A History of Conspiracy Theories & Evangelicals (#100)

Religion on the Mind

Religion, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2021

⏱️ 98 minutes

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Summary

I’m joined by Dr. Sam Perry to discuss the tangled historical web of White Evangelicals in the US and their use of and affiliation for various conspiracy theories, starting in the 1950 around “outside agitators” in the Civil Rights movement. Sam traces through lines all the way up to Donald Trump, hitting the Moral Majority, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye/Left Behind, Obama, and birtherism along the way. We also get some historical context for many conspiracy theories that we were taught in Evangelical households growing up: the Satanic panic, New Age denunciations, the “gay agenda,” anti-Catholic sentiment, and more. We talk about parallel institutions within Evangelicalism and their distribution role in disseminating certain conspiracy theories. It was a lot to cover, and more could be said about almost every issue that came up, but I think listeners will find it helpful (and even entertaining) nonetheless.Sam’s article on The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/amp/evangelical-leaders-like-billy-graham-and-jerry-falwell-sr-have-long-talked-of-conspiracies-against-gods-chosen-those-ideas-are-finding-resonance-today-132241Why Are Christians Succeptible to Conspiracy Theories?:https://www.abc.net.au/religion/why-are-christians-susceptible-to-conspiracy-theories/13003550The American Life "The Problem We All Live With": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with-part-oneRhetorics of Race and Religion on the Christian Right: https://www.amazon.com/Rhetorics-Race-Religion-Christian-Right-ebook/dp/B081LMTKFZEdited by Josh Gilbert (joshgilbertmedia@gmail.com -- he is accepting more work!)Join the Patreon for exclusive episodes (and more) every month: patreon.com/dankochEmail about the "sliding scale" for the Patreon: youhavepermissionpodcast@gmail.comYHP Patron-only FB group: https://tinyurl.com/ycvbbf98Website: youhavepermissionpod.comJoin Dan's email list: dankochwords.comArtwork by http://sprungle.co/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	My name is Dan Koch. Like many of you, I've been on a complicated faith journey for a number of years now.
0:10.8	And while I tend to find myself on the progressive side of Christianity, my goal is not to make liberal converts.
0:18.1	I want this show to be a resource for Christians to my right and to my left, as well as
0:23.0	former Christians and non-religious folks, anyone who finds themselves asking difficult questions
0:29.2	about God, science, prayer, fate, suffering, evangelism, and more. So many of us have been given bad answers to those good
0:40.4	questions, often by people with pure intentions. I want to say that you have permission to take
0:47.4	both Christianity and the modern world very seriously. And I hope to facilitate that by introducing
0:54.1	you to people seeking God across
0:56.5	the Christian spectrum, engaging hard questions in a multitude of ways. Thanks for listening.
1:04.6	My guest today is Dr. Sam Perry. He's a rhetorician and professor of history and communications
1:10.5	at Baylor University
1:11.9	in Waco, Texas. Now, this is a complex issue with a lot of connective tissue all over the place,
1:18.8	this idea of the history of evangelicalism and its relationship or overlap with conspiracy
1:24.8	theories in particular. So please bear with Sam and I as we try and
1:29.4	keep a somewhat organized flow of conversation through all of this. I think it was helpful actually
1:35.2	to talk with someone whose expertise is in rhetoric on a topic like this, because that ends up
1:41.3	making Sam a kind of a historian of speeches, polemical books, and
1:46.2	official statements. And for something like conspiracy theories, being able to compare those
1:51.6	statements over time makes it easier and super interesting to trace the various lineages.
1:58.0	The big takeaway from the conversation today is that conspiratorial thinking and
2:02.4	specifically conspiracy theories have had a significant place in evangelical thought for a long
2:07.7	time. But I feel like this conversation has only made me even more curious to learn more about
	...

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