Confessing America's Original Sin

Addressing multiple reports of a white police officer shooting an African American, such as in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Lauquan McDonald in Chicago, Jim Wallis—public theologian, political activist, and founding editor of Sojourners magazine, argues that the events are part of a legacy stretching back to slavery.

His new book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America(Brazos, Jan.), not only tries to diagnose the underlying and systemic issues that are causing racial strife, but asks Americans to recognize what he calls their original sins — slavery and racism — before they can move forward together.

“We have to address our country’s racial injustice and the fundamental difference of opinion and perspective between white and black people about the criminal justice system, education, and economics,” Wallis told me in a recent interview and profile I did for Publisher's Weekly. 

What have we learned about Islam?

When I tell people that I study global Islam the reaction usually goes something like this:

“Ohhhhhhhh, that’s interesting.” 

Two or three beats pass…wait for it, then the shoe drops: “You know, I actually have a question for you. I’ve always wondered [INSERT QUESTION,  CONUNDRUM, OR NEWS SOUNDBITE HERE].” 

Islam is, unfortunately, a very hot topic of conversation. Sometimes, I wish I studied the most boring, obscure, and esoteric religious topic so that when I told people what I study they would say, “how interesting,” not really mean it, and then casually change the topic of conversation. But that’s just not the case. The questions keep coming. The headlines continue to splash across our screens. My area of study remains relevant. 

In truth, I relish the opportunity to talk to people about religion — especially global Islam. I learn much from my studies with Muslims and non-Muslims alike and enjoy sharing that with others via blogs, news pieces, and in the classroom. In that spirit, this semester I was honored to work alongside the legendary Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons teaching the UF Religion Department’s Intro. to Islam course. 

At the end of the class I asked all of the students to reflect on three questions: 1) what is the single most insightful thing you learned this semester? 2) What is one thing you would tell someone who has yet to take this class? 3) What is one question you still have? 

What follows is a break-down of the TOP THREE things that students learned and would share with others outside the class (there was significant overlap) and the TOP THREE questions they still had. These reflections help us understand what is most relevant to the discussion of Islam that is going on in politics, social circles, and places of worship and devotional practice across the world. Furthermore, they act as a catalyst for further conversations and questions to be answered — both here and in those confabs you and I might have sometime when I tell you that yes, indeed, I study global Islam. 

“Oh, that’s interesting” you say? Let’s talk… 

Top Three Takeaways:

1) Islam is a big, diverse, unique, and complex global religion

You can say that again. Multiple students reflected on how their image of Islam coming into the class was overly simplistic. However, as they left the class students mused that they learned “about the diversity of the umma — the global Muslim community” and just how “deep, beautiful, and informative Islam is.” That student further said, “there are just too many specifics to list, this class has really opened my eyes.” Finally, striking the same chord, another student shared, “the complexity and breadth of Islam is something I had not recognized before.” 

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Check out this super-cool class of Intro. to Islam students...what a shame they had that dorky-looking TA up front. 

As Shahab Ahmed intimated in What is Islam? the main challenge in interpreting Islam is coming to terms with the considerable diversity of beliefs, practices, and postures of global Islam while simultaneously appreciating that there are shared principles which act as a cri de coeur for Muslims across the world.

The uncomfortable truth is that essentialized conceptualizations that say "Islam = violence" or "Islam = peace" are insensitive to the alterations and negotiations that characterizes lived Islam in interaction with myriad Muslim constituencies and non-Muslim actors throughout the world. 

An introductory class presents students with this complexity and invites them to capture not necessarily what Islam is or is not, but the many different ways that Muslims live, move, and believe in this world while learning to critically think about what this complexity means in the world we live in. 

2) The basics are important

Even so, students also reflected that there is a unity that runs through the story of Islam since its inception in the 7th-century. Students appreciated learning more about Muhammad — the first Muslim and the living Qur’an, its history, the basics of the Qur’an and the Sunna — the traditions of the prophet, and foundations of Muslim theology, philosophy, and practice. 

As students could readily appreciate this course could only whet their appetites to learn more. As one student shared, “I learned so much only to realize I still know so little. This can’t be the end of my exploration.” Amen. 

3) Islam is not necessarily what you see/hear in the news or on social media

Overwhelmingly, students came away surprised about how the image of Islam presented in the public and in popular discourse is a distorted and inaccurate one. One student said, “I would invite people to learn more about Islam even if they think they know all about it from the news. The truth is — they don’t.” Some students made it personal and shared, “I didn’t know anything about this religion before I started” but “if you’re non-Muslim take this class to undue the popular ideas that are out there and wrong,” and “if you’re Muslim take it see how non-Muslims view your religion.” One student was unequivocal about this point and said, “don’t believe the media. The representations of Islam on social media are not accurate. Do your own research, take a class like this, and learn about Islam for yourself.” 

As a member of “the media” and an active agent on sites such as Facebook and Twitter I take comments like these personally. While I am invariably impressed with the quality, and creative, content that religion newswriters are able to produce on complex topics, there are occasionally weak stories, missed opportunities or the need for more nuance or critical insight — especially when it comes to Islam and specifically when it comes to broadcast news. 

My students tend to agree. I think we should listen. They spend a lot of time on those new-fangled-smart-phone-thingies and the way Islam is constructed, represented, and controlled via news and social media has significant implications for them Classes can help, but they cannot undo all the injurious images of Islam shared across media platforms.

Top Three Questions Lingering: 

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Our main text for the class. While it certainly has its weaknesses, it provided a solid foundation for discussion along with other resources and primary documents. 

With everything students learned, questions still lingered. The top three were: 1) Where, and how, does ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fit in? 2) Is global Islam still growing? If so, is it trending toward “fundamentalism” or “progressivism?” 3) What can we do to end Islamophobia? 

Behind each of these questions are real concerns. While students in this class felt they understood more about the religion as a whole they were still uncomfortable with how that matches up with the actions of Muslims who are part of ISIS, whether or not this is the future of the faith, and how others are going to treat Muslims based on popular misperceptions and media-fed monstrosities.

What next?  

As I told them at the end of the class, they are now “scholars of Islam.” Although there is much more to learn and questions needing continual conversation (hey, you can’t cover everything in one semester and you need to get a basic hold of the foundations before you can tackle more complex issues), these students now know more than at least 70% of the population…if not much more. 

Thus, the conversation must continue. We need to maintain the relevant discussion between people of multiple perspectives, faiths, and practices — Muslim and non-Muslim, in our local communities and across the globe. 

I was personally awe-struck by the sheer caliber of the students who took this class this semester. Their passion for the topic, the candor of their questions, and the effort they put into learning the material and discussing difficult topics was humbling. I can only hope that they are a vanguard for these exchanges. I also sincerely hope their learning does not stop there and they become ambassadors for peacemaking and religious literacy in a world all to often torn apart by identity politics (“us” vs. “them” mentalities) and flat-out ignorance. 

Now, to grade their finals…

The Holy Qur'an Experiment Video is Viral, but is it Helpful?

Islamophobia is a problem. Not only does it lack a nuanced perspective concerning lived Islam—in all its dizzying complexity—it also takes shape in both vitriolic rhetoric and physical violence against Muslims. Its roots are founded in ignorance of “Islam 101” and a fear of the religion as a fundamentalist figment of Western imagination.

While the sentiment behind the “experiment” is laudable—trying to show people that prejudice precedes much of our judgment on Islam and other world views—the methodology is defunct and even dangerous. My fear is that instead of combatting religious illiteracy, such efforts could be compounding the problem.

To dispel such misconceptions about Islam, the Dutch YouTube sensation Dit Is Normaal conducted “a social experiment” disguising the Bible as a Quran and hitting the streets of the Netherlands to ask people their opinion of certain verses. The video then went viral, with nearly 6 million views so far.

Hiring, firing, & evaluating digital humanities scholarship

If an academic can be un-hired, fired, or asked to resign because of a “tweet” or a blog post, can we find a way in the humanities to hire, promote, or offer tenure to academics for the same? 

This was one of the more provocative questions posed, and discussed, at a roundtable talk at the most recent THATCamp at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA two weeks ago. 

Overview of #THATCampAARSBL

THATCamp stands for The Humanities And Technology Camp and the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting (professional and academic organizations in the study of religious studies and biblical literature, respectively) played host to the user-generated unconference for religious and biblical studies academics to set the agenda for discussion and work in the area of digital humanities — an area of research and teaching at the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities. 

The sessions at the day-long unconference ranged from topics such as using Google engrams in your research to talks of tech in the classroom and podcasting religious studies topics successfully. I was honored to present my own collaborative work on Augmented Reality Criticisms (ARCs) with the TRACE Program at University of Florida. 

Overall, the quality of the content was impressive and the event created an interdisciplinary space where scholars from multiple disciplines and perspectives could share in ways that few other venues afford. Cheers to the organizers for putting on such a wonderful unconference and helping us all play a part in advancing the field! 

From my perspective, the key conversation from the day was whether, and if so how, to count digital scholarship toward hiring, promoting, and offering tenure in the academic world. 

Counting Digital Scholarship Toward Academic Advancement?

While the recognition of the value of digital scholarship is increasing and there is an awareness that the context of humanities research is changing quickly and deeply due to advances in digital technology there are no broadly agreed upon or applied standards for the professional evaluation of digital scholarship.

Certainly, the humanities have seen a spike in digitally innovative practices in the last decade with various scholars doing valuable work in the realm of digital humanities. However, the lack of formal evaluation procedures and attendant academic incentives (you know, like jobs, promotions, and the elusive “beast of tenure”), in the words of the American Historical Association (AHA), “discourages scholars at all levels from engaging with the new capacities. It also prevents the profession, and the departments in which it is grounded, from creatively confronting ways in which […] knowledge increasingly will be created and communicated.”

The THATCamp AAR/SBL conversation floated from the discussion of digital publishing and material/visual culture in existing dissertations and works to the evaluation of digital scholarship in publications such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. For me, there were two important points raised, from opposite ends, that need serious consideration as this discussion, hopefully, moves forward: 

1) Upholding academic standards. Although it might go without saying, it is vital that we do not “dumb down” the standards to accept, evaluate, and reward digital scholarship in hiring, promoting, and providing tenure for humanities scholars. Digital humanities work must also be given the level of respect that traditional academic scholarship receives and thus needs comparable,a= and stringent, evaluative measures. 

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Devices welcome at THATCamp AAR/SBL 2015! (PHOTO: THATCamp AAR/SBL) 

This means that departments and institutions that choose to evaluate digital humanities projects (from blogs to digital research designs) should subject them to serious academic review and not base assessment on popularity. Often, such appraisals are camouflaged under markers of “impact” in the public sphere. 

While I agree that impact is important judging projects based principally on their reach is akin to judging a scholar on whether or not their book sold a certain number of copies. The popularity of a publication or project is not directly indicative of the seriousness, or even the value, of research and we cannot let it guide our evaluation of digital humanities scholarship. 

With that said, it should be part of the conversation, because from my view one of the principal benefits of much digital humanist’s work is its broad audience and public value.

2) Defending the democratic digital. Related to the prospect of digital humanities scholarship having an impact in the public and popular spheres, it is also paramount that in judging digital humanities work we should not “copy/paste” the same standards for “traditional” academic scholarship (journal articles, books, etc.). This is vital for two reasons. 

First, the scholarship is different. Because digital humanists are sometimes dealing with different media, audiences, and outcomes it is not appropriate to evaluate their work according to the standards for a different set of means, market, or end product. Furthermore, digital humanities work is often more collaborative and interdisciplinary and many P&T committees already struggle with considering such efforts in traditional realms of scholarship. 

Second, one of my favorite aspects of my digital humanities work is the degree of play it involves and the democracy of the conversation. Through digital humanities work (blogging, social media, ARCs, digital-based ethnography, etc.) I am able to work in different streams and produce work for variant audiences than I normally would in my traditional academic research. It is liberating to engage the public and have more “fun” in doing work that is not required by my principal investigations. It is already intimidating enough to know that my tweets could end my career when they are not being evaluated as part of my “serious scholarship.” What would happen if they were fair game? That could be both blessing and curse. 

For this reason, I would want to see three categories of work and evaluation moving forward: scholarship that is digitally-based and contributes to public discourse without evaluation, scholarship that is digitally-based and affords some form of academic legitimization, and scholarship that is more “traditional” and is appraised accordingly. 

Conclusion

As can be deduced from the above, the conversation surrounding the production, and evaluation, of digital scholarship in consideration of academic advancement is still in its early days. Nonetheless, parsing through how to value and evaluate digital humanities research is both a fascinating and increasingly necessary, conversation with attendant cautions and incitements. 

The critical element is that your institution and/or department initiate the discussion. You might consider using this blog or the guidelines provided by the AHA as you do so. No matter what, it is vital that more programs and academics start the dialogue, because digital scholarship continues to emerge as a viable and valuable field of research in the humanities as the quality and quantity of presentations at THATCamp AAR/SBL testifies.

Understanding Islam & the death penalty for apostasy

Last week, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for apostasy — the deliberate renouncement of Islam. Human rights advocates across the world rallied to his cause and as Aaron Sankin reported, "Fayadh's fate quickly became a cause célèbre on social media, with a litany of Twitter users gathering around the hashtag #FreeAshraf to protest his death sentence.”

Under the Wahhabi interpretation — an austere, literalist, sect of Islam associated with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Saud royal family — such crimes as blasphemy and apostasy are punishable by death. 

Fayadh’s case is not an isolated one. Liberal author Raif Badawi was publicly flogged in January 2015 and remains in prison after being convicted of blasphemy. There was, at the time, an international outcry as many decried the juxtaposition of such a penalty with international conceptions of human rights, freedom of conscience and speech, and the value of religious pluralism. 

While there are grave reasons to challenge the decisions of the Saudi courts to condemn these men, there is a concomitant danger with condemning an entire religion or casting dispersion toward Muslims for such stats and scenarios. Furthermore, the numbers can be misleading. There are, I think, five points to keep in mind when considering such stories before coming to any clear conclusions: 

Jesus Christ, Movie Star?

Think religion doesn’t matter at the movies? Think again. More specifically, think of the kerfuffle over the Church of England’s “Lord’s Prayer Commercial” and some of the UK’s biggest cinema chains denying the commercial ad space in its theaters.

As Reuters reported, “The 60-second ad, which shows a variety of Christians including a police officer, weight lifter and school children each saying one line of the prayer, had been due to be shown next month before screenings of the new Star Wars film ‘The Force Awakens.’” 

Not only was the Anglican church confused over the refusal, but social media and blogs erupted with robust conversations about the place of religious ads before movies, on television, and on radio. This scenario of scandal underscores the importance, and urgency, of considering the interaction of religion & pop-culture in its many, many, forms. 

That is why I am overwhelmingly excited to announce the release of Jesus Christ, Movie Star by Edward N. McNulty, in which I was humbled & honored to write the foreword. In that introductory statement I attempted to frame McNulty's work on Jesus and movies in the contemporary context of currents in religion & pop-culture. 

In the foreword I wrote that in a global culture, where internationalization occurs across, through, and in tension with various sites and conduits of ethnicity, technology, financial systems, media, ideological networks, and religions the images of Jesus not only matter to U.S. moviemakers, and consumers, but people throughout the world. Hence the importance to critically think through what depictions of Jesus mean — how they are represented, how they communicate, how they are interpreted, and how they reflect, critique, and interact with wider socio-cultural realities. 

This is even more pertinent because Jesus is such a popular movie star and it is helpful -- both theologically and from a religious studies perspective -- to consider him as such. As David Crumm of Read the Spirit wrote:

“ONLY ONE FIGURE rivals Sherlock Holmes and Santa Claus as the longest-running characters in world cinema. As veteran-faith-and-film writer Edward McNulty points out in his new book, that unique, history-spanning figure is Jesus Christ, Movie Star.”

McNulty’s exploration of Jesus-figures, faith, and film gets us started down a path to not only catch the great importance of Jesus’ story as it was, but also — crucially — how it is transported and transposed in our current culture. To that end, I invite you to explore more about the work or to purchase it at Amazon.com to engage heartily in discussion with those with whom you watch, react to, and examine faith and film.

Salvation with a smile -- a conversation about Joel Osteen

Everything is bigger in Texas, so they say. The food, the football, and even the faith-communities that make up Texan lives and localities are larger than life. In Houston — the state’s largest city — religion is blooming, booming, and burgeoning in a stunning array of diversity. From Caucasian Khalsa converts to Sikhism to Coptic Christians, Latina/o Muslims, and “God Bless America” Southern Baptists, Houston has it all. 

It is also home to Lakewood Church — America’s largest megachurch. Home to 43,500 worshippers every Sunday, Lakewood is led by Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen. A non-denominational and charismatic Christian church the congregation offers English and Spanish services every weekend in the Compaq Center, the former home of basketball team the Houston Rockets. 

Osteen also comes to American homes via television broadcasts, books, and speaking tours in local stadiums. Through his megachurch pastoral work and mega-personality Osteen has courted both celebrity and controversy. 

In Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity Phillip Luke Sinitiere -- Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University -- courses the history, development, and manifestation of Lakewood's strengths and storm of debate surrounding it and placing its narrative firmly within the story of American Christianity in general. I had the opportunity to speak with him about the book, his research, and Lakewood's "salvation with a smile." 

What made you want to research Joel Osteen, his church, his family, and his context? 

It stems first from my interest in American religious history, cultivated initially by the late Terry Bilhartz (1950-2014) when I was an undergraduate history major at Sam Houston State University. I first became interested in Joel Osteen as a scholarly subject in 2005, much of it through the work of Andrew Chesnut on religious economy, when I was in graduate school at the University of Houston. I realized, just as Lakewood Church was moving into the Compaq Center in July that year, that a national story was brewing in my hometown, and I didn’t have to travel far to do research! Although I found archival materials all across the United States, early on I recognized that the history of my hometown, Houston, might have something significant to say in relation to Osteen’s story.  

How does this present research fit into your previous work?

The final sentence in the chapter on Joel Osteen in my first book Holy Mavericks reads, “While scholars of American religion continue to debate the significance and influence of popular pastors and ministers, one thing is certain: Joel Osteen will offer salvation and a smile to anyone who shows up, tunes in, or logs onto Lakewood Church.” So, in many ways the present book builds on and extends earlier research on neopenteostalism, the prosperity gospel, and contemporary American religion.

What was your personal experience with Lakewood? 

I tend to think of my “personal experience” with Lakewood in terms of the people I met, and how I processed my experiences and framed my research in light of scholarship on American religion. 

There’s no doubt that “Joel Osteen” is a historical and cultural construction and “Lakewood” is an institution as much as it is an idea that is part of America’s religious landscape—ideas I attempt to unpack in the book—but I spent my time researching Joel Osteen and Lakewood not in pursuit of just understanding the congregation’s leaders, but also people who constitute the congregation itself. Overall, the time I spent at Lakewood introduced me to some interesting, fascinating, and sincere people who were willing to share some of their time, resources, and their stories with me. (More on that below).

In addition, my own internal dialogue and thinking about my fieldwork was very much in conversation the work of scholars such as Kate Bowler, Robert Orsi, Susan Harding, Manuel Vasquez, T.L. Luhrmann, James Bielo, Gerardo Marti, and so many more. 

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I’d also respond to your question this way: I began attending church services and different Sunday school classes as a participant observer starting in the fall of 2005, and continued on and off until early 2014. I also attended two Evening of Hope events in Texas during the course of research, so I could experience a kind of portable Lakewood. While I never considered myself a church member in any sense, I typically introduced myself as a researcher and scholar, explained why/how I got interested in the topic of Lakewood and Joel Osteen, and thus tried to understand and grasp the Lakewood “experience” in my participation in and observation of congregational activities. This sustained participation and my analysis of it in the book, I hope, provides a robust picture of what Lakewood was/is outside of the telecasts or podcasts. This sustained presence at Lakewood also proved instrumental in forging relationships and friendships with members and attendees, without whom I could not have finished the book. While not everyone spoke on the record, and while not everyone granted my request for an interview or conversation, members and attendees who did (most of whom are pseudonymous in the book) offered interesting and fascinating insight into congregational life at Lakewood Church. And several people I interviewed also loaned me or gave me printed materials, photographs, and/or old VHS videos and cassette tapes of John Osteen sermons. So in many ways I am in great debt to certain Lakewood members and attendees who chose to share their thoughts, materials, and life stories with me. 

Did you get a chance to visit the bookstore? On one occasion I did and came across a wide variety of books that aren’t “on message” with Joel Osteen ministries. How do you think the eclecticism of the bookstore reflects on Lakewood Church and Osteen?

In many ways, I’d say the bookstore fits like a glove with the space that is Lakewood Church, as well as with the general contours of the smiling preacher. What I mean is this: the bookstore is professionally done in the sense that it is like other chain Christian bookstores such as Mardel or Lifeway. One finds the latest Christian bestsellers (some of which are Joel’s books!) in both fiction and nonfiction, along with Christian t-shirts, necklaces, Cross décor, music, study Bibles, etc., plus a substantial section of Spanish language items. Of course, the sheer business of the place, and dynamics of economic exchange also prompt thinking about the entanglements of the prosperity gospel, religion, and class. Yes, the bookstore disseminates and provides materials for religious education and spiritual enlightenment while it also traffics in the supply and demand chains of capitalism. The bookstore is also large and expansive, which works as a nice metaphor for Lakewood and Osteen’s place in America’s religious landscape. It is hard not to miss, regardless of your opinion about Osteen or Lakewood. Finally, the array of materials—you allude to books by evangelical writers such as John Piper, John MacArthur, or even Albert Mohler that sit alongside titles by the novelist Frank Peretti, or prosperity teachers like Joyce Meyer, Joseph Prince, or T. D. Jakes—crosses denominational lines, transcends national borders, and is seemly inclusive of the wider boundaries of modern Christianity. It fits with Osteen’s expressly nondenominational outlook, a perspective adopted from his father John Osteen.

I found that Lakewood Church membership has seemingly high turnover with people finding Lakewood as a gateway, or a port of return, to Christianity. Comment on this…

I think you are absolutely correct on this point, Ken. Data are hard to find on Lakewood’s revolving doors, so to speak, although some of the Pew research on “religious switching” captures broader trends and may suggest ways to think about what this means longitudinally. I only have qualitative research to present on this question. In my interviews, individuals described going to Lakewood to find new inspiration—your “port of return” descriptor—most especially from the music, whether it was Cindy Cruse Ratcliff or Israel Houghton. One woman I interviewed, as I explain in “Teri’s Story” in chapter 7, had hit rock bottom in her life and attended Lakewood for a psychological and existential boost. But once her life stabilized, Teri said she longed for more rigorous teaching in sermons, so she ended up leaving Lakewood and settled at another Pentecostal, nondenominational church in Houston. As she communicated it to me, she wasn’t bitter or disgruntled as she left Lakewood, but in search of deeper religious knowledge. So, yes, I think your gateway or port of return metaphors work well to explain this in a qualitative sense. I hope someone is able to assess this reality quantitatively one day. That would make for a fascinating study.

You seek to situate Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in a historical stream of neoPentecostalism. Why do you think this is important? 

I think understanding Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in light of neopentecostalism is crucial because it highlights the interconnected networks between several generations of neopentecostal and prosperity ministers and ministries. It also historicizes Osteen’s career from television producer to minister, which in turn contextualizes the providential narrative he has used to describe how he became Lakewood’s pastor. Finally, situating Osteen as a neopentecostal allows us to track one chapter of the prosperity gospel and articulate some of reasons why Pentecostalism and neopentecostalism remain popular expressions of Christianity today. 

Placing Joel Osteen in the historical stream of neopentecostalism highlights how the message of a second chance or spiritual makeover—an opportunity to start over and remake something—is, we might say, quintessentially American. I’m not the first or only scholar to connect this idea in Pentecostalism to American culture. There is also something, it seems, culturally important in terms of why a message of second chances resonates in a therapeutic era. The historical moment of Joel’s ascendancy emblematized this message. Here I’m thinking of the rise in popularity in the 1990s and 2000s of reality TV shows that, ironically, scripted a second chance or makeover of some sort. Here I’ also thinking of Kathryn Lofton’s fascinating book on Oprah, who figures into the larger cultural significance of remaking oneself into something new. 

Also, you place Joel Osteen in a place to benefit, in terms of ministry, from the crisis in evangelical leadership. Yet, many of his evangelical critics would place him on the outside of evangelicalism. What do you have to say to these critics? 

I’m not so sure it is evangelicalism’s crisis in leadership—although examples surely abound—as much as it is evangelicalism’s philosophical framework. Building on Molly Worthen’s excellent book Apostles of Reason in the final chapter I point out the irony between Osteen and his critics, especially those part of the New Calvinist movement. A group of theologians and pastors focused on intellectualism and Reformed theology, New Calvinism’s philosophical orientation prizes divine sovereignty, predictability, order, and control. Ironically, Osteen’s message of positive thinking and positive confession is also highly predictable and exceptionally redundant. Let me put it further this way: Osteen’s New Calvinist skeptics, whose theology has prized God’s absolute orchestration of human affairs, by the very nature of their anxious criticism, have assigned Osteen a tremendous amount of material and historical agency. This seems to belie the New Calvinists’ convictions about God’s sovereignty. The utter predictability of Osteen’s message of God’s favor and goodness has exemplified the same predictability towards which the New Calvinists’ propositional theology has aspired. Using the same Bible, and engaging in similar acts of interpretation, Osteen has promised unfettered possibility while the messages of his critics have emphasized theological aspects of conformity and order. Both have promoted a certain kind of predictability. Philosophically, therefore, Osteen and his critics have seemed more alike than different. While both parties have rooted their messages in particular interpretations of the Bible, they have also deployed defenses of their positions from Christian scripture in reply to one another. In my reading of this larger story, this shared basis of conflict in not just an example of doctrinal infighting. It is an illustration of deeply embedded intellectual conflicts in the evangelical tradition out of which both Osteen and the New Calvinists have attempted to leverage the widest possible influence on American culture. It is fascinating history.

Houston is a diverse place in terms of religion and culture. What can people learn about Houston from reading this book about, arguably, its biggest religious “attraction?”

While Salvation with a Smile is about Houston’s largest religious attraction, I explain in chapter 4 that Lakewood is not the sum total of religion in Houston. Yes, the city is home to the nation’s largest megachurch—and one of the nation’s most ethnically and racially diverse congregations in the nation’s most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan areas—but Houston is also home to numerous Roman Catholics and a Cardinal, His Eminence Daniel DiNardo. Yes, the city is home to several of the nation’s largest megachurches (e.g., Second Baptist Church, Woodlands Church, New Light Christian Center, Windsor Village United Methodist Church, etc.), but is also home to botanicas that have serviced Houstonians who practice religions such as Santería. Local traditions practiced by some of Houston’s Mexican immigrants have also shaped the religious lives of devotees to Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint. Then there’s the Catholic Charismatic Center, home to Pentecostal Catholics. One of the places to track some of these developments is the Houston Area Survey, conducted now for 3 decades out of Rice University’s Kinder Institute. Houston is an exciting and important place to study national and global religious trends—and not just because of Lakewood Church.

You emphasize how important Osteen Ministries’ grasp of new media trends is key to their success. What other religious currents seem to be doing similar work, Christian or otherwise? 

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Joel’s first career as a television producer and religious broadcaster oriented his outlook to present religious messages across new media platforms. As it happened, his emergence to public prominence that started around 2004 tracked simultaneously with the rise of new media/social media. This is one of the reasons why Joel Osteen became Joel Osteen. I’ll offer an example from Houston that readers may not be aware of: Fr. Cedric Pisegna. He’s a Passionist priest with a ministry called “Live with Passion!” that presents positive messages in the Joel Osteen vein.  An advocate of the “New Evangelization,” Fr. Cedric’s teachings across social media and television have commonly encouraged the quest for joy, inspiration, happiness. Moreover, presentations with titles such as “Challenges Make Champions,” “The Power of Positivity,” and “You Are God’s Champion,” not only reflect the Roman Catholic Church’s outreach techniques in the New Evangelization, they also echo the promise of possibility that has been part of Houston’s cultural identity.

What do you think reactions to book will be like?

I hope Christians who pick up the book give it a thorough reading, regardless of whether they like or dislike Osteen. I didn’t write the book as someone interested in participating in any intramural debates amongst Christians, or even evangelicals or Pentecostals, but I do hope these constituencies read the book. In terms of feedback, on a recent radio program out of San Antonio called “The Source” produced by Texas Public Radio on which I discussed the book, the questions callers asked referenced the doctrines Osteen preaches, as well as the larger prosperity gospel movement. Both callers seemed very skeptical of Osteen. In the academy, I hope the book is a worthy contribution to the burgeoning and excellent scholarship already published on contemporary American Christianity, the prosperity gospel, and neopentecostalism. In terms of methodology, I hope scholars deem that I’ve somehow succeeded in sufficiently historicizing a contemporary subject, both through traditional historical archival research but also through ethnographic participant observation.

What future research do you have planned?

In addition to my work on evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, I’m also a scholar of African American studies. In this arena, I have several projects in the works on the political and intellectual work of W. E. B. Du Bois and I’m working on a short biography of the playwright, author, and essayist James Baldwin. In the field of American religion, I’m continuing my work on Lakewood’s history in several ways. Building on the first two chapters in Salvation with a Smile on John Osteen, I’m writing more on his role in the neopentecostal movement and the politics of religious leadership. Research Joel and religious programming got me interested more specifically in the cultural meaning of televangelism, so I’m actively researching the historical and cultural significance of recent televangelist scandals.

Biography: Phillip Luke Sinitiere is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. He is author or editor of several books, including Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace (NYU Press, 2009).

Coming to terms with Islam's contradictions

Last week I was at a church in St. Louis encouraging Christians to build relationships of peace with their Muslim neighbors. Exhorting everyone in attendance to look beyond the headlines I promised that they would often find hospitality and friendship not hostility and violent fundamentalism. I received follow-up e-mails, as I often do after public engagements, asking about Islamism and terrorism. Then, Friday night I received a message with the subject line, "What do you have to say for yourself now?" 

The e-mail linked to news stories unfolding in Paris where a volley of nearly simultaneous attacks rocked the French capital and left 128 dead. Daesh -- the Arabic name for ISIS -- claimed responsibility for the attack and immediately the specter of religious inspired terrorism manifested itself again. 

At the same time, I saw prayers for peace on a Muslim Facebook page and heard stories about the ministry of a Houston imam visiting prisoners with grace and goodwill. Mixed with the sadness over the chaos in Paris was confusion, and questions, over which represents Islam. 

Is Islam that which inspires acts of brutalism in city streets? Surely, millions of Muslims would protest, using hashtags like #Iamnotaterrorist alongside messages of support and solidarity (#JeSuisParis or #PrayforBeirut). Or is Islam that which brings students from a local university to visit a masjid and the hundreds of faithful gathered for prayer to extend warm hospitality? Perhaps, it is both...and much more. That response can prove unsettling and unsatisfactory. Yet, it may be the most accurate and fruitful. 

Behind headlines, None parents are raising kids without religion

The 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research Center showed that the U.S. public, as a whole, is growing less religious, resulting in headlines such as “Fewer Americans Believe in God” and “‘Nones on the Rise.”

In a new book Losing Our Religion: How Unaffiliated Parents are Raising their Children (NYU Press, Nov.), Christel Manning goes beyond the headlines to provide a qualitative counterweight to the data about “Nones”—people who have no religious affiliation. She sought to answer the question, “How do None parents deal with the question of religion in the upbringing of their children?”

A pub-hymn-sing-a-long? Yes. Yes please.

It's Friday night. You walk down to your neighborhood pub for a couple of pints and to listen to some live music. As you settle onto your stool and order a hop-fresh IPA or a crisp kölsch the tunes start. You recognize the song and start to sing along. Is it a top-40 hit? Kind of...but from 1664. It's "My song is love unknown" originally written by Samuel Crossman and performed and arranged by New York based artist Blake Flattley. 

Flattley has been performing and singing for over a decade and says he loves three things: a great song, a great drink, and spending time with great people. "Why not have all of them in one place?" he asked. So was born the idea of the "'There Will be Rest' Pub-Sing-a-Long Tour." 

Releasing his newest album, "There Will Be Rest" -- a collection of re-arranged hymns and original music -- earlier this year, Flattley is now raising funds to host a series of pub-sing-a-longs all over the U.S. in celebration. He said, "the idea is this: we gather together in local pubs, sing some hymns, enjoy some great beer and hear some of my songs that you may be familiar with." The key is getting people in cities across the U.S. to support the tour. Flattley launched a Kickstarter campaign to get him across the nation. 

Below is an interview with Flattley about his music, his motivations, and his . You should definitely check out his music and consider having him to come to your favorite watering hole for a sing-a-long and some suds for as little as $5! 

• Tell us a bit more about your album and what you are trying to do with it...

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Flattley's new album, "There Will Be Rest." 

I've been playing in clubs for a long time, and now, though I'm still playing clubs, I've been playing in a lot more churches outside of my own. I kept getting the question, "which of these cds have the music you just played during the service?" and the answer was none. Eventually, I had enough people ask and the timing was right. I'd been in New York City working with my church for about two years, and I connected with some fantastic musicians. It was a strange thing, I would throw out a musical reference and get a response back of, "I've played with them"(Sufjan Stevens, The Welcome Wagon, The Lone Bellow).

Once I set to work choosing the songs for the record, the theme really flowed out of my experiences in New York. The mantra of most New Yorkers seems to be that they are tired and busy. Not busy like most, where they say they are busy almost as some sort of status symbol. New Yorkers are busy because the rent is high and they have to take every gig they can to make ends meet. Its a matter of being able to make it. The title and title track, "There Will Be Rest", flowed out of that. I wanted to create a record that both sonically, and lyrically, embraced that theme.

• Why a “pub-sing-a-long” in particular?

I like the idea of a pub sing because it in some ways unites my two worlds. There's also the folklore behind so many great hymns about how they were written with bar tunes and then brought into the church. Though that is largely believed to be myth, I still like the concept. I don't want to take myself too seriously, and I like singing with people and enjoying their company over a good beer so, why not?

• What do you imagine this is going to look like? 

We'll gather together in local pubs and for about the first forty five minutes we'll sing some great hymns. I'll invite some of my friends along the way to join in with leading the singing. I'm putting together, essentially a digital lyric sheet for everyone, so if they don't know the hymn, they can pull out their phone and scroll through the lyrics. During the second set of the night I'm planning to sing some more of my arrangements as well as some original music that people will still be encouraged to sing along with. To be clear, it won't be a church service. 

• When are you heading out? Where are you going, or would like to go? 

I'll be kicking off the tour in January, heading out to the North West and then kind of bouncing around the country from there. I'm planning to essentially head anywhere there is a critical mass of people who show they are interested by supporting the kickstarter campaign. My thought is to head to Texas, California, Arizona, maybe the midwest and then of course a few East Coast dates. 

• Are you going to shut down the pub that night or just go for it with the crowd? For that matter, how do crowds react to your religious music? 

Really, anyone that wants to sing and have a good time. I don't want to shut down the pub but instead, sing with those that are there. Some people may not be into it and that's ok. 

It's interesting, I thought I was carefully splitting up my "religious" songs from my "secular" songs but once I started mingling them, I realized they're not all that different. One of my main goals as an artist is simply to make good art that explores the human experience. Religion is a part of that.

• Tell us what you are doing with music and ministry in NYC. How does this project tie in? 

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I'm the director of worship and arts at Our Saviour New York. We're a church of two parishes, one in Queens and one in Midtown Manhattan. We do a ton with local artists, sponsoring songwriter rounds, holding artist showcases for storytellers, bands, comedians and we just recently started exhibiting visual art. We love to engage with our community and experience what they're creating and to see how we can support and encourage them. I also play a lot throughout the city at various venues, not typically singing hymns. In addition to all of that, I've got some new musical projects in the works, but its still a bit too early to get specific. 

This project was really just an idea that I thought would be fun. A kind of experiment. 

• Why do you think people are flocking to pub-hymn-sings, TheoPubs, and brewery-based missional communities?

I think for many people going to church is weird. Not in the sense that the experience is weird but they feel a weight of expectation. To perform in some way. A pub doesn't come with the same expectations. People can be a little bit more who they really are. You can hopefully do that at church as well but it just takes some folks a little longer.

• What’s your favorite beer? 

Its funny, the other day I went to Trader Joe's and they have the option to fill a six pack with whatever loose beers that they have. When I got home and was loading them in the fridge I realized that for every beer I had purchased I could remember who had introduced me to it. That being said, my favorite beer currently, I actually first got to try thanks to you, Sixpoint's Bengali Tiger (we also currently have this on tap at OSNY).

Speaking of favorites. Have people tweet at me with their favorite hymn @BlakeFlattley

How to lead in a time of crisis -- three axioms for leaders

What do you do when the deuces hit the air ducts? Sometimes, things don't go according to plan. In those moments of crisis it's easy to curl up into a little ball or overreact and cause more fallout.

How can leaders navigate a time of crisis with their church, organization, or community? Here are three axioms -- timeless truths -- from seasoned leaders to help you chart the course. 

Is religion news coverage on the decline?

Religion is in the news. No doubt about it. At the same time, religion reporters, sections, and features are often yesterday's news -- tossed to the wayside by major news outlets and undervalued for their contribution. 

Is that the full story? 

Award-winning religion journalist Bobby Ross Jr. of GetReligion took the time to interview me about my upcoming course on "Religion & the News" and the state of the beat. GetReligion is "an independent website that wrestles with issues of religion-beat coverage in the mainstream press" and the interview covers the course and its value, my background in religion newswriting, the state of the beat, and where I get my religion news.

An American Qur'an? Bringing the Muslim holy book to life in the U.S.

Having delved into Christianity with the Dante’s Divine Comedy series (Chronicle Books, 2006), artist Sandow Birk is now turning his attention to Islam in the book American Qur’an (Liveright, Nov.). In the book, one of PW's best books of 2015, Birk illustrates the Qur'an, using American life as the backdrop for the sacred writings—from the fields of Iowa to the beaches of Southern California. I had the opportunity to catch up with the graphic artist, who is not religious, to learn more about this nine-year project for publication with Publisher's Weekly. 

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A culture, not a costume

Along with ghouls and ghosts, bags of candy and ticker-tape versions of things that go bump in the night, this year's Halloween themed décor in grocery store aisles are intermixed with skulls. But these are not just your ordinary cranial bones. Instead, they are bedecked with flowers and glitter, bright golden colors and sombreros.

They are known as "sugar skulls" or calaveras and are associated with Dia de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead. Dia de los Muertos is a hemispheric American holiday celebrated near the end of October or the beginning of November, with the official celebrations taking place on November 1 and 2 by people in Mexico, Guatemala, the United States, and some other South American nations. 

But what are the deeper meanings behind the costumes and the wall-hangings? Is there something more happening here than Halloween furnishings and golden color schemes? Are calaveras a significant aspect of Mexican culture or just a another costume? 

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“Calavera” is the Spanish word for skull, but calaveras in the context of the Day of the Dead bear extra significance. You see them all around Mexico — in poetry and graffiti murals, on shirts and jewelry, in ancient Mexica (Aztec) carvings and modern sculpture on the city streets. 

One celebrant I talked to said, “Calaveras remind us to celebrate life, to appreciate that even death is sacred, is alive. ‘La Muerte’ is inevitable, it is a right of passage, it is a place and moment to be experienced now and in the future. The dead are never gone and we should never neglect them. The inevitable, our fate or whatever you call it, cannot be avoided, it must be embraced and danced with. It can even be sweet.”

The ubiquitous symbols of the Day of the Dead — calaveras, elaborate artistic representations of a dead aristocratic woman (La Catrina) and flowers such as marigolds — not only ordain altars in homes and cemeteries, but now find their way into museums, menus, suburban jack-o-lanterns, art shows, clothing, and Hollywood runways.

“For me El Dia de los Muertos brings my family together to remember and celebrate the life of those past” said Aida Hernandez, a Houston-area Spanish teacher. “To us it is a very spiritual time and not just about the decorations or food.”

Traditionally, the Hispanic holiday is a time for families, neighborhoods and whole towns to come together to remember and celebrate the life of their ancestors, both young and old, and to make offerings (ofrendas) to the deceased. The celebrations are many and varied, but they often include elaborate processionals, graveyard ceremonies, skulls, stories of those passed and parties to celebrate the continuum between life and death.

Influenced by the Roman Catholic celebration of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days the holiday has its roots in Mayan and Aztec customs and beliefs. The modern manifestation of the Day of the Dead is an amalgamation of various cultural influences both North and South of the border. As MSNBC’s Alyx Kaczuwka reported:

The pre-Hispanic, Mayan and Aztec roots of the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, date back at least 3,000 years. Traditionally associated with Mexico, its celebration has also found its way around the world, often blending in local cultural influences with the ancient traditions.

What is really fascinating is how the Day of the Dead is not only an alleviating institution for indigenous and Spanish speaking cultures in the Americas, but also now for el Norte in the co-opting of the holiday’s symbols in U.S. pop culture. Whereas the mestiza/o — mixed race — or Indian community of the Americas originally took the initiative in developing these meaningful mixes as a way to reclaim a sense of agency in a cultural milieu that demeaned their social standing and stripped them of power, now non-Latina/o Americans are embracing the symbology of the celebration as a way to give material voice to the new mestizaje being created in the crucible of contemporary, trans-local, American culture.

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As reported by the Associated Press: In the last decade or so, this traditional Latin American holiday with indigenous roots has spread throughout the U.S. along with migration from Mexico and other countries where it is observed. Not only are U.S.-born Latinos adopting the Day of the Dead, but various underground and artistic non-Latino groups have begun to mark the Nov. 1-2 holidays through colorful celebrations, parades, exhibits and even bike rides and mixed martial arts fights.  

However, this co-option and adaptation of this traditionally Mexican holiday is not without its misunderstandings and misappropriations. On Facebook, my friend Paola recently shared the following post speaking to her heart and her passion for this holiday. To best understand what the symbols mean, without just dressing up in a costume that seems chic and "authentic," please read her first-hand account below: 

“I love Texas and in particular the Houston area because it has a rich mix of culture — you can literally find everything here!

Lately, I have seen grocery stores and some party stores carrying what in Mexico is known as Dia de los Muertos or “Day of the Dead” decorations! I have to admit that I thought it was so cool that my local H-E-B or Kroger [two grocery stores in Texas] care enough to bring my culture to retail.

However as a dear friend of mine pointed out to me, this is not really bringing the Mexican culture to Texas if most of the people do not know what all this means. She is absolutely right! For example, one time I heard somebody saying that all those skeletons were part of a satanic ritual called “Santa Muerte” [though there is a tradition of belief and ritual surrounding “Santa Muerte” it is distinct from the practice of Dia de los Muertos]. I know that most of my friends here have an idea what “Dia de los muertos” is, but I would like to take some time to let you know a little more about it in my own words:

My ancestors believe that the most important journey for us begins after your soul departs from here, however that soul will have one more chance to come and visit its loved ones! Sometimes those souls will forget how to get back “home” so the family will lay a path of familiar things to guide the way (like flowers, favorite food or drinks, incense, candles and pictures). That my ancestors were able to continue doing this for their loved ones, even after the Spanish took so many of traditions away, is incredible!

The sugar skull tradition that seems to be popular right now comes from what we call a “Calavera” or “Catrina” (‘Dapper Skeleton’ or ‘Elegant Skull’), which made its first appearance in 1910 by a famous Mexican printmaker, cartoon illustrator and lithographer name José Guadalupe Posada. The image depicts a female skeleton dressed only in a hat befitting the upper class outfit of a European of her time. She is offered as a satirical portrait of those Mexican natives who, Posada felt, were aspiring to adopt European aristocratic traditions in the pre-revolutionary era. Now does everyone dress and paint their faces like this? I would like to say yes, but the reality is no! Indeed, not everybody in Mexico is proud of being Mexican!

And that’s it, for me this is not just a costume, it is indicative of my culture — its vitality, its survival, its adaptation, its tradition. More than that, I believe that thanks to this tradition I was available to meet many of my relatives that passed away before or shortly after I was born and every time I help in my house to set the offering on the table or every time we went to visit their graves my family talks to us. As we remember funny little stories about them or my grandma will prepare their favorite meals, it is a great way to keep them alive.

So next time you are walking in your grocery aisle and found something “Dia de los muertos” related and you have no idea what is for now you will know a little bit more! #WeAreACulture #NotJustACostume”

— Paola

Studying 'the God Beat': Religion & the News 101

It is impossible to think about religion without noticing the news. It is impossible to be a journalist without understanding something about religion. Religion is at the center of multiple headlines & news stories the world over. This course will explore both the production, and reception, of religion in the news investigating what it takes to be on “the God beat” and what kinds of conversations such a beat creates, questions, & critiques.

Such a class, such a conversation, is vitally important in this present moment. Exploring several news site home pages I was able to find religion headlines on every single one -- about conflict in Israel, about burned churches in the Midwest, nature spirituality in the Pacific, abstinence in Britain, Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria. How do we make sense of these stories? How do we critique the coverage or question the approach of the journalists? How could we play an active part in producing and analyzing such news? 

Building off my experiences as a freelance journalist, news analyst, and researcher engaged in the academic study of religion I am offering a course in partnership with the University of Florida's Religion department and Journalism School (one of the Top Ten in the U.S.) -- Religion & the News (REL 3938/JOU 4930).

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Weimer Hall at the University of Florida, Gainesville. 

This course will cover the importance of religion reporting in age of religious illiteracy & discuss news as a primary portal for knowledge about religion. It aims to give students an opportunity to give voice to why they report on religion, from a personal perspective and familiarize students with the multiple representations and expressions of religion, discussing how we can define religion in a pluralistic age. Students will also get the chance to know what resources, methods, and theories are available for religion newswriting and be given the opportunity to write and publish blogs, articles, and analysis pieces for public consumption. Basically, this is not a passive class with a theoretical end, but an active class with practical and real-time applications and assignments. 

The course will be offered Tuesdays 1:55-2:45pm and Thursdays 1:55-3:50pm and more information about registration and course details are available HERE (Course Listings) and HERE (Registration). Interested in auditing the course? Talk to me! 

Our Man in Havana - Turkey, Islam, & a Mosque in Cuba

Did Muslims discover Cuba? Is Turkey going to get the chance to fund a mosque in Havana? Can the Castros warm to Islam as they open the doorway for other international relations? 

Recently, as part of a special focus on Turkey, I published a chapter in volume 16 of Critical Muslim, a quarterly magazine of ideas and issues showcasing ground breaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. 

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The aim of my chapter is to explore a recent attempt by Turkey’s political leadership to build a mosque in Havana in light of Turkish Islam’s re-emergence on the global scene. Specifically, it is a reflection on this effort’s aims of re-territorializing and re-inscribing Turkish Muslim symbols, as imagined by what I call the nation’s ‘alter-Islamist’ political leaders, on the Cuban landscape as part of a wider endeavor to position Turkey’s “brand” of Islam as a bridge between “West” and “East” (essentially conceived) contra Saudi Arabia in a “cold-war for Sunni hegemony.” In a globalized world it is not possible to consider “Islam in Turkey” in any isolated manner or from a solely national, or even regional, point-of-view. Instead, it is necessary to cast the subject into a greater globalized context with attendant theoretical and methodological considerations. This chapter is an attempt to do so. Therefore, this inquiry will help researchers and the interested public better understand lived and political Islam in Turkey in a global context, involved in a feedback loop with various interlocutors including not only the usual suspects (e.g. the E.U., U.S., Saudi Arabia), but nations typically on the periphery of critical considerations of Islam in Turkey (e.g. Cuba and other Latin American and Caribbean countries).

You can read the article HERE or pre-order a copy of the full text on Amazon. 

*UPDATE: The first publicly mosque is now open in Havana. Sponsored by Saudi dollars with input from several other Muslim majority nations (including Turkey's Diyanet) it is located at Calle Oficío, No. 18 on the corners of Obrapía & Obispo. It was opened in 2016.  

Do people need more grace?

People. Need. Grace.

Period.

Walk into your church. Step out into the streets. You will find people hurting. Limping along in life. Struggling to understand, and seek out, faith, love, and hope in the midst of the problems of pain, death, and the tension between what is and what ought to be in this world.

Profiling Kanye West's Pastor

Recently I sat down with Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr., known to many as "Kanye West's pastor." 

Wilkerson Jr. burst into the limelight as the hottest holy man around when he officiated the wedding between Kanye West and Kim Kardashian last year. Today, Wilkerson and his wife DawnCheré have a new book; Sandcastle Kings: Meeting Jesus in a Spiritually Bankrupt World (Thomas Nelson, Nov.); a new reality TV show on Oxygen, Rich in Faith; and a new church, VOUS Church, in downtown Miami. 

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With all the lights, cameras, fast cars, and pop stars, some critics complain that Wilkerson is all cover and no content. Despite the celebrity profile and media attention, the 31-year-old pastor insists that his work is not all style, no substance. “The book, the show, the speaking, the preaching—it’s all growing out of my heart as a pastor of a local church where people can find a place to belong,” he told PW.

Yet, the people he feels called to work with are not your run-of-the-mill church folk. Where some ministry leaders might head to third-world countries, Wilkerson believes his mission is elsewhere.

People of Peace Documentary

In Sterling Heights, Michigan the battle over the proposed construction of a mosque precipitated religious and cultural tension between Christians and Muslims. The UN reported that Christian militias are engaged in ethnic cleansing of Muslims in an ongoing Central African Republic civil war. At the same time, over the previous weekend (October 11, 2015) after hearing about armed protests scheduled to take place around mosques throughout the U.S., hundreds came out to rally around their Muslim neighbors in support.

In the midst of all these headlines, I had the pleasure of talking with Michal. She is doing inspiring peacemaking work with Christians and Muslims. She wrote of her calling, “I'm passionate about helping local churches effectively interact with the Muslim community around them; overcoming stereotypes/fears/misunderstandings, share faith and work together for the common good. I do this through my PhD research, the many grassroots events I organize with Muslims and Christians in California, and the documentaries I'm working on.”

While her work is primarily in Southern California, the impact is global. Michal, and her Muslim friend and partner Sondos — who together maintain the site MissUnderstanding.co — are confident that what they do is a significant part of the peacemaking process across the world. 

One of the many projects Michal and Sondos are working on is the “People of Peace Documentary.” The project is about Muslims and Christians learning what it means to become friends while staying true to their faith. 

In the clip above, twelve Christians visit a local mosque to learn more about their Muslim neighbors. They are paired with a Muslim their age and gender to talk about what their faith means to them. The goal is to talk candidly and openly about any subject.

Interacting with someone from another religion on their terms and at their place of worship or practice is one of the best avenues for better understanding and increased dialogue between people of disparate faiths. Such experiences “re-humanize” the religious “other” more than a lecture, a book, or even an in-class discussion. Beyond learning, students are then able to identify with the religious “other.” 

As Yehezkel Landau wrote, “We need to develop educational strategies to overcome the ignorance that leads to prejudice, which in turn leads to dehumanizing contempt, which in turn breeds violence.” Friendships between people of different religious persuasions are not only personally fulfilling, but educationally efficacious and potentially life-changing. Sometimes, people talk just once. Other times, they make lifelong friends and change the world together. 

Watch the video to find out more and to consider a program like it with your local masjid or church communities.

Blogging like an academic

When I started blogging I had two readers: my mom and some random dude in Sweden. To say the least, I was a HUGE hit (with that said, my mom did read my posts multiple times, thus amplifying my stats. Thanks mom!). Several years, and multiple blog platforms, later my reach has expanded to include readership across the world and provided opportunities to speak regularly on real-world issues and impact opinions, discourse, and action concerning global Islam, Islam in the U.S., religion and popular culture, and religious literacy in general. It’s been humbling, to say the least. 

As an academic — that is, someone who is actively engaged in the academic pursuit of religious studies — I feel that my role as a blogger has never been so important. I also believe that it has never been more pressing for more academics to be engaged with blogging. 

There are many reasons and many other academics, involved in religious studies and otherwise, who provide their “why” for blogging as an academic. Dan Cohen, the Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America wrote, “shaped correctly, a blog can be a perfect place for that extra production of words and ideas.” Russel McCutcheon, Chair of the Religion Department at the University of Alabama, said, “[Blogging] seems to me a logical extension of what I do in all of my professional life: work with others to model a certain way of thinking about human subjects, what they do and what they leave behind after they’re gone — doing that modeling on a public catwalk without a net, where others can be the judges, deciding if they like my style or which struts of their own they’d prefer to use.” He also added that it democratizes the academic discussion of religion and other topics. Finally, I quote Adam T. Miller, a PhD student in the History Religions at the University of Chicago about being a young academic blogger, “I think it’s a good idea to start a blog…to find conversation partners, build a social network, and so forth.” In other words, it might help you get a job. Oh yeah…that. 

All of these are relevant and wonderful points when it comes to the why of blogging as an academic. For me I started my blogging career in 2009 with the express purpose of combatting religious illiteracy. Inspired by Stephen Prothero’s Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn’t and goaded by the results of Pew Research Center’s survey of religious knowledge I wrote of my original blog (Ubuntu Spirit), “this blog’s intention is to raise awareness concerning religion, to educate those who desire to understand more about other religions and prayerfully increase dialogue between people of both faith and non-faith in an effort to better understand one another in today’s (post)modern age.”

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The game is still the same. I write for the same reasons and I am actively working on inviting, encouraging, and prodding other academics in the field of religious studies (or related fields such as history, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, psychology, etc.) to start blogging as well. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to share the why, what, and how of academic blogging at a Digital Humanities Seminar at the University of Florida. I’m happy to say that three or four new academic blogs are emerging out of this seminar in addition to students and instructors looking to integrate blogging and the use of social media into their classroom experience (thanks in large part to discussion material from Michael J. Altman, kudos sir). The topics will range from religion, embodiment and performance to intentional communities and material religious culture. In other words, they are all going to be très interesting and bloody brilliant! Plus, they are going to contribute valuably to a vital conversation concerning religion and culture. 

More still needs to be done. In fact, maybe you need to start your own blog. With increased attention being given to the integration of digital humanities into the academic toolkit, the ubiquitous nature of technology in academic contexts, and the increased relevance of social media to news dissemination and analysis it’s the perfect time to do so. 

Are you an academic — employed or otherwise, young or seasoned, tenure-track or adjunct, armchair or in-the-field? Get engaged. Start a blog. Become part of the conversation. Here’s what you can do and how you can get started:

1) Jump on a platform.

• Pay or free, individual or group, cross-platform?
• Options for platforms: Wordpress, Squarespace, Blogger
• Options for groups: Patheos, Huffington Post, Sacred Matters, your own department blog
• Whether you go “lone ranger,” start your own group blog, or join up with a strong             platform, you need to work on establishing your voice, so…

2) Design your blog & establish your brand.

• This is the fun part -- make it yours, but make sure it looks good. Grab someone with some sense of graphic design and get feedback from students. Trust me, you want to look good. 

3) Connecting with resources.

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• Start social media accounts to amplify your voice (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.)
• But don’t just start accounts, be social on them — engage with other users, build a network, like, share, retweet, and post stuff other than your blog
• Get to know things like RSS feeds, mail subscription services, F-reading, SEO tools, and     other strange-sounding, but really relevant, interwebs terminology.

4) Start writing! 

• Get writing. I write everyday. I don’t post everyday, but I write everyday. 
• Most blog posts should be between 800-1200 words (at most). 
• Work the three “Ps”: be POPULAR — write for more than four people and try to write on relevant issues, engage with pop culture and the headlines and connect them to broader themes or deeper topics in your area of expertise; be POLITICAL — not right wing or left wing (unless that’s your thing), but take a stance and stick to it, don’t nuance your topic to the point where no point is made; be less PEDANTIC  — communicate in common language, while you don’t want to “dumb it down,” don’t be afraid of slang, breaking some “academic writing rules” and referencing Urban Dictionary. For realz. 
• One last piece of advice for writing — stay away from your core research topics until you’re ready to publish. Why? Because you don’t want to come off undercooked and you absolutely don’t want someone to snipe you’re idea. How rude!
• Also, don’t be boring. Please. 

So that’s that. The WHY. WHAT. HOW of “blogging like an academic.” I could probably write more, but I want to stay within my own expressed word limit. So peace. I’m out. Go start a blog already.