colorblind rhetoric in the second half of … Continue reading
Speaking of the Culture Wars
At the Table, tonight!
Book Bans & Apple Pie
Since 2021, American public school boards have been targeted by a coordinated campaign intent on revising curricula, altering policies, and banning books. Especially after Glenn Youngkin’s surprise victory in the Virginia Governor’s race that fall, the rhetorical power of child- … Continue reading
White Christian Nation – A Conversation with Philip S. Gorski
Philip S. Gorski is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Yale University. His latest book, co-authored with Samuel L. Perry, is The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy. It defines and diagnoses the ideological … Continue reading
Anti-Christians – A Conversation with Obery M. Hendricks
Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. is Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary and Adjunct Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Columbia University. His new book, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and … Continue reading
Church / State – A Conversation with Steven K. Green
Steven K. Green is the Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and Affiliated Professor of History and Religious Studies at Willamette University, a position he accepted after serving for ten years as legal director and special counsel for Americans United … Continue reading
Hijacking History – A Conversation with Kathleen Wellman
Kathleen Wellman is the Dedman Family Distinguished Professor of History and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Southern Methodist University. In her new book, Hijacking History: How the Christian Right Teaches History and Why it Matters, she examines a series of … Continue reading
Hidden Mercy – A Conversation with Michael J. O’Loughlin
Michael J. O’Loughlin is the award-winning national correspondent for America Media. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, National Catholic Reporter, and The Advocate. In his new book, Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold … Continue reading
Colorblind Christianity – A Conversation with Jesse Curtis
Jesse Curtis is Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso University. His book, The Myth of Colorblind Christians: Evangelicals and White Supremacy in the Civil Rights Era parses the theories and practices animating white evangelical thinking on race since 1960. He … Continue reading
The New Midwest – A Conversation with Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Kristy Nabhan-Warren is the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Chair of Catholic Studies and Professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. In her new book, Meatpacking America: How Migration, … Continue reading
Saving Us – A Conversation with Katharine Hayhoe
Katharine Hayhoe is Professor of Political Science and past co-director of the Climate Center at Texas Tech University. She is chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, an Oxfam “Sister of the Plant,” and a UN “Champion of the Earth.” Her … Continue reading