Religion in the American Experience

St. Luke's Historic Church and Museum

The oldest church in Virginia was built by the Anglicans in the late 17^th century near Portsmouth. In the 1950s President Dwight D. Eisenhower exchanged letters with the organization that was renovating it at the time of nearby Jamestown’s 350^th anniversary (1957), and called it a “national shrine.”

 

• https://stlukesmuseum.org/
• https://stlukesmuseum.org/edu-blog/letter-from-president-eisenhower-to-hsl/

 

Season 3, Episode 36 – St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum

 

Guest Bio

John Ericson is the Executive Director and Site Historian for St Luke's Historic Church & Museum in Smithfield Virginia. He produces a podcast about the early American religious experience called History from the Old Brick Church. Mr. Ericson has expertise in the history of the Established Church of England in the Colonies, as well in the dissenting groups such as Pilgrims (Brownists), Puritans, and Quakers. He has also studied how the Established Church sought to coerce the Indigenous and African populations in Virginia through the Brafferton and Bray Schools as well as through legislation.

 

Podcast Support

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.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the private, digital-first National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of how religion has shaped America and how America has shaped religion. This includes the establishment of religious freedom in the United States Constitution’s Article VI and Bill of Rights religion clauses.

American Religion: The Nation of Islam

Today we are going to pull on this thread of the American religious tapestry: The Nation of Islam, a 20^th century American religious movement brought to national consciousness by 1960s Black Power, Muhammad Ali and Malcom X, and which also has a deep and significant history with implications for 21^st century work in the public square. To do this, Joseph Stuart, an assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University and a well-known expert on Nation of Islam, has agreed to help.

 

Additional resources:

• Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration
• Ula Y. Taylor, The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam
• Edward Curtis IV, Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975
• Erdmann Doane Beynon, "The Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit"
• James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

 

Season 3, Episode 35 – American Religion: The Nation of Islam

 

Guest Bio

Dr. Joseph Stuart is a scholar of African American history, particularly of the relationship between race, masculinity, civil rights, and religion in twentieth-century Black Freedom Movements. He has a B.A. in American Studies from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Utah. His forthcoming book manuscript examines the Nation of Islam’s racial and masculine ideologies to understand how and why some Black American groups opposed integration in the mid-twentieth century United States. The project traces the Nation of Islam’s founding from its origins in Great Depression Detroit to its schism following the Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975 and its “restoration” under Louis Farrakhan.

Joseph's research has been published in academic journals and edited collections, including Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, American Quarterly, the Journal of Mormon History, and Religion & Politics. He is also a contributing research associate to the Century of Black Mormons Project. He has hosted and produced podcasts for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and the New Books Network.

 

Podcast Support

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.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the private, digital-first National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. This includes the establishment of religious freedom in the United States Constitution’s Article VI and Bill of Rights religion clauses.

Special Edition: The Antichrist in American History

On Sunday, September 28th Thomas Jacob Sanford drove his truck into a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan during their services. He opened fire with his gun killing two worshippers, then set the building on fire killing two more. Eight others were injured and the church was completely destroyed. He was killed in the parking lot by local law enforcement. Mr. Sanford, as reported by someone who talked with him earlier that week, believed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the “Antichrist.”

Where has the concept of “the Antichrist” appeared in American history and how can this help us understand what happened in Michigan?

 

Season 3, Episode 34 – Special Edition: The Antichrist in American History

 

Guest Bios

Dr. Matt Sutton is the Berry Family Distinguished Professor in the Liberal Arts at Washington State University and author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism. His new book Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity will be published in early 2026.

 

Dr. Christopher Blythe is assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University and, importantly, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

Both have expertise in Christian theology as it relates to the United States of America.

 

Podcast Support

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.

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

 

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated in November 1982, is located in Constitution Gardens just off the north-east corner of the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial is composed of two adjoining walls, which have inscribed on them the names of over 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam conflict. The walls taper from 8 inches tall at their extremities to over 10 feet tall at the apex where they meet, their bottom edges descending below the level of the surrounding earth while their top edges stay level. The memorial now includes the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, the Three Servicemen statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial and the In Memory plaque. It is one of the most visited war memorials in the United States and attracts more than 5 million visitors annually. We are interested in understanding the religious threads, if there be any, that are part of the fabric of this stunning and meaningful memorial.

 

Season 3, Episode 33 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

 

Guest Bio

Arnold E. Resnicoff was born in Washington, DC and attended Dartmouth College where he studied drama. Arnie then served a tour in Vietnam, including as part of "Operation Game Warden," the campaign to keep the rivers free of Viet Cong infiltrators. After the war he became a rabbi then a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, serving in that position for twenty-five years. Chaplain Resnicoff was part of the small group of veterans who worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, delivering the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. He was in Beirut on that fateful day when the Marine barracks were bombed on October 23^rd, 1983. His eyewitness report, written at the request of the White House, was read in full by President Ronald Reagan as a keynote speech to the 20,000 attendees of Jerry Falwell's "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention. Arnie was the first Jewish chaplain to attend the Naval War College, and the first chaplain of any faith to teach a course there (or at any military war college), "Faith and Force: Religion, War, and Peace." He served as Command Chaplain for the US European Command, the "top chaplain" for US chaplains of all faiths in all branches of the armed forces in all of Europe and most of Africa. Arnie has offered more prayers to open sessions of the House and Senate as guest chaplain than any other rabbi in history. After retirement from the Navy, he served as National Director for Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Special Assistant for Values and Vision to the Secretary and Chief-of-Staff of the U.S. Air Force, a position that carried with it the military equivalent rank of brigadier general. 

 

Arnie gave a prayer at the November 13, 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which you can watch here: https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-1982-vietnam-veterans-memorial-dedication-closing-prayer/3724411

Jim Knotts is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the nonprofit organization that built The Wall in 1982. He is an Air Force veteran of the Persian Gulf War and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. For the past 10 years, he has led the efforts at VVMF to honor the service and sacrifices of Vietnam veterans. Jim previously worked in industry at Lockheed Martin headquarters, where he was Director of Corporate Citizenship, including philanthropy and community outreach, and Director of Web Communications. During his almost ten years in the Air Force, his career spanned service in the Persian Gulf War, at the headquarters of U.S. Southern Command, and in the Pentagon on the Office of the Secretary of Defense Staff.

 

Podcast Support

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.

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

 

Religion and Rock 'n' Roll

Rock and Roll is a well-known musical genre in the United States and throughout the world. Many of us, including me, grew up with it and with the understanding that some adults, especially religious leaders, were at least wary of it (I was a teenager in the 80s). Needless to say, Rock and Roll is a solid part of the American narrative. On this episode we will explore the ways religion, specifically Christianity, interacted with it. This will be a fascinating tale.

 

Season 3, Episode 32: Religion and Rock n Rol

 

Guest Bio

Randall J. Stephens is professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo and 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. Dr. Stephens received his BA in History at Mid America Nazarene College and his PhD in American History from the University of Florida.

In the 1990s Randall was part of a band called Jetenderpaul. This is the AllMusic link to the band: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jetenderpaul-mn0000346797

 

Podcast Support

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.

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

Chaplaincy in America: Part 1

Chaplains– clergy attached to a secular institution including hospitals, prisons, embassies, schools, labor unions, police departments, fire departments, universities, intelligence agencies, airports, and military services - play a unique and meaningful role in the American landscape. These are ordained clergy who minister to members of the chaplain’s particular faith, to facilitate ministry to those of other faiths, and to care for all – including those who claim no religious faith. 

The first episode of this multi-episode series about chaplaincy in America beings with Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff discussing his career as a chaplain in the United States Navy, which intersected with important and meaningful events in the nation’s history.

 

Season 3, Episode 31: American Chaplaincy – Part 1

 

Guest Bio

Arnold E. Resnicoff was born in Washington, DC and attended Dartmouth College where he studied drama. Arnie then served a tour in Vietnam, including as part of "Operation Game Warden," the campaign to keep the rivers free of Viet Cong infiltrators. After the war he became a rabbi then a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, serving in that position for twenty-five years. Chaplain Resnicoff was part of the small group of veterans who worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, delivering the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. He was in Beirut on that fateful day when the Marine barracks were bombed on October 23rd 1983. His eyewitness report, written at the request of the White House, was read in full by President Ronald Reagan as a keynote speech to the 20,000 attendees of Jerry Falwell's "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention. Arnie was the first Jewish chaplain to attend the Naval War College, and the first chaplain of any faith to teach a course there (or at any military war college), "Faith and Force: Religion, War, and Peace." He served as Command Chaplain for the US European Command, the "top chaplain" for US chaplains of all faiths in all branches of the armed forces in all of Europe and most of Africa. Arnie has offered more prayers to open sessions of the House and Senate as guest chaplain than any other rabbi in history. After retirement from the Navy, he served as National Director for Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Special Assistant for Values and Vision to the Secretary and Chief-of-Staff of the U.S. Air Force, a position that carried with it the military equivalent rank of brigadier general. 

http://www.resnicoff.net/

Rabbi Resnicoff’s 1982 prayer at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Resnicoff’s report (and speech) to the White House about the Marine barracks bombing in 1983.

 

Podcast Support

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.

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

The Women and Men of American Religion. Story 8: Roger Williams

One hears the terms “religious liberty” or “religious freedom” quite often in today’s public square. What does it mean? Where did it come from? Who put it together? In today’s episode we get to know Roger Williams, who is an outsized figure in America’s idea of religious freedom, now established in the Constitution’s Article VI (no religious test for office) and the First Amendment’s religion clauses (free exercise and no establishment).

 

Season 3, Episode 30: The Women and Men of American Religion. Story 8: Roger Williams

 

Guest Bio

Dr. Carrington-Farmer is a Professor of History at Roger Williams University, where she specializes in early American History. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2010, and she has a keen research interest in dissent in seventeenth-century New England. Her book, Roger Williams and His World, sets Roger Williams in his wider Atlantic world context. She has published book chapters on two seventeenth-century dissenters, see: “Thomas Morton” in: Atlantic Lives: Biographies that Cross the Ocean and “Roger Williams and the Architecture of Religious Liberty,” in Law and Religion and the Liberal State. Building on her interest in Roger Williams, she has published an article on his wife, Mary Williams, entitled: “More than Roger’s Wife: Mary Williams and the Founding of Providence.” In the New England Quarterly.

Listeners are welcome to use the code ROGERWILLIAMS20 for 20% off their purchase from our website. Here is a link to the product page: https://broadviewpress.com/product/roger-williams-and-his-world/

The full interview can be found Full Interview. 

Podcast Support

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.

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

 

 

 

Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts

The country’s 250^th anniversary is almost here, and the National Museum of American Religion is working overtime to shed light on religion’s role in the founding of the American republic. One Christian denomination that looms large in the American founding is the Congregationalists of New England. The Congregational Library and Archives in Boston has put together an exhibit entitled “Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts” that tells their roles in the American Revolution.

Sacred Rebellion:

https://www.congregationallibrary.org/sacred-rebellion

The Congregational Library & Archives presents a new in-person exhibition, Sacred Rebellion: Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts. The exhibition highlights the stories of Massachusetts Congregationalists drawn from the CLA’s important collections. 

By the time the war began, many Congregationalists had embraced a theological justification for war and revolution. They believed that God favored them and that their cause was a morally justified, sacred rebellion. Through sermons, books, poems, songs, and letters, Congregationalists shared their stories, reflected on their moral obligations to each other, and debated questions of liberty and loyalty. But consensus was elusive, and implementation proved difficult and unsatisfactory to many, especially those on the margins. These discussions shaped the legacy of Congregationalism and the way the Revolutionary War is remembered today, 250 years later. 

Last year's digital exhibit, Religion of Revolution: https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/online-exhibits/revolution

Call For Papers for an upcoming symposium on religion at the Library that might be of interest to your listeners (deadline extended to June 1): https://www.congregationallibrary.org/religions-revolution-symposium

 

Season 3, Episode 29: Sacred Rebellion – Congregationalists in Revolutionary Massachusetts

 

Guest Bio

Kyle B. Roberts was appointed as the Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives in 2022. He received his BA in American Studies from Williams College and his PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a scholar of Atlantic World religion, print, and library history, and is the author of Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860 and the co-editor, with Stephen Schloesser, of Crossings and Dwellings: Restored Jesuits, Women Religious, American Experience 1814-2014. Kyle is an accomplished public historian and digital humanist whose collaborative projects include the Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project.

Tricia Peone is the Project Director of New England's Hidden Histories at the Congregational Library and Archives. She previously worked at Historic New England, where she was a research scholar for the Recovering New England’s Voices project. She has also previously worked as the public programs director at New Hampshire Humanities, a university lecturer teaching classes on the Salem witch trials, early New England, and public history, and as a researcher for cultural heritage organizations. Her scholarship focuses on early modern magic and witchcraft and her work on these subjects has appeared in journals, books, blogs, and on radio and television. She holds a PhD in history from the University of New Hampshire with a specialization in the early modern Atlantic world and history of science.

 

Podcast Support

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.

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

American Religion: Methodism

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 28: American Religion - Methodism

Guest Bio

Dr. Ashely Boggan is the General Secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Commission on Archives and History. In this role, she ensures that The UMC understands its past, in order to envision a more equitable future for all Methodists. Ashley earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History. Dr. Boggan is a lay member of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference and the daughter of two ordained United Methodist ministers. Her Methodist lineage dates beyond this, back to the early 19th century when her great-great-great grandfathers were Methodist circuit-riders. 

Background

Methodist churches are everywhere in the United States with their easily recognizable sign, the “Cross and Flame”. Methodism and those that are affiliated with it have influenced the country in profound ways. First arriving in the colonies in the decades before the Revolutionary War, Methodists and the American narrative are bound up together.

The Movie "Conclave" and Choosing a New Pope

In two days, on Wednesday, May 7, the Catholic Church will begin the conclave to choose the next pope. This episode is about that process. There are more than 50 million Catholics in the United States.

The film “Conclave”, released in the fall of 2024, features the Catholic church’s process of electing a new pope, which process is called a conclave. In the fictional movie, the cardinal in charge of this conclave finds himself investigating secrets and scandals about several of the Cardinals who were possibly close to becoming the next pope.

The response from the Catholic community has been mixed. John Mulderig of the Catholic OSV News said that "rival viewpoints within the church are caricatured with a broad brush ... and the deck is predictably stacked in favor of those who advocate change". He warned that "all moviegoers committed to the church's creeds will want to approach this earnest, visually engaging but manipulative—and sometimes sensationalist—production with caution".  On the other hand, the progressive National Catholic Reporter praised the film, calling it "a compelling and ecclesial call for a renewed spiritual stewardship characterized by humility, meekness, and, curiously, doubt".

In that spirit, we asked a church historian who has studied papal conclaves to share thoughts about the process of choosing a pope against the background of this movie.

We have invited Dr. Christopher Bellitto to discuss this with us. Dr. Bellitto is a medievalist, a church historian, and Professor of History at Kean University in Union, NJ, where he teaches courses in ancient and medieval history. He is a frequent public speaker and media commentator on church history and contemporary Catholicism. His book, Humility: the Secret History of a Lost Virtue, was published in 2023 and can be purchased here.

This is the second Religion in the American Experience episode responding to recent movies with a main focus on something religious. The other episode is an interview with a church historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who addressed American Primeval.