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After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Ecumenical Protestantism and the Modern American Encounter with Diversity

David A. Hollinger

in After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Protestant Liberalism in Modern American History

This chapter addresses the question of why “mainline” Protestant churches experienced a dramatic loss of numbers from the mid-1960s through the early twenty-first century, while the evangelical ... More

This chapter addresses the question of why “mainline” Protestant churches experienced a dramatic loss of numbers from the mid-1960s through the early twenty-first century, while the evangelical churches grew. It argues that evangelicals triumphed in the numbers game by continuing to espouse several ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nationality, and divinity that remained popular with the white public when these same ideas were abandoned by leaders of the mainline, ecumenical churches as no longer defensible. The chapter also considers the historical significance of ecumenical Protestantism for U.S. history since World War II. It argues that it facilitated an engagement with many aspects of a diverse modernity that millions of Americans would not have achieved without the support and guidance of the ecumenical churches.Less

Certifying Eugenic Purity in the Churches

Christine Rosen

in Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement

This chapter further places religious leaders’ enthusiasm for eugenics in the context of both Progressivism and the Social Gospel movement. As eugenic ideas gained in popularity, religious leaders ... More

This chapter further places religious leaders’ enthusiasm for eugenics in the context of both Progressivism and the Social Gospel movement. As eugenic ideas gained in popularity, religious leaders such as Rev. Walter Taylor Sumner, a Protestant Episcopal Dean in Chicago, began crafting their own eugenic proposals, which they administered in their churches. Dean Sumner’s eugenic “marriage health certificate” plan garnered publicity and many imitators. This chapter describes such proposals and places them in the context of the growing social service movement in the Protestant churches in particular, and the public’s increasing interest in eugenics in general. It also discusses the many “eugenic family studies” published in the 1910s.Less

Standing Alone

Philip Jenkins

in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

This chapter traces the development of Southern Christianity in the post-colonial era and notes that with few exceptions and despite Western Christian concern, the new churches have survived and ... More

This chapter traces the development of Southern Christianity in the post-colonial era and notes that with few exceptions and despite Western Christian concern, the new churches have survived and flourished. Some of the greatest triumphs have been enjoyed precisely by the structures created by colonial authorities–the mainstream Catholic and Protestant mission churches. However, although these older churches and missions are the primary fact, there are also many smaller independent indigenous Christian cults/denominations, which have arisen where older groupings have proved inadequate for a changing society; these are often Pentecostal and may be either indigenous or Northern in origin. This type of growth is particularly evident in Latin America, where there has been a major defection from Catholicism to Protestantism (including Pentecostalism); the boom in Pentecostal sects in Latin America and the Catholic response to this are described, and similar Protestant and Pentecostal expansion in the African independent churches/denominations and in Asia outlined. The last part of the chapter investigates the reasons for the expansion of Christianity in diverse cultures, looking in particular at some of the radical Pentecostal communities that have developed and at the common characteristics of Pentecostal sects and what people want from them, the critical idea being that God intervenes directly in everyday life and provides solutions to problems; this is a clear differentiation from Northern Christianity.Less

The Crisis of the Church

Hugh McLeod

in The Religious Crisis of the 1960s

This chapter discusses the decline in religious practice in the Western world, in both Protest churches and the Roman Catholic Church. In the ten years between 1965 and 1975, large numbers of people ... More

This chapter discusses the decline in religious practice in the Western world, in both Protest churches and the Roman Catholic Church. In the ten years between 1965 and 1975, large numbers of people lost the habit of regular church going. Protestant churches saw a serious drop in membership. The Catholic Church saw a mass exit from the priesthood and a large fall in clerical recruitment.Less

Aggiornamento

Hugh McLeod

in The Religious Crisis of the 1960s

This chapter examines religious reform in the mid-1960s. Pope John said that the task of the Second Vatican Council would be aggiornamento — a bringing up to date, or renewal, of the church. Vatican ... More

This chapter examines religious reform in the mid-1960s. Pope John said that the task of the Second Vatican Council would be aggiornamento — a bringing up to date, or renewal, of the church. Vatican II offered the prospect not only of sweeping reforms in the Catholic Church but also of an end to many of the barriers separating Catholics from other Christians. New theologies, which privileged ‘action’ in ‘the world’, an ethic of individual freedom and responsibility and a positive view of modern science, were winning the support of many Protestants. Both Catholics and Protestants were actively involved in many of the social and political movements of the time, and were interpreting their activism as a necessary expression of their Christian faith. Yet in the euphoria of the times, many progressive Christians underestimated the strength both of more conservative denominations (often dismissed as sects) and of the conservative forces within their own denomination.Less

1968

Hugh McLeod

in The Religious Crisis of the 1960s

This chapter examines the social and religious upheavals of 1968. In the later 1960s, hopes for speedy and radical changes in both church and society were at a very high level. Christian radicals ... More

This chapter examines the social and religious upheavals of 1968. In the later 1960s, hopes for speedy and radical changes in both church and society were at a very high level. Christian radicals often suffered a double disappointment. Many radicals left their churches, and those Christian organizations that had been most sympathetic to ‘1968’ were severely upset. However, it would be wrong to exaggerate the extent either of the radical defeat or of the conservative resurgence. Many of those who had been influenced by the ideas and movements of that time remained within, or returned to their churches.Less

The Religious Right

Robert Wuthnow

in Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland

This chapter examines the emergence of the Religious Right in Kansas. On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was murdered at the Reformation Lutheran Church in suburban Wichita. As one of the region's ... More

This chapter examines the emergence of the Religious Right in Kansas. On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was murdered at the Reformation Lutheran Church in suburban Wichita. As one of the region's few providers of legal late-term abortions, Tiller had earned the ire of antiabortion activists. No issue brought churches as directly into the political arena during the late 1980s and 1990s as abortion. The Religious Right in Kansas gained national attention because of its role in encouraging the Kansas State Board of Education to approve science standards that downplayed the teaching of evolution. The decision raised questions such as: why Kansas was such a hotbed of religious conservatism; or why it mattered that independent evangelical Protestant churches were now on the same side of many issues as conservative Roman Catholics. The chapter explores the implications of the debate over evolution for Kansas religion and politics.Less

“Be not righteous over much”

John Wigger

in American Saint Francis Asbury and the Methodists

One measure of the church’s success was that it now had to deal with imposters who pretended to be Methodist preachers. Still, growth slowed in the 1790s and membership actually declined in the ... More

One measure of the church’s success was that it now had to deal with imposters who pretended to be Methodist preachers. Still, growth slowed in the 1790s and membership actually declined in the South. Despite nagging sickness Asbury traveled across the mountains to Kentucky in the spring of 1790. But he still faced sustained opposition to the council, particularly in southern Virginia where O’Kelly’s influence was greatest. In the midst of these troubles, Asbury’s piety remained little changed. The second (and last) meeting of the council in December 1790 accomplished little. Coke and O’Kelly demanded that a general conference be called for 1792. Meanwhile, Coke wrote a secret letter to Bishop William White of the Protestant Episcopal Church, proposing a reconciliation of the Methodist and Episcopal churches. John Wesley’s death in March 1791 threw all of Coke’s plans in disarray. As Coke returned to England, Asbury took a tour of New England, where there were yet few Methodists.Less

Contending for Liberty

Philip N. Mulder

in A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South

The American Revolution heightened the differences between Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists as the dissenters addressed the political crisis through petitions and met the resultant ... More

The American Revolution heightened the differences between Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists as the dissenters addressed the political crisis through petitions and met the resultant disestablishment of the Church of England on their own terms. Presbyterians generally embraced the Revolutionary cause, but they maneuvered primarily to achieve their long‐sought goal of gaining parity with the Anglican, now Protestant Episcopal Church, allowing for multiple establishments when the plans included Presbyterians. Baptists faced the matters resolved to maintain their absolute principles, and they were pleasantly surprised when Virginia, prompted by Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom, seemed to embrace some Baptist truth by striking down establishment. Francis Asbury dreamed that Methodists could stay neutral, truly separating religion from unholy matters, but he suffered when John Wesley rebuked the patriots and when most Methodist leaders fled the troubled colonies. Methodism would recover, but only by transforming into an American denomination and joining the other evangelicals already in contention for their own particular notions of religious liberty.Less

Southern Catholics and Desegregation in Denominational Perspective, 1945–1971

Mark Newman

in Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992

The chapter compares the response of the Catholic Church in the South to desegregation with that of the region’s larger white denominations: the Southern Baptist Convention, the Methodist Church, the ... More

The chapter compares the response of the Catholic Church in the South to desegregation with that of the region’s larger white denominations: the Southern Baptist Convention, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It also makes comparisons with Catholics outside the South and with southern Jews, a minority, like Catholics, subject to suspicion and even hostility from the Protestant majority, and with the Northern (later American) Baptist Convention and the Disciples of Christ, both of which had a substantial African American membership. The comparison suggests that white lay sensibilities, more than polity or theology, influenced the implementation of desegregation in the South by the major white religious bodies. Like the major white Protestant denominations, Catholic prelates and clergy took a more progressive approach to desegregation in the peripheral than the Deep South.Less

Introduction

Margaret Bendroth

in The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past

This introductory chapter examines the role of the past in mainline Protestant churches—more specifically the Congregationalists—and how they have coped with modern, twentieth-century American life. ... More

This introductory chapter examines the role of the past in mainline Protestant churches—more specifically the Congregationalists—and how they have coped with modern, twentieth-century American life. The religious history of the modern era was as much about fortress building as it was about ecumenical cooperation: this urbane and presumably secular age saw far more debate about what it meant to be a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Congregationalist—or, for that matter, a Roman Catholic or a Jew or an evangelical—than any earlier time. Congregationalists are especially apt for this kind of story. To begin with, from the early nineteenth century onward, they have played a major role in shaping American culture, exerting an influence well beyond their relatively modest numbers.Less

That the World May Believe: Christian Mission to the Modern World

Brian Stanley

in Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History

This chapter explores how the Catholic and Protestant churches respectively reconceived their theologies of mission in the final four decades of the twentieth century. Particular attention is devoted ... More

This chapter explores how the Catholic and Protestant churches respectively reconceived their theologies of mission in the final four decades of the twentieth century. Particular attention is devoted to the Second Vatican Council of 1962–65, the Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1968, and the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization convened by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1974. It was not accidental that this process of fundamental revision was concentrated on the 1960s and 1970s—decades that witnessed the rapid dismantling of the Western colonial empires, the emergence of the “Third World” as an ideological bloc, and the highly charged political atmosphere of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Neither the Catholic nor the Protestant missionary movements were the offspring of colonialism, but both regularly employed the language of global Christian dominion and both tried to use colonial governments to forward their evangelistic objectives. It was thus inevitable that the anticolonial invective of these decades should not leave the churches' overseas missionary activities unscathed. These years were also an era of social and intellectual ferment in European societies. Movements of revolutionary protest against established institutions and their perceived role in the perpetuation of structural injustice and international capitalism swept through university campuses. The historic churches and their governing hierarchies were often caught in the gunfire. Their formulation of their role in the world and even of their message itself could not be unaffected.Less

Protestant House Churches: From Legal Exclusion to Religious Repression

Zhaohui Hong

in The Price of China's Economic Development: Power, Capital, and the Poverty of Rights

Chapter 7 pays particular attention to the poverty of rights of the Protestant house churches in their quest for religious freedom since 1999. The Protestant house churches can be defined as those ... More

Chapter 7 pays particular attention to the poverty of rights of the Protestant house churches in their quest for religious freedom since 1999. The Protestant house churches can be defined as those without official registration and government approval. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the poverty of rights endured by several tens of millions of house church members. They include the government’s placement of the house churches into a position of illegitimacy, restriction of their ability to build churches and their opportunities to worship, and deprivation of their rights to religious gatherings, in addition to the lack of protection of their private property. The chapter also discusses the multitude of reasons for the house churches’ poverty of rights before addressing several options for them to seek and protect their religious freedom.Less

Members of One Body: The Churches and the National Council of Churches

in Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

How can the churches be the Church? That central question remains pressing for the mainline Protestant churches in American public life. This sharpened in the wake of Interfaith Impact for Justice ... More

How can the churches be the Church? That central question remains pressing for the mainline Protestant churches in American public life. This sharpened in the wake of Interfaith Impact for Justice and Peace's demise, which cleared institutional ground for new ecumenical efforts by the National Council of Churches and others to join the mainline Protestant churches more closely in public advocacy. Specific issues spurred this undertaking. Chief among them was continuing opposition in the churches to tight-fisted “welfare reform” and half-hearted health care coverage in the 1990s, along with growing support for campaign finance reform. These advocacy efforts played out against the backdrop of continuing appeals by Bill Clinton's administration to mainline-church leaders for public involvement and moral unity to help sway voters and members of Congress to its policies. Such engagement with the mainline churches offered a striking contrast to the Republican administrations before and after the Clinton years, especially to the silence of President George W. Bush in response to the churches' protests against war in Iraq and deepening poverty and hardship at home.Less

Protestant Christianity in Reform-Era China: Realities and Representations

David Ownby

in Encountering Modernity: Christianity in East Asia and Asian America

This chapter examines the intersection between nationalism, religion, and politics by documenting the revival of Protestant Christianity in post-Mao China. In particular, it looks at the House Church ... More

This chapter examines the intersection between nationalism, religion, and politics by documenting the revival of Protestant Christianity in post-Mao China. In particular, it looks at the House Church Protestant movement, which stands in contrast to the government-sponsored Protestant Church. The chapter begins with a discussion of Western-language studies of Protestant revival in China and how the revival was perceived in China before turning to Chinese Protestant voices in the Chinese diaspora, particularly in North America. Some of these Chinese Christians had already converted in China and came to North America to avoid persecution, but most converted after their arrival—some having gone into exile for political reasons. The chapter also considers the role of Chinese missionary groups in the diaspora such as the China Soul for Christ Foundation and their high-quality docudramas produced in the United States that “educate” Chinese Protestants on their own history and contemporary situation, suggesting that these dramas may serve as a unifying force for Protestantism in China.Less

A Reformation of Manners

David D. Hall

in The Puritans: A Transatlantic History

This chapter addresses the Puritan version of a “reformation of manners” or moral reform, situating it within a larger anxiety about “decline.” As those who signed the Covenant of 1596 surely knew, ... More

This chapter addresses the Puritan version of a “reformation of manners” or moral reform, situating it within a larger anxiety about “decline.” As those who signed the Covenant of 1596 surely knew, perceptions of “decline” had prompted fast days in Scotland ever since the 1560s. Several of these exercises in repentance and covenanting were means to the end of a firmer alliance between a Protestant state church and a monarchy (or civil state) susceptible to Catholic or more moderate tendencies. This was the purpose of the Negative, or King's, Confession of 1580/81, when the young James VI and most of the political class pledged never to allow “the usurped tyranny of the Roman Antichrist” to return to Scotland. John Knox had organized a similar event in 1565 at a moment when the political fortunes of Mary Stuart were on the mend. Knox had called on the General Assembly to institute a countrywide fast directed against “idolatry,” with the queen as its implied target. Responding to Knox's sense of crisis, this assembly endorsed a “reformation of manners” and “public fast” as the means of “avoiding of the plagues and scourges of God, which appeared to come upon the people for their sins and ingratitude.” Simultaneously, it urged the queen to suppress “the Mass” and other “such idolatry and Papistical ceremonies.”Less

Southern Religion Meets Modern Politics

Matthew T. Corrigan

in Race, Religion, and Economic Change in the Republican South: A Study of a Southern City

This chapter discusses how the rise of the Republicans has impacted on the difficult relationship between religion and politics in the South. The important political influence of conservative ... More

This chapter discusses how the rise of the Republicans has impacted on the difficult relationship between religion and politics in the South. The important political influence of conservative Protestant churches and Catholic churches in the Republican Party has helped to mobilize churchgoing whites. In general, African American voters still view their churches as sources of political guidance. Since religious beliefs are particularly intense and consistent, the increased political activity of white churches has added another dynamic to the relationship between whites and blacks in the South. Since the end of the Civil War, religious worship in Jacksonville has been a source of racial segregation. Churches are now sources of political segregation as well, with Democrats dominating black churches and Republicans attending white churches. This phenomenon adds another layer of political separation between blacks and whites. Although blacks and whites who regularly attend church agree on many social issues, there is stark disagreement relating to economic issues and national security. Thus, black and white churches are centers of organization for competing political parties.Less