The Christian Past That Wasn't: Formerly Telling Jefferson Lies
Season Three is coming. I am renaming the podcast The Christian Past That Wasn't to be consistent with the forthcoming book from Broadleaf Books, The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History. This is so much more than a fact-checking book; it critiques the entire Christian nationalist project and misuse of history for political gain. Consistent with the first two seasons of this podcast, The Christian Past That Wasn't demonstrates that separation of church and state was the intention of the framers of the charter documents. We would be so much better off if we stayed true to separation of church and state in the US.
Podcast episodes will focus on themes covered by the book and will begin in the Spring. Watch for trailers coming soon!
Season Two is complete!
Telling Jefferson Lies chronicles how history can be hijacked for ideological and political purposes, as well as a much broader story about the surge of Christian nationalism and the misuse of history which often goes along with it. The series begins with an in-depth consideration of the methods of Christian nationalist story teller David Barton. Then I tell the story of how his book on Jefferson was pulled from publication in 2012 and the response of evangelicals to that rare event. From there, I broaden the scope to examine the varieties of Christian nationalism and the negative consequences of this way of thinking about church and state. The last segment examines the reasons why the separation of church and state is good history, good civics, and good religion.
For more information, go to http://www.gettingjeffersonright.com.
The Christian Past That Wasn't: Formerly Telling Jefferson Lies
The Value of Religious Freedom: An Interview with Roger Finke
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Roger Finke is distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and international affairs at Penn State University. Roger is also the founder of the Association of Religion Data Archives, which is an online archive of the best religion data available, a standard research tool for social scientists. He is the author of several books including the subject of today's interview: The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century (2011) co-authored with Brian Grim.
In this book, Grim and Finke found that as religious freedoms are denied in a society, both by government and by social groups within a society, religious persecution increases. Given the quasi-establishments of evangelical Christianity developing throughout the land, it is important to be aware of the potential consequences of these church-state alliances.
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) - www.thearda.com. The co-directors are Andrew Whitehead and Christopher Bader. Regular listeners will recall my interview with Andrew in episode 5.
Music provided by Earl's Taco Shack and Jonus Fair.
Artwork provided by Sarah Eshelman
Produced and hosted by Warren Throckmorton
The series will be on hold throughout the remainder of August while I complete The Christian Past That Wasn't, due out next year. You can pre-order it anywhere books are sold. The Amazon link is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FCCCP71V
The next episode will post sometime in September. Thanks for listening!