Hello. Hello and I'm associate professor of religious studies at Skidmore College. Today will be a shorter episode. It's just me today because

we are busy curating our new series, a history of the Religious Rights since 1960. We're busy working on that, but I did want to just

provide some commentary today on an image that is making its rounds on social media and it comes from protests

against stay-at-home orders. I posted yesterday on our Patreon feed about an image from Harrisburg PA where protesters were

loudly proclaiming their disdain for shelter and place orders and having to stay at home and the economy being shut down and all this kind of stuff.

And at the protest a truck was driven by the crowd and it said on its on its hood Jesus is my vaccine and I

talked about this on the patreon feed yesterday because there was another image

of a nurse standing sort of in front of the

protest blocking some of the traffic and it said you know please go home I don't want to see

you in the ICU and I thought that was interesting because it was two pictures of two worlds

colliding. One of a Christian worldview that is refusing the authority of science and governmental authority and the other of a science and governmental authority,

and the other of a medical professional who represents

secular authority, who represents scientific evidence,

health care, and she obviously was,

had a much different take on what's happening

than the protesters.

Well, today I was reminded by Peter Manseau

of some history that is actually pretty relevant to this.

So Peter Manseau is the curator of religion

at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

And Peter's written a number of things, but one of the things that he's written that I've

read and recommend is One Nation Under Gods. And it's a nice sort of history of religion in the United States

...