For Those With Eyes to See and Ears to Hear

Svend Akram White, who blogs over at Akram's Razor, recently published this article on responses to Barack Obama's recent speech. Thanks, Svend, for prophetic clarity in these times of fog and haze.

Scholar Jon Pahl also has some insightful points--a Holy Week meditation on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Ed Blum muses about prophets and politicians here.

God's Time

God's Time

"I've only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can't refuse it,
Didn't seek it, didn't choose it,
But it's up to me to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give an account if I abuse it,
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it."

Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays
(Be sure to check out Randal Jelks's forthcoming book on Mays. Click here to watch Jelks's February 19, 2008, lecture on Mays at the U. of Kansas. You may have to scroll down to find it.)

Knight is Right, Too

In the previous post I argued that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's denunciations of white power and white Christianity were right. In this post, I suggest that some of what Steve Knight observes about the Wright/Obama controversy is right on as well.



Steve blogs over at Knightopia and routinely has insightful posts and keen insight into the complexities of faith and culture. He is the co-founder and co-organizer of the Emergent Cohort in Charlotte, NC. Steve also arranged things for Brian McLaren's stop in Charlotte for his Everything Must Change tour.

On Monday, March 17, Steve and Anthony Smith (a.k.a. the "Postmodern Negro") taped a conversation--in the context of the Wright/Obama controversy--about the implicit whiteness that shapes and forms North American evangelical theology on the one hand, and on the other the imperative for white Christians to read deeply in black theology and literature and culture to understand, for example, why the Rev. Wright said what he said, and made the claims he made. Smith discusses key elements of how many African Americans see the church and the world and explains what an Afrocentric theology actually looks like. Knight discusses white privilege and how it plays out in politics and in the church, and suggests that white folks own up to the history of privilege, what it looks like today, and why a deconstruction of it matters. There's also a discussion of the black Jesus. These are simply a few highlights of the conversation; the entire discussion deserves a good listening.



In sum, Knight offers these thoughts: "The bottom line is: White Christians need to work harder to understand the history and complexity of the black church tradition and the role of prophetic voices (like Rev. Jeremiah Wright)."



I couldn't agree more. Like Wright, Knight is right.



[Update: read the text and watch Obama's Philadelphia "race" speech here, and check out Obama's discussion on the Tuesday episode of ABC's Nightline. Ed Gilbreath offers up some good commentary, as usual.]

[Photo credits here and here.]

Wright is Right

"The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority."


The Internet is abuzz with stories, columns, and musings about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments regarding the United States and 9/11, as well as his criticism of white America in the context of his support of Barack Obama. Some pundits are even calling the seasoned pastor and prophetic cleric a racist.


Denial and amnesia are unfortunate, and today seem to afflict the rich and the powerful. Truth telling and prophetic witnessing, yet again, scream from the margins. For those with ears to hear, and with eyes to see....

All of this is interesting in light of the attention Jeremiah Wright's jeremiads have gotten. Some of the saner, more illuminating posts on Wright come from historians Ralph Luker and Ed Blum (HT: Paul Harvey) and religious studies scholar Jonathan Walton. Diana Butler Bass also offers important thoughts over at God's Politics. Anthony Smith weighs in here, and antiracist activist Tim Wise clarifies matters, too. Jim Wallis crafts a customary illuminating response here, and Adam Taylor discusses the context of prophetic preaching here. And Ed Gilbreath muses about events here and here.

Wright's criticism of America--and indeed criticism of white America and white Christianity--not only took place in the context of a black church, but also is part of a long history of prophetic utterance and righteous indignation. Wright spoke the truth--and he did it with rage, and screaming, and with what we might call a performative utterance--but he spoke the truth that many still refuse to hear. And, the Christian church possesses the concepts and categories to work toward reconciliation, and this is one of the aims of Wright's church. Reconciliation can't come about without truth-telling, and truth-speaking--and truth-seeking.

Do you remember.....Richard Allen, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, David Walker, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Vernon Johns, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, James Baldwin, etc.? The list goes on and on.


Luker and Blum trace out the history of these folks, and Bass adds key thoughts to the retelling of this story (and Wise is his usual contrarian, prophetic self), but I would like to highlight the work of David Walker, a free black man deeply involved in the abolitionist movement and who worked in Boston at a second hand clothing store in the early 19th century. Famously, he published in 1829 An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World and shipped the pamphlet South. Word spread about Walker's Appeal, and it is to this document I appeal in 2008. It is simply one part of the history about which Luker, Blum, and others offer reflections.

Like Rev. Wright, Walker spoke in the context of the prophetic Christian tradition.

Here is Walker:
"Are we MEN! ! -- I ask you, 0 my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of Heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other Master but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? -- What right then, have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord, and we cannot precisely tell -- but I declare, we judge men by their works....The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority."

Jesus said that you can judge a tree by its fruit.

Walker continues: "Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: -- and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood? They must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction upon them. The Americans have got so fat on our blood and groans, that they have almost forgotten the God of armies...."

And finally:
"What nation under heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives us up into its hand? But Americans. I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men, and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible with God."

Indeed, nothing is impossible with God.

Read more from Walker's Appeal here.







And on a final note.....I don't remember where I read or heard this [Update: found it.], but I can't recall seeing or hearing anyone denouncing the inflammatory statements made by San Antonio minister the Rev. John Hagee, the fiery parson who recently endorsed John McCain. Hagee has thrown his full support behind the nation of Israel, and recently called for a U.S. invasion of Iran.



Once again, Wright is right.


[Photo credits here and here.]

The Unveiling: Free to Be Bound

Author, pastor, activist, and thinker and Rutba House member Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is the subject of a series of forthcoming posts. I first heard of Jonathan in 2005 when I came across his book about peacemaking in Iraq, and have seen his name in various places and have read his work ever since.




I was intrigued and interested when in early February I received word of his latest offering: Free to Be Bound: Church Across the Color Line.

Jonathan's work is not a "how-to" manual for race reconciliation, but an honest and open examination, exploration and critique of white privilege and white supremacy. He tells stories, sings and feels the blues, interprets the scriptures from refreshing and challenging angles, and offers his thoughts on the radical life that death can bring.

Part-memoir, part-manifesto, part-confession, and wholly prophetic, I read it last week, underlined a good portion of the book, made tons of comments and observations, and have a whole slew of questions. This book is quite important, controversial, well-written, readable, and worthy of much discussion and reflection.

I hope you will join us in the coming weeks as I interview Jonathan here at bald blogger. Pick up a copy of Free to Be Bound and leave your thoughts, comments, questions, and observations.

You may also want to check out some interviews with Jonathan and other assorted links here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

[Photo credit here.]

In Class with The Professor: W.E.B. Du Bois Teaching Workshop

In collaboration with Ed Blum and Eddie Carson, I will co-lead a teaching seminar on W.E.B. Du Bois in early April. I'm thrilled to be working alongside two wonderful people, two fine teachers, and two great friends.

Ed is coming to the University of Houston for a book talk (get your copy of Ed's book here) and we've put together a companion workshop for high school teachers, graduate students, and university faculty.

Hope you can make it. Check out the workshop website here.

I will podcast Ed's UH lecture and we'll probably record the teaching seminar as well. Look for links in future posts.

[Photo credit here.]

A King for Our Times

Around this time every year, as with many, King is on the mind. For many years the "I have a dream" mantra has dotted the airwaves and enveloped the history classroom. I sought to try to begin changing that a few years ago--at least in my classroom.

My students had already memorized a good part of the "dream" speech in their literature classes, so I introduced them first to the King who had a doctorate in theology. I then introduced a King who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 by having students read the speech. Discussions were interesting. This assignment preceded my reading of a few paragraphs of King's 1967 Vietnam War speech. The prophet was speaking, and speaking loudly and clearly, and he suffered for it.

Who is King for our times? A radical King, a prophetic King.

Harvard Sitkoff, a historian at the University of New Hampshire, just published a new biography that recollects--or resurrects--a radical and religious King who saw as part of the call to justice economic equality and antiwar activism.

And how is King remembered by some? Historian Andrew Manis published a short piece in 2005 titled "White America and the MLK Holiday." It is a penetrating article, and deserves to be read and re-read every January if not more frequently. A sampling of lines: "White America loves the colorblind King of 1963, but we studiously avoid the more radical King of 1968," and "King's birthday is a wonderful opportunity for the majority of white Americans to awake from our dreamworld."



While King's "I Have a Dream" speech is a profound and important oration, let us not forget his equally powerful and prophetic musings from the late 1960s.

It is here we may find a King for our times.

[Photo credit here.]

Christmas with Du Bois, ca. 1909-10

O Thou Incarnate Word of God to man, make us this Christmas night to realize Thy truth; We are not Christians because we profess Thy name and celebrate the ceremonies and idly reiterate the prayers of the church, but only in so far as we really comprehend and follow the Christ spirit- we must be poor and not rich, meek and not proud, merciful and not oppressors, peaceful and not warlike or quarrelsome. For the sake of the righteousness of our cause we must bow to persecution and reviling, and again and again turn the stricken cheek to the striker; and above all the cause of our neighbor must be to us dearer than our own cause. This is Christianity. God help us all to be Christians. Amen.

Luke 2:8-14

Christmas

--from W.E.B. Du Bois, Prayers for Dark People, ed. Herbert Aptheker (U. of Mass. Press, 1980), p. 63

[Photo credit here.]

"For unto us a child was born...in Harlem...in 1924...."

As this time of year is the season of birth(s) and beginnings, what some call Advent, or an all-out capitalist bonanza at the store of your choice, it is also a time to remember a death--the 20-year commemoration of the passing of James Baldwin.

Readers of this blog are already aware of my affection for St. James.

Democracy Now recently devoted part of a show to Baldwin's legacy, interviewing his sister-in-law Carole Weinstein as well as actor Calvin Levels, who is performing a one-man-show of James Baldwin called "James Baldwin: Down From the Mountaintop." Hopefully it will come to Houston. (Read a review here.)

As I reflect on the life of St. James, particularly during the Advent season, I'm drawn to the hope--critical, exacting, honest, and yes, prophetic--resident in Baldwin's writing, his plays, his speaking, and above all the hope evidenced by his living. And, in a sense, Baldwin's words, whether written or spoken, seem to never return void.

So take time during the holiday season to read something of Jimmy's--The Fire Next Time, Another Country, Nobody Knows My Name, or anything else that comes to mind. Share your reflections and thoughts--gift someone with Baldwin during the holidays.

Or, you can following Baldwin on-line. Watch a C-SPAN special here. Visit the blog of Professor Zero who has a page of Baldwin links. For those more familiar with Baldwin's work, there's tons to read here, or here. Or, read Baldwin quotes with links to other great sites.

Finally, artist Claire Burch has created some wonderfully stunning artwork with Baldwin as its subject, shares articles and letters, and offers poetic reflections on St. James as well--ironically titled "Arrival of James Baldwin; Mysterious Circumstances."

This is Advent with St. James.

[Photo credit here.]

Merry Chri$tma$ with Rev. Billy

If you've seen Super Size Me, then you will want to go see this documentary. It opens at the River Oaks theatre in Houston on Dec. 7. Check it out. Read some reviews of the film here.

(HT: Brands of Faith)

[Photo credit here.]

No Holiday for the Spiritual Marketplace: Religious Celebrities in H-Town

The elevation of Houston Archbishop Daniel DiNardo to the position of Cardinal this weekend has me thinking of religious celebrities.

CBS affiliate KHOU has a newstory here that features an interview with DiNardo's sister, a Houston resident. See DiNardo's Houston-Galveston Archdiocese bio here, newstories from Pittsburgh, the priest's old stomping grounds (read here also). Houston Chronicle religion reporter Tara Dooley blogs about DiNardo here, and writes about DiNardo here.

Some of my current research deals broadly with this topic, and it is interesting to note that Houston--the nation's 4th largest city--is quickly becoming a haven for religious celebrities. If we consider Texas more broadly--we might as well call it the Lone Star Spiritual Marketplace. Perhaps I'll compose another blogpost on the state later on, but in the meantime read Roy Spence's The Amazing Faith of Texas. Check out the book's website here.

If you know Houston, the first religious celebrity that comes to mind is probably Joel Osteen. There are other Protestant and Catholic religious celebrities, as well as prominent folks from other faith traditions.

These figures may or may not embrace the title "religious celebrity," but today's hyper-capitalist society influences and informs the performative aspects of just about everything. Plus, the separation of church and state, dating back to the 1790s, first created the possibility for a religious or spiritual marketplace.

Scholars have written about religious celebrity (read about Dr. Phil here, and Mother Theresa here, for example), and one of the people to read on this topic is Kathryn Lofton--whose own work deals with Oprah and spirituality. Read here, here, and here, too.

So, since there's no holiday for America's spiritual marketplace, pardon the pun, feel free to leave your $.02 worth about the topic. Also, who are some other religious celebrities in Houston, or Texas more broadly?

[Photo credit here.]

On Writing

During these days of dissertation writing, essay composition, and other projects of various kinds, writing is on my mind--and I feel it in my fingers, too. I'm also reminded of some advice I once received from one of my former philosophy professors: "good writing is re-writing."





Writing readable prose comes from reading good writers, and I've read enough dense, academic stuff to know that writing clearly and in an engaging way takes a lot of work. To this end, John Fea has an interesting post over at the Religion in American History blog on who the best writers are in American religious history. Cast your vote.





On a side note, any good books to suggest on the craft of writing itself? I understand Stephen King has a book out on writing, which sounds like an interesting read.

[Photo credit here.]

Christmas in October

Perhaps it is rather vain to offer up unsolicited Christmas wish lists, but I can't resist mentioning two items since W.E.B. Du Bois has been a consistent topic on bald blogging.

I'd love to have a W.E.B. Du Bois doll on my desk to watch me as I read and write. This plush little toy would also certainly be a great asset in the classroom as a teaching aide.

And why not wear a W.E.B. Du Bois t-shirt on a day when I lecture about him? Or perhaps wear it when I go for my daily run? I can hear the questions from fellow joggers: "Excuse me, but is that the American Prophet on your t-shirt, and the Black Radical Democrat from Massachusetts?" What a great way to strike up conversations about history.

Although these are products worthy to receive as gifts, and despite the fact that I've taken a humorous tone, I wonder what Du Bois would think about this kind of commidifcation?

It is an interesting thought.

Market Shares Yielding Dividends for Joel Osteen, or Reflections on America's Spiritual Marketplace

Joel Osteen's stock in America's religious economy is up and rising.

Today Osteen's second book hits the stores. A follow-up to his first book, Your Best Life Now, by all accounts Become a Better You will far surpass Osteen's first book in sales and influence. Time will tell, as will Osteen's media presence this week. He was on 60 Minutes Sunday evening, will be on Good Morning America three times this week, Larry King Live on Tuesday, and will make a few other appearances as well.

Osteen is for many a household name by now. The "smiling preacher" (a phrase coined by Washington Post writer Lois Romano) from Texas whose positive preaching impacts millions, inspires countless others, and as testimonials attest, transforms many, makes a case to replace Billy Graham as America's (and perhaps across the world) leading evangelical.

He has one best-selling book, and most likely two, a massive church with state of the art everything, a huge following, and a message that offers second chances to those who want a fresh start. In short, to use the title of psychologist Dan McAdams's recent book, Osteen provides individuals with the possibility of acquiring a redemptive self. Everyone has a story of struggle, a tale of despair--as well as an end to the story that results in victory or inspires hope. McAdams focuses on these sorts of stories to discuss the redemptive self.

Osteen masterfully fills his sermons with just these kinds of stories, assures listeners that God smiles on them with great favor, and provides a simple formula for life change: think right and speak right. One can transform one's circumstances by the power of positive thinking and by uttering change into existence. And his books offer scores and scores of practical ways to achieve the redemptive self--one key I think to understanding his immense popularity. America is a land of second chances, and Osteen offers all of that and more.

So, do market shares yield dividends in America's religious economy? I'll leave that one to the theologians and doctrinal specialists.

The study of Osteen deserves more than doctrinal websites that proclaim the smiling preacher as a heretic, and more than just sound bites from theologians not readily associated with Osteen's denominational history.

For historians and other interested scholars the rise and presence of Joel Osteen (or any other megaminister) offers an important subject of study as we all try to make sense of the increasingly diverse and unboundingly fascinating landscape of American religion. There's currently one book on offer about Osteen, but it mainly collates media reports and offers a somewhat thorough but largely uncritical perspective on America's most popular preacher. More work remains.

As I've indicated in other posts, I'm persuaded that one way to understand megaministers and megachurches is to use a marketplace approach to studying American religion. Popularized by the likes of sociologists of religion--and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke in particular--this approach more or less see churches as firms that offer religious goods and services to spiritual consumers. This is not as reductionistic as it sounds, nor am I necessarily proposing statistical understandings of religious firms and spiritual consumers, but suggesting a historically-grounded sociological analysis tempered with insights drawn from anthropology, media studies, ethnography, etc. Using multiple angles of analysis, with enough participant-observation, allows one to examine conceptions of sacred space, understand the lived religion of participants and members, explore the uses of media, intersections between religion and commodification, etc. Check out Shayne Lee's book on T.D. Jakes, or Mara Einstein's study on branding and religion to get a better sense of what I mean. Perhaps you may want to read up on some current projects underway related to Osteen as well.

So, what do you think are productive, helpful ways to study such contemporary religious figures? What other theoretical perspectives might scholars deploy in their analysis? Also, if you caught Osteen on 60 Minutes or see him on any other the other shows this week, let us know your thoughts and reflections.

UPDATE: Mara weighs in on Joel's 60 Minutes segment last night and points out key features of the segment while she offers keen thoughts on Osteen's marketing tactics.

Mara's post prompted this further reflection about how Osteen is answering his critics now: It dawned on me watching the interview that Joel is starting to answer his critics differently--and it makes all the sense in the world from a marketplace perspective. He challenges his critics by saying that he is fulfilling God's specific call with his specific message--in other words he's fitting into his market niche and perfecting his message for that particular niche. Osteen's critics charge him with having a hollow theology and lite preaching, but he counters by saying that he's not a theologian or a scripture scholar therefore that's not his thing. It follows then, Osteen seems to imply, that his critics miss the point of his message and ministry and therefore their criticisms don't pass muster.

[Photo credit here.]

New+Addition: A September to Remember

It seems hard to believe that I had a similar post about two years ago. Well, here's another.

Nathaniel Luke arrived last Thursday. Everyone is thrilled, and doing well, and my wife is an amazing woman. Nathaniel joins big brothers Matthew and Alex, and big sister Madeline.

Nathaniel is far too young to have his own blog, but a fine youngster named Will is already at it. Good work DEG!

"He watching over [us] slumbers not nor sleeps": Du Bois, Jena, and Friday Prayers

Many continue to stand in solidarity with those in Jena. I find encouragement from the spiritual musings of W.E.B. Du Bois, and so I offer these prayers (The page numbers below refer to this book].

Although they were written nearly a century ago, the words, ideas, and petitions that comprise these prayers—like so much of Du Bois’s work—remain as relevant and as salient as ever. This is further attestation to Du Bois’s role as an American prophet. As the liturgy says, “Lord, hear our prayers……”

1. A prayer for the Jena DA and other decision makers involved in the case:

Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease, or the words of men’s mouths, or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us—the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty—all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice and death. Mercifully grant to us, O God, the spirit of Esther, that we say, I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish—Amen. Esther 4:9-16 (p. 21)

2. Prayers for the Jena 6, their friends and families, and other persons who stand in solidarity with those who suffer injustice:

O Lord, teach us who love Liberty and long for it, to realize its cost and purpose. There can be no freedom in a just and good world, if freedom means to do as we please, when we please, and where all about us in this life, as in this school, lie bars and bonds and limits. The free are those who know the rules which God himself has set and go their way within these metes and bounds full freely. Truth is the knowledge of these strait and narrow ways. It is the Truth that makes us free and this it is we linger here to lean, O Lord. Amen. John 8: 31-36 (p. 52)

Once they tell us, Jehovah, that in the great shadows of the past Thou has whispered to a quivering people, saying, “Be not afraid.” He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps. Grant us today, O God, that fearlessness that rests on confidence in the ultimate rightness of things. Let us be afraid neither of mere physical hurt, nor of the unfashionableness of our color, nor of the unpopularity of our cause; let us turn toward the battle of life undismayed and above all when we have fought the good fight grant us to face the shadow of death with the same courage that has let us live. Amen. Psalm 121 (p. 57)

It is my hope that these prayers offer solace, meaning, and encouragement for those who happen to read or recite them—as it is my prayer that these petitions will help achieve justice.

Lord, hear our prayers.

So the Blind Will See: Blackout for Justice

Get the banner here

[HT: AP, FH]

Read more here and here. This reflection is important, too.

Weekend Reading for the Soul

Some reading from around the web....The Amish who suffered great loss last year are now offering support for the widow of the man who killed members of their community. (See my previous post on the event here.) And Daniel Bell argues here that Jesus and justice are inseparable. (HT: SM)

I'm amazed, encouraged, and inspired by the Amish, and Bell makes a cogent case for the necessity of action, engagement, and solidarity. Any thoughts?

NEW: Sign a Jena 6 Civil Rights petiton here. For more on the story read this article, and visit the Free the Jena6 website here.

In other news, Mara shares a few thoughts from her forthcoming book. Check it out here.

Baldblogger Interviews Edward J. Blum, Part 7

This post, unfortunately, brings us to the end of Baldblogger's interview with Ed Blum. The book was a fascinating read for me personally, and I learned a ton about Du Bois. This interview, I must say, has been in so many ways equally enlightening.

A special thanks to Ed for sharing his thoughts and his time--please keep the conversation going. I think the comments about music and writing are really intriguing; what tunes inspire you?


Baldblogger (BB): What projects are currently in the works for you, and when might these works be available for interested readers?

Ed Blum (EB): Future projects are always hard to determine because I’m never quite sure where my passion will go. Right now, I’m writing a book with the fantastic southern historian Paul Harvey on Jesus Christ and race in American society and culture. It examines how ideas about Jesus and what he looked like played a role in everything from slavery and Native American removals to white flight, suburbanization, and anti-Communism. It also looks closely at how African Americans, Native Americans, and others have related to Christ in American history. We’re building off of Stephen Prothero’s, Richard Wrightman Fox’s, and Kelly Brown Douglas’s tremendous studies of Jesus in American culture. Ultimately, we want to show scholars, ministers, laypeople, and others that race and religion cannot be understood separately in American history. This won’t be available for a while because it is a pretty mammoth topic.

BB: Any closing comments, or other topics of discussion?

EB: One thing I wish more authors would talk about is what music they listen to (if they listen to any) when they write. Many books and chapters have soundtracks – and they inspire the shape of the work, I think. For my Du Bois book, for instance, I was inspired by “Redemption” a song by the band Jars of Clay for my fourth chapter on lynchings and black Christs. Oftentimes I listen to movie soundtracks to write as well – like A Beautiful Mind. I find this fascinating because I think writing prose is very similar to writing music – that one should try to write musically, to hear the rhythm of the syllables, to groove to the spirit of narrative. I guess I hope that people can hear a little bit of music in my writing.

Thanks so much for your questions. This has been a blast.

Embracing the Struggle: Antiracism Workshop

Althought I have not had a chance to visit the center, nor has my schedule thus far allowed me to attend and participate in a workshop (one day soon!), from what I've read about the Center for the Healing of Racism in Houston they always engage in important work. Read the center's goals and aims here.

For those Houstonians and other interested parties the center has a workshop this Saturday during which they will discuss Barbara Trepagnier's book Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide. Read more about Dr. Trepagnier here and call 713.520.8226 or email cfhr1 [AT] juno.com. (That's the number "1".) [I have a pdf file of the workshop announcement, but Blogger only lets you post images.]

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the workshop, and I only just recently heard of Barbara. Perhaps when I have a chance to read the book I'll draft some posts about it. Stay tuned.

Baldblogger Interviews Edward J. Blum, Part 6

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With the first week of classes at many colleges and schools this week, it is only appropriate that the conversation shift to teaching. Not only does Blum's work chart new historiographical territory, it also promises to refashion the pedagogical landscape. Feel free to share your own thoughts on teaching Du Bois or related topics; think of it as an on-line inservice.

Baldblogger (BB): I’d like to shift the discussion from research to teaching. Some may or may not know that you won a teaching award as a graduate student, and your recent profile on History News Network commented about pedagogy. Can you discuss your teaching philosophy? How important is the relationship between a scholar’s research/writing and his/her teaching? Why?

Ed Blum (EB): I see very little different between my teaching and my research. I teach what I research; I research what I teach. I find that students love it in discussions of the reading for a week what I have found in the archives, or what my reading of primary documents says about a topic. For example, when I teach about the nineteenth century, my students find it fascinating that by 1900 there were whites in America who claimed that African Americans did not have “souls.” And then when I remind them about Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk you can see a collective ‘ohhh’ moment in the class. That is exhilarating. Also, I feel that if I can articulate my ideas to an undergraduate class, then I can write it for other historians. So I see very little divide between teaching and research.

My teaching philosophy is built around the imagination. I want my students to be able to imagine the past – how it felt, how it smelled, how it looked, what they would have thought. And this process of imagination becomes really complicated when they try to put themselves in the positions of very different people. How did the slave market look to a buyer? How did it look to a slave? How about to a poor white woman outside of New Orleans? Getting students to feel the time and the conflict, that is what is most important to me. For this reason, I use a whole mess of approaches. We use music; we’ll have food; we have debates and historical simulations. I often have my students find their own primary documents (so they go and find any responses to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and see what they think). That’s the fun stuff to me.

The best historical simulation we do is of an abolitionist convention. Students research different abolitionists (like William Lloyd Garrison, the Tappan brothers, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lydia Maria Child, Sojourner Truth, etc) and then come to class to form a new organization. At first, everyone agrees about the basics (that slavery is bad; that the South is a problem). But then things get messy. Usually it involves issues of gender – and those who worked on Stanton get infuriated that there is not more attention to women’s rights. Then the issue of violence comes up and no one can agree on anything. By the end, the group is usually ready to divide along various lines, which is pretty much what happened over and over again. The lesson: being a reformer is hard.

BB: Can you provide 1 or 2 examples of this relationship from your own teaching career?

EB: My best experience with students thus far was with two undergraduates at Kean University. For one summer, I had two research assistants – Katherine Kennedy and Danielle LaPorte. We would trek over to Rutgers University, sit down at our respective microfilm machines, and look at everything Du Bois. It was a blast talking with them about what they were finding. They read a few biographies of Du Bois and then printed out anything they found interesting from The Crisis, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that he edited from 1910 to 1934. Watching them “do history” was just so much fun. Their research was so helpful for my book as well.

BB: You are a member of what cultural commentators Generation X (as am I), and while the technological dimensions of our childhood weren’t filled with cell phones and iPods but VCRs, CDs, and slow bulky PCs without and Internet connection (!) education specialists seem to talk incessantly about today’s visual generation—and the importance of visual literacy. Yet other specialists insist that pedagogical processes must also include more “traditional” forms of teaching. In light of these generational dynamics and pedagogical concerns what are some of the most effective strategies for teaching history? Why?

EB: I’m not against the use of technology – of videos or of music in the classroom. If they could make historical video games I would probably use them. So in that sense I’m definitely a part of Generation X. But I also love a good lecture; there are some lecturers – like Leon Litwack or Mark W. Summers – who can hold a crowd spellbound. They don’t need fancy technology; they just have great historical yarns, jokes, and stories that illuminate an era. I guess I try to do both.

BB: How do you teach Du Bois? Did writing W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet prompt you to revise how you teach him in any significant way(s)?

EB: When I teach about Du Bois, it is always in the context of other topics, such as slavery or Reconstruction, or white supremacist theology, or the Civil Rights Movement. I typically use Du Bois as an example of the various ways that African Americans resisted oppression. Or I discuss him as an example of how white supremacy affects everything. When Du Bois received his PhD, he was one of the most highly educated and accomplished young academics in the United States; and yet no white university would hire him. Students tend to find that interesting. It is a part of racism that is less abhorrent than something like lynching, but seems to get students where they are at--potential job applicants.

BB: In your experience, how have students responded to Du Bois?

EB: Students have a tough time reading and relating to Du Bois, I have found. They find his prose, especially The Souls of Black Folk and Darkwater to be too Victorian. They often don’t get his allusions – whether to ancient mythologies or Shakespeare. But they do tend to get his religious allusions better than many academics. My students can usually identify that something “comes from the Bible” – they just usually don’t know where.

BB: What are some of the key Du Bois works with which students may begin to engage this important historical thinker?

It depends on what the class is for. If it is an African American history class, then the best work to read of Du Bois’s is Darkwater. It has him at his best and most critical in many ways. If the class is on religion, then his Prayers for Dark People will be lots of fun (and affordable). If the class is on gender and race, then his novel Dark Princess could be very interesting, because it has a messianic union between an African American and an Indian Princess. For a basic US history class, sections of Black Reconstruction are just fantastic, particularly the end about the “propaganda of history.” For world history classes, one could use The World and Africa which was a fantastic primer on world and African history.

[Photo from UMass-Amherst Digital Du Bois archive.]

Who is Your Teacher?

Here at Baldblogging I devoted much of the time this summer to W.E.B. Du Bois, so why not begin the semster and school year with the Professor? I offer prayers for both students and faculty from Prayers for Dark People, a collection of Du Bois's spiritual petitions written for students at Atlanta University around 1909-10. (Posted here also.)

"Let us remember, O God, that our religion in life is expressed in our work, and therefore in this school [Atlanta University] it is shown in the way we conquer our studies—not entirely in our marks but in the honesty of our endeavour, the thoroughness of our accomplishment and the singleness and purity of our purpose. In school life there is but one unforgivable sin and that is to know how to study and to be able to study, and then to waste and throw away God’s time and opportunity. From this blasphemy deliver us all, O God. Amen” (p. 33).

"God bless all schools and forward the great work of education for which we stand. Arouse within us and within our land a deep realization of the seriousness of our problem of training children. On them rests the future work and throught and sentiment and goodness of the world. If here and elsewhere we train the lazy and shallow, the self-indulgent and the frivolous--if we destroy reason and religion and do not rebuild, help us, O God, to realize how heavy is our responsibility and how great the cost. The school of today is the world of tomorrow and today and tomorrow are Thine, O God. Amen (I Samuel 16:6-12)" (p. 53).

Best wishes for a productive and successful semester and year!

[Photo from UMass-Amherst Digital Archive.]

Religion and Politics: A History, Part 2

As hoped from a previous post, the folks at Get Religion and Religion in American History commented about the recent special that discussed Billy Graham and his relationship to the White House. Read here and here to join the conversation.

And speaking of religion and politics, the fine radio program Speaking of Faith recently did a show on Aimee Semple McPherson, whose conservative politics historian Matthew Avery Sutton fascinatingly details in his new book. (HT: Paul Harvey/Art Remillard)

Baldblogger Interviews Edward J. Blum, Part 5

Today's segment from my interview with Ed Blum--along with subsequent segments--moves into more of the history behind his Du Bois book, teaching, and where and how Du Bois can fit into pedagogy.

Baldblogger (BB): Can you discuss a bit of the history of writing W.E.B. Du Bois, American Prophet, in short the evolution of this project? When did you start? How long did it take? To what archives did you travel? Did you travel to Ghana at all during the course of this book?

Ed Blum (EB): W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet began on the plane from Lexington, Kentucky, to Boston, Massachusetts, in the fall of 2002. I was heading to the Harvard Divinity School for a job interview and I knew that they would want to know what the next project was. At the time, I was about 2/3 of the way through my dissertation and had a list of 20 “next” projects (things like a biography of Dwight Moody or a study of religion and the abolitionist movement). But none of those felt right – and I was thinking in terms of what folks at Harvard would want to hear. So I came up with a religious biography of Du Bois, since his connection to Harvard was so important. I knew that David Lewis had won the Pulitzer Prize for his first biography of Du Bois and I knew that Lewis did not take religion seriously in it. During my interview, the good people of the divinity school seemed very excited about the project (this was proof to me that it was worthwhile). So as I finished the dissertation I started reading everything Du Bois, which is a lot.

I spent the first several years just reading everything that Du Bois published and that was published about him. Sadly, I don’t think anyone could ever read everything published about Du Bois--there is a ton of it. This early work didn’t take me to any archives, but it did bring me to a lot of out-of-print books. I have found that librarians, particularly interlibrary loan libraries, are crucial for researching historians. I would click on this book or that pamphlet and low and behold two weeks later it would arrive. Some of the stuff I found was fascinating. An MA thesis from an African American scholar who had met Du Bois and decided to write a poem about him; the eulogy that Reverend William Howard Melish gave in Africa in 1963; a copy of The Souls of Black Folk with extra poems written on the sides.

In 2005 I hit Du Bois’s personal papers, which are on microfilm, at Rutgers University. This was done in tandem with two research assistants – Danielle LaPorte and Katherine Kennedy. They read through 30 years of The Crisis, the national organ for the NAACP, while I combed through Du Bois’s personal writings. Personal papers are a hoot. You find all types of crazy things. I remember when working on my dissertation I went to New Haven to search through the Dwight Moody papers and I found all of these sermon outlines; they were literally a dozen words from which Moody would give his sermon. Sometimes, I could match the sermon later printed in the newspaper with the outline. That was cool. Only once did I ever have the hankering to take something from an archive and that is when I found Confederate money in a minister’s papers at Princeton. I don’t know why, but the devil inside said ‘oh no one will care if it’s missing.’ Of course, that’s no reason to steal. And, what the hell did I really want with Confederate money anyway?

I did not travel to Ghana, sadly, in part because of time, in part because of finances. I imagine that another scholar will find a treasure trove of materials there relating to responses to Du Bois at the end of his life. My bet would be they will find more spiritual reflections about his life and times.

So I worked on Du Bois non stop from 2002 to 2007. My dissertation research, which was from 1999 to 2002, informed a good deal of the study as well. One thing I didn’t do, which David Lewis and others have done, is interview those who knew Du Bois. There are lots of reasons that I did not, but the main one is that I wanted to know how people understood Du Bois in his historical moments, and I found plenty of material on that from the eras of his life.

BB: For interested readers unable travel to archives, what are some of the best on-line sources/resources if one wishes to study about Du Bois and read his work?

EB: The best place to find online resources about Du Bois is at the library webpage of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There, one can find a ton of stuff, including digitized photos of Du Bois, his friends, family, and other material. They also have a ton of digitized articles and books from him.

[BB: other on-line resources include The W.E.B. Du Bois Virtual University, Professor Robert Williams's fabulous repository of Du Bois resources, the resources page at the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass-Amherst, Dr. Steven Hale's Du Bois on-line selections, resources from the Documenting the American South project, the Perspectives in American Literature (PAL) page, the reading room at Harvard's Du Bois Institute, documents from the FBI files of Du Bois (though redacted), Du Bois's New York Times featured author page (subscription required), the e-project at the University of Virginia Library (scroll down for Du Bois), and in other various places Paul Harvey points out.]

NEW: I meant to post this initially, but forgot. Richard Rath, a historian who does sensory history among other things, teaches at the U. of Hawaii and with some students developed a kind of soundtrack to Souls of Black Folk. It is amazingly cool, and a helpful resource in teaching. Check it out here and let us know what you think.

[Photo from UMass-Amherst Digitial Du Bois]

Baldblogger Interviews Edward J. Blum, Part 4

Baldblogger (BB): You devote a whole chapter to Du Bois’s masterful Souls of Black Folk. Briefly, why does this book deserve its own chapter?

Ed Blum (EB:) Souls of Black Folk is such an important work for a variety of reasons. First, it is with that work that Du Bois established himself as a public intellectual. That was the book that catapulted him from a fine scholar to an internationally-renowned scholar. It was reviewed in newspapers and journals throughout the United States and Great Britain, and I found that it had a huge readership. In the hundred years since its publication in 1903, moreover, the book has continued to be read and thought about. [BB: for more on this point, see this book.] Much of my book focuses on how people read and understood Du Bois – so this was a great work for that. It is also the place where Du Bois pioneered a new type of scholarly writing – an interdisciplinary approach, where he mixed history, sociology, personal reflections, poetry, music, and anthropology. Finally, Souls of Black Folk was a perfect example of how scholars had missed the boat by ignoring religion. The title, particularly the word souls, was crucial. It seemed evident that Du Bois was trying to write about something deeper than just lived reality; he wanted to write about the souls of African Americans, the parts of them that could connect with the divine. And this title stood in direct opposition to white supremacist arguments of the time that black people did not have souls.

BB: In chapter 3 (and Reforging) you answer your own call to examine the religious dimensions of the construction of whiteness. In this chapter you show how Du Bois understood white supremacy in theological terms, and where and why this theology had dire economic consequences. You also make a key point here about Du Bois’s relationship to Marxism, since by definition orthodox Marxism has no room for religion. I wonder if you could elaborate on this point, or perhaps connect this question to the question below about chapter 4?

EB: Du Bois was certainly influenced by Karl Marx in the early twentieth century. He was also deeply moved by the Communist experiments in the Soviet Union and China. This has often been used to suggest that Du Bois was anti-religious, as much of the Communist experiments were. But Du Bois was never a dogmatic reader. He did not follow everything that Marx or Lenin or Mao wrote. Du Bois took from them what he thought applicable and left what he found incidental. For instance, Marx’s comments about religion are not really central to his political aims. What Du Bois wanted was an organized economy. He wanted the best and brightest minds to come together and plan the economy – so that if people were starving, they could be sent food; if people were homeless, they could be built homes; if people needed jobs, they could found. This is what socialism meant to Du Bois. The question, then, becomes from where does this spirit of change come. Du Bois had no problem arguing that a true interpretation of religion and Christianity would lead people to this kind of political economy. So Du Bois was a religious socialist, and this was very common in the United States.

On the issue of whiteness, I think it is critical that we recognize, as Du Bois did, the importance of religious ideas for it. Being “white” in the United States is more than just having greater access to wealth or more opportunities in education; it is a subtle, psychological connection to the sacred, to God. There is a reason that Jesus and the biblical heroes are almost always depicted as white in American culture. Heck, even Simon the Cyrene is not black in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. [BB: Read this book and this commentary for works that address, to some extent, race and Gibson's movie, and watch this for a direct challenge to a white, European Jesus. See my brief reflections about Color of the Cross here and here. Also relevant is Callahan's The Talking Book. See my thoughts here. Finally, check this out.] By associating whiteness with godliness, American society can accept slavery, segregation, high incarceration rates of African Americans, etc. For Du Bois, the only way we could overcome this connection was to first be aware of it and then chose to dismantle it. That is why I write so much about the connection between whiteness and godliness.

BB: In your chapter on literature, violence, and redemption (ch. 4), you intriguingly explore Du Bois’s literary productions and the deft ways he dramatizes violence using religious categories. In these stories Du Bois’s reverses the status quo of the time and therefore seemingly reflects a kind of redemptive hope. On this account, what are 2 or 3 of Du Bois’s most important creative, literary works and why?

EB: The best place to start for Du Bois’s stories of violence and religion would be in Darkwater. There, he has a short story entitled “Jesus Christ in Texas.” It’s just marvelous. Basically, it asks what would happen if a Jewish Jesus showed up in 1915 in Waco, Texas. Also in Darkwater there are some poems that are great to read: “A Litany at Atlanta” is powerful and so is “The Gospel According to Mary Brown.” [BB: See also the powerful "The Souls of White Folk."] Only the truly committed should delve into Du Bois’s novels. They can be a little boring at times.

BB: To what extent are these creative writings applicable, or instructive, for contemporary American society? In your experience, do students seem to make these sorts of connections?

EB: Du Bois always depicted issues of race and racism, international warfare and imperialism, and material greed and graft as moral issues. He saw religion as intimately connected to discrimination, to national wars, and to business abuses. Basically, Du Bois claimed that the religion of a people either impels it to justice or away from it. His attacks upon imperialism, for example, could be heard today in terms of the war in Iraq. This is the reason I began the book with this prayer from him: “Give us in our day, O God, to see the fulfillment of Thy vision of Peace. May these young people grow to despise false ideals of conquest and empire and all the tinsel of war. May we strive to replace force with justice and armies of murder with armies of relief. May we believe in Peace among all nations as a present practical creed and count love for our country as love and not hate for our fellow men. Amen.”

My students very easily make the connections between what Du Bois said then and what we live in now. They see the link between past white claims that African Americans did not have souls with the current focus on white children when they are kidnapped (and the lack of attention to black children). They also see how materialism – buying more and more stuff – does not fuel one spiritually, a point that Du Bois made over and over again.

BB: From your discussion of Du Bois’s relationship to Communism (ch. 5), in many ways he appears more religious in the later years of his life, particularly leading up to his move to Ghana and after he became a member of the Party. Why is this the case?

EB: The conventional wisdom on Du Bois is that in his later years he really abandoned religion. But if you read any of his poems, any of his political speeches, or his final autobiography, it appears evident that religious ideas were on his mind just about all the time. I think, in part, he was responding to the hyper-Christian nationalism that emerged after WWII in the United States that painted everything American as godly and everything socialistic as evil. Du Bois tried to fight fire with fire, but he was certainly in the minority. This should not, however, make us see him as antireligious. He was anti the particular brand of American religion after WWII, the kind that wrapped itself in the American flag, in McCarthyism, in militancy, and in materialism.

[Photo from UMass Digital Archive; Du Bois in Moscow, ca. 1958)

Politics and Religion: A History

In my hometown newspaper, just read in the religion section about a documentary scheduled to air next Friday on ABC: "Pastor to Power: Billy Graham and the Presidents." It appears based on the new book by Time writers Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy titled The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House.


No doubt it'll be an interesting show, though Randall Balmer's documentary on Graham is a good one. Wonder what Rice University sociologist William Martin has to say, since he has one of the most important biographies on Graham. Surely the folks at Get Religion will offer their insights on the show, as I hope will the contributors to Religion in American History.

Teaching: The Art of Learning

Just about to finish up teaching my first upper-level undergraduate course: American Religious History. Given that American religion is my primary area of training in my doctoral work, this class has been loads of fun to teach, and made more enjoyable with discussion-oriented students. It is a small class, so the dynamics are certainly different than if there were, say, 40-50 students. Unfortunately, as a summer school class everything seems shorter.

In prepping for lectures, and, in general, conducting research for teaching, I want to offer thoughts on several resources, and throw it open for discussion.

I opted for a thematic approach overall, focusing mainly on the variety of religious experiences in America's past (students read Robert Orsi the first week, for instance), while the course moved chronologically. I assigned Patrick Allitt's reader, Stout's biography on Whitefield, the much-loved Kingdom of Matthias, and one of my favorite books, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. For general background to the course I also assigned Buter, Wacker, Balmer, Religion in American Life: A Short History. In addition, two Du Bois essays came from this volume, and I assigned a few documents from Harvey and Goff's excellent reader on contemporary American religion.

Having recently read Stephen Prothero's newest book on religious literacy, and being more or less convinced of his arguments, I set out to (unscientifically) test his thesis by giving my students the first night of class his suggested religious literacy quiz. Students seemed to know more than I expected, but some of the things I thought they'd know they didn't. It was an interesting exercise, and prompted much fruitful discussion. Before taking the quiz, I had students read his Christian Science Monitor essay and then I spoke briefly about the book.

In prepping for my lecture on Islam in American religion (focusing mainly on the 18th and 19th centuries), I found several chapters in Michael Gomez's amazing Black Crescent absolutely indispensable. Gomez has done an amazing amount of archival work here, and it is a must read if you want to make key transatlantic connections for classes that deal with American or Atlantic history.

Since the class was two nights per week and went from 6-10, I broke the class up between lecture, discussion, and some form of media--either music, movie clips, or documentary segments. I showed clips from the movie Glory and Gods and Generals to highlight black and white religion during particular moments of the 19th century, for example, as well as scenes depicting Malcolm X's religious conversion from Spike Lee's important joint, while I showed segments from the new documentaries Sister Aimee, The Mormons (read more about it here) and Jonestown. I was slightly over a year old when Jonestown happened, so for those of you who have seen this documentary and remember how this event was reported at the time, feel free to offer comparisons for us in the comments. How many people know, apparently, that Jim Jones began his public career preaching racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s, and, according to the documentary, he and his wife were the first people to adopt interracial in the state of Indiana? Interesting.

I also showed several chapters from Briars in the Cottonpatch: The Story of Koinonia Farm, which prompted significant discussion. I wanted to get to the new film about the most famous hippie-for-Jesus you've never heard of, but really didn't have time. Each of these resources provided for great discussion.

In addition to students turning and presenting briefly their research papers, we will discuss megachurches and other dimensions of contemporary American religion in the final class meeting.

Feel free to chime in, and offer your own thoughts or resources on/for teaching American religious history.