Christmas Tragedy, Christmas Travesty

All quarter long we’ve been talking about politics, Christianity, and American culture. We’ve also talked a lot about what it means to be a Christian living in America–definitely a multi-faceted conundrum.
Here are some of the questions I’ve started to think about as a result of our studies: How different would my Christianity look in another [...]

Left Behind Foreign Policy?

When I was in high school I started reading the Left Behind Series and I have to say I enjoyed the books.  Jerry Jenkins was very good at creating an action packed and entertaining dialogue of characters.  These books depicted a small band of Christians, who are living in a post-resurrection world, that are fighting [...]

New Frontiers

The original Maverick wasn’t a fighter pilot. He was a cowboy.
Who is the tall dark stranger there?
Maverick is the name.
Riding the trail to who knows where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin’ is his game.
In Campbell and Kean’s American Cultural Studies, a brief discussion of the effect of the Western mythos on our culture states, “anyone who seeks [...]

Christmas: Family, Food, Jesus, and Consumerism

 
     As the Christmas season quickly approaches, my thoughts move towards happy thoughts of family, food, Jesus, and consumerism.  Yeah, consumerism.  Growing up in rural Texas, I can appreciate Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean’s discussion, in American Cultural Studies, of the city as the center of excitement and happening.  It is also the center of buying stuff.  [...]

Are Myths Needed in America?

In Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean’s book, American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture, there is an interesting quote by Lynne Cheney about what history books should be like,

“As Cheney wrote in 1988, history textbooks needed to be like those of the ‘early decades of the century… filled with stories – the magic [...]

Recognizing the Other Within Ourselves

In his book Mission and Menace, Robert Jewett devotes a chapter to what he outlines as three millennial crusades that took place in the 20th century, leading to a disillusioned city on a hill, as well as some pretty disastrous foreign relations positions which, though not directly related, are ideological cousins under the same millennial [...]

The American Creed

On November 4, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama delivered a historic speech from Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, declaring victory after a long campaign for the White House. Rhetorically, the speech was, in my opinion, not just a breath of fresh air but a drive up to the mountains after living in Los Angeles your [...]

Proud to be an American

For the first time in a long time I am proud to be an American.  I watched history last night as the American people selected Barak Obama for president.  This is a step forward for a country that has in the past taken steps back.  Even if you do not agree with what Obama’s campaign [...]

And this is why I’m voting for…

 
“The greater religious diversity that now characterizes the United States would be truly beneficial to American democracy if the various religious communities represented were willing to bring deeply held values that stem from their various traditions to the table for public consideration.” 
So goes the conclusion of sociologist Robert Wuthnow in his chapter on American [...]

This Side of Heaven

KCRW ran a fascinating interview on Sunday between Kurt Anderson and Sarah Vowell, a historian who has just written a sardonic little account of Puritain origins in Massachusettes Bay colony, which points out how many of their ideas are still floating around in the words of contemporary American politicians and politicians-elect (KCRW hasn’t posted their [...]