Religion in the American Experience

American Religion: The Seventh-day Adventist Church

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion.

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Season 3, Episode 24: American Religion: The Seventh-day Adventist Church

Guest Bio

Dr. David Trim is the Director of the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research for the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. Born to missionary parents in Bombay, India, David was raised in Sydney, Australia, and educated in the United Kingdom. He has a BA from Newbold College and a PhD from King’s College London, University of London. For ten years he taught undergraduate courses in history and graduate courses in missiology at his alma mater, Newbold College, in England, and then for two years held the Walter C. Utt Chair of History at Pacific Union College in California. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 18 books, and has additionally published eighty scholarly articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is an adjunct professor of church history at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.

Background

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the few religions founded in the United States, coming into existence during the 19^th century’s Second Great Awakening. Today it has approximately a million members-plus in the United States and upwards of 21 million members outside the U.S. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world. On today’s episode we will explore the history of this home-grown American church, what its beliefs are, what roles it has played in the unfolding of the American project, and what roles it plays today on America’s dynamic religious landscape.

 

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Responds to "American Primeval"

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion.

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Season 3, Episode 23: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Responds to “American Primeval.”

Guest Bio

Dr. Matthew C. Godfrey is a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers and a senior historian in the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He holds a PhD in American and public history from Washington State University. Matt has authored or coedited several books, including five volumes in the Joseph Smith Papers, The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden: Essays on Mormon Environmental History, and Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921. Instagram handle: @matacious.

Background

On January 9th, 2025, Netflix released “American Primeval”, a series that uses the Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah as a lens to explore frictions between Latter-day Saints and other cultures in the Utah Territory during the latter half of the 19th century.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement addressing the series, which reads in part:

"A recently released streaming series presents a fictionalized interpretation of events in mid-19th century Utah. While historical fiction can be illuminating, this drama is dangerously misleading.

Brigham Young, a revered prophet and courageous pioneer, is, by any historical standard, egregiously mischaracterized as a villainous, violent fanatic. Other individuals and groups are also depicted in ways that reinforce stereotypes that are both inaccurate and harmful. As to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which the series inaccurately portrays as reflective of a whole faith group, the Church has long acknowledged and condemned this horrific tragedy. It has also taken significant steps to uncover and share the full truth of what happened and promote healing. The problem with such deceptive, graphic and sensationalized storytelling is that it not only obscures reality and hinders genuine understanding but can foster animosity, hate and even violence."

The National Museum of American Religion felt it important to provide an opportunity for the main subject in the series, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to share its understanding of the historical record around Brigham Young, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the church’s efforts to establish itself in the 19th-century Great Basin.

The Making of US: Lived Religion in America with Trey Ferguson

Welcome to another episode of “The Making of US: Lived Religion in America”, a subseries of the podcast “Religion in the American Experience.” In this subseries we explore the role religion has played in the lives of everyday Americans, reminding us that while religion exerts a significant influence on the events and movements of the American project, religions primary work and where it has the most influence, is in the everyday lives of adherents.

Today Trey Ferguson of Homestead, Florida and joins to tell us about his own religious history. You can see more about Trey here.

 

Religion in the American Experience is the podcast of The National Museum of American Religion. This private, digital-first museum explores what America has done to religion and what religion has done to America, which includes the establishment of religious freedom as a governing principle, defined by the Constitution's Article VI and First Amendment religion clauses.

Advice advice for podcast episodes is provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance is provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

The Women and Men of American Religion. Story 7: Dr. Betty Shabazz

Dr. Ali is an assistant professor of religion and politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University at St. Louis. Dr. Ali’s research interests include Islam and gender, race and religion, and Muslims in popular culture. Her first book, The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam was published in 2022 with NYU Press, and analyzes how American Muslim women negotiate the Islamic tradition to cultivate religious authority and build gender-equitable worship communities. She received her PhD in religious studies from Boston University in 2019. 

Pentecostalism and the American Religious Landscape: Part II

As part of our multi-episode series about Pentecostalism – a relatively unknown and perhaps misunderstood, fast growing, and very large part of Christianity, we will be talking with Darrin Rodgers and Ruthie Oberg from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri.

 

The Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC) is the largest Pentecostal archives in the world. Located in the National Office of the Assemblies of God USA, the FPHC collects printed materials, oral histories, artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia documenting the Assemblies of God and the broader Pentecostal and charismatic movements, spanning the globe. The FPHC has become an important hub for Pentecostal history and research, preserving and promoting Pentecostal testimonies and identity so that future generations can know the works of God. Countless church leaders, scholars, students, people in the pew, and other researchers have used its collections.

 

Darrin Rodgers is the director of the Center and has an M.A. in Theological Studies from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and a J.D. from the University of North Dakota School of Law. He came to the FPHC from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he served at the David du Plessis Archive and the McAlister Library. He has authored Northern Harvest, a history of Pentecostalism in North Dakota, and numerous articles in books and journals. His research interests include Pentecostal origins, ethnic aspects of Pentecostalism's development, and the intersection of Christianity and culture.

 

Ruthie Oberg is an events speaker with the Center and is an ordained Assemblies of God minister, having served in senior and associate pastoral roles for 25 years. Ruthie speaks at national conferences, local churches, has produced a daily radio program in the Omaha market. Her articles have appeared in the Pentecostal Evangel, Enrichment, Influence, and Assemblies of God Heritage, and she is a regular contributor to “This week in AG History” for AG News. She is also a past chair of the Library and Research Committee of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.

Religion and the Great Depression: Part IV

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American and personal family histories, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market losing 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting more than a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. At its worst one out of every four workers was unemployed. Farms went under with their former inhabitants leaving their homes seeking shelter, food, and work; poverty and want were everywhere. The emotional toll on millions was severe. Americans and America was traumatized and transformed.

 

For us the question is, in what ways did religion – one of the greatest and most ubiquitous forces in American history – react to the Great Depression? Understanding this will help us comprehend religion’s role in the American project, equipping us to be perpetuate and perfect it into the 21^st century.   

 

As part of our multi-episode series about religion in the Great Depression, Dr. Jonathan Ebel will share the story of New Deal government camps for migrant workers in California and what he calls “the religion of reform.”

 

Dr. Jonathan Ebel is a professor of religion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and has B.S. from Harvard. Professor Ebel's research program involves religion and war, religion and violence, and lay theologies of economic hardship all within the American context. He is the author of several books including From Dust They Came: Government Camps and the Religion of Reform in New Deal California, G.I. Messiahs: Soldiering, War, and American Civil Religion, Faith in the Fight: Religion and the American Soldier in the Great War, and is the co-editor of From Jeremiad to Jihad: Religion, Violence, and America. He is currently at work on a religious history of American warfare in five weapons.

Religion and the Great Depression: Part III

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American and personal family histories, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market losing 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting more than a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. At its worst one out of every four workers was unemployed. Farms went under with their former inhabitants leaving their homes seeking shelter, food, and work; poverty and want were everywhere. The emotional toll on millions was severe. Americans and America was traumatized and transformed.

 

For us the question is, in what ways did religion – one of the greatest and most ubiquitous forces in American history – react to the Great Depression? Understanding this will help us comprehend religion’s role in the American project, equipping us to be perpetuate and perfect it more successfully into the 21^st century.   

 

As part of our multi-episode series about religion in the Great Depression, Dr. Lisa Tait, Dr. Ben Park, and Dr. Matt Bowman are here to tell the story of how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded to and was changed by the Great Depression.

 

Dr. Lisa Olsen Tait works in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is a historian and writer specializing in women’s history. Dr. Tait received a PhD in American Literature and Women’s Studies at the University of Houston. Her dissertation and several subsequent publications are on Latter-day Saint women’s response to the gendered and generational crises of the 1890s. Dr. Tait’s long-term project is a biography of Susa Young Gates, one of Brigham Young’s daughters.

Dr. Benjamin Park is an associate professor of history at Same Houston State University where he studies the intersections between religion, culture, and politics in America, mostly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and often within a broader Atlantic context. He received a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. He has written several books including American Nationalisms: Conceiving Union in the Age of Revolutions, 1783-1833, Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier, and American Zion: A New History of Mormonism. Dr. Park currently serves as an associate editor of Mormon Studies Review.

Dr. Matthew Bowman is the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies, with a joint appointment in history and religion, at Claremont Graduate University. He received a PhD in American History from Georgetown University. Dr. Bowman is a specialist in American religious history, with particular interests in Mormonism, new religious movements, and the development of the concept of “religion” in the United States. He is the author or co-editor of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, Women and Mormonism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, and Christian: The Politics of a Word in America. Dr. Bowman is currently serving as co-editor of the University of Illinois Press series Introductions to Mormon Thought.

The Women and Men of American Religion. Story 6: Abraham Joshua Heschel

In this sub-series “The Women and Men of American Religion” we explore the women and men who, fueled in large part by their religion, have made significant and broad contributions to the American tapestry. This helps immensely in understanding better what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Previous episodes include Billy Graham, Elizabeth Seton, Joseph Smith, and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Today we will get to know the life and times of Abraham Joshua Heschel, perhaps best known by the American public as the rabbi who walked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King in the famous protest march in the spring of 1965. One renown scholar of American religion wrote this: “On college and university campuses, at Christian seminaries as well as Jewish rabbinical assemblies, at colloquies on race relations and in the corridors of power, he spoke on the sensitive and difficult problems of the day in the best tradition of the Western conscience and of its biblical roots.”

To help us do this, we have with us Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and chair of the Jewish Studies Program and a faculty member of the Religion Department.

Dr. Heschel received her A.B. at Trinity College and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship focuses on Jewish and Protestant thought during the 19th and 20th centuries, including the history of biblical scholarship, Jewish scholarship on Islam, and the history of anti-Semitism. Her numerous publications include Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, which won a National Jewish Book Award, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Heschel has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Frankfurt and Cape Town as well as Princeton, and she is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, and a yearlong Rockefeller fellowship at the National Humanities Center. She has received many honors, including the Mendelssohn Prize of the Leo Baeck Institute, and five honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Germany. Currently she is a Guggenheim Fellow and is writing a book on the history of European Jewish scholarship on Islam. She is an elected member of the American Society for the Study of Religion and the American Academy for Jewish Research. 

And, importantly, Susannah is the daughter of our subject - Abraham Joshua Heschel.

The Making of US: Lived Religion in America with Kathleen Wall

Another episode in the subseries "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America", our effort to document everyday Americans' religious histories. Today Kathleen Wall of Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico shares with us her own deep, rich personal religious history.

Religion and the Great Depression: Part II

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American history, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market lost 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. Unemployment soared, many lost hope, hunger stalked individuals and families, farms went under, long bread lines formed, people up and left their homes for a better place, and poverty skyrocketed.

For us, the question is, in what ways did religion – one of the greatest and most ubiquitous forces in our history – react to the Great Depression? Understanding this will help us better comprehend and perpetuate the American project, including the religion clauses in the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no longer law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof.”

As part of our multi-episode series about religion in the Great Depression, Dr. Randall Stephens is joining us to talk about the Protestant response to the Dust Bowl.

Dr. Randall J. Stephens is professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo. He previously taught at Northumbria University (Newcastle upon Tyne) and Eastern Nazarene College (Quincy, Massachusetts). He is a historian of religion, conservatism, the South, environmentalism, and popular culture and is the author of several books including The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South and The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll , (look for a “Religion in the American Experience” episode focused on this fascinating topic!) and was editor of Recent Themes in American Religious History. Specific to our discussion today, he is the author of an article that came out in the October 2023 issue of Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture: “The Dust Bowl, the Depression, and American Protestant Responses to Environmental Devastation.” In 2011-12, he was a Fulbright Roving Scholar in Norway. Dr. Stephens received his BA in History at Mid America Nazarene College and his PhD in American History from the University of Florida.