God and Man at the Insurrection
January 4, 2022 6:30 PM Subscribe
"Religious symbols, rituals, identities, banners, signs, and sounds suffused the events surrounding the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This project begins to trace the thread of religion that wound throughout that day through pieces of digital media." Uncivil Religion: A Collaborative Digital Project Between the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Introduction, by Michael J. Altman and Jerome Copulsky: A Religious, Yet Religiously Incoherent Event. "We contend that religion was not just one aspect of the attack on the Capitol, but, rather, it was a thread that weaves through the entirety of the events of January 6."
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Professor of History at Calvin University and the author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation: Braveheart: President Donald J. Trump
Flags
People
(Found thanks to Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.)
Introduction, by Michael J. Altman and Jerome Copulsky: A Religious, Yet Religiously Incoherent Event. "We contend that religion was not just one aspect of the attack on the Capitol, but, rather, it was a thread that weaves through the entirety of the events of January 6."
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Professor of History at Calvin University and the author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation: Braveheart: President Donald J. Trump
Flags
People
(Found thanks to Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.)
I can’t wait to replace these guys with Jews.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:36 PM on January 4, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:36 PM on January 4, 2022 [17 favorites]
I can not wait to read every word of every link in this post, thank you.
posted by vrakatar at 7:40 PM on January 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 7:40 PM on January 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
Um... Jan 6 is the day of Epiphany, Three Kings Day, the 12th Day Of Christmas.
The Feast of the Baptism of Christ is Jan 13, but it's usually observed on the first sunday after Epiphany.
This was found with a google search. Check your sources, maybe?
posted by hippybear at 7:55 PM on January 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Feast of the Baptism of Christ is Jan 13, but it's usually observed on the first sunday after Epiphany.
This was found with a google search. Check your sources, maybe?
posted by hippybear at 7:55 PM on January 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
Argument over the date is less interesting than jamjam's larger point:
"On this episode of Now & Then, “God & Morality in American Politics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss how politicians and reformers have interacted with faith systems, from Thomas Jefferson’s push for religious liberty, to the 19th-century move for a Christian constitutional amendment, to the rise of the Moral Majority and the religious right."
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:07 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
"On this episode of Now & Then, “God & Morality in American Politics,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss how politicians and reformers have interacted with faith systems, from Thomas Jefferson’s push for religious liberty, to the 19th-century move for a Christian constitutional amendment, to the rise of the Moral Majority and the religious right."
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:07 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
On the "Now & Then" podcast (Heather Cox Richardson) for December 12, it was pointed out that the first modern president to end a speech with "God Bless America" was Richard Nixon. Not because he had any particular religious content in the story, but because Watergate was closing in and he was trying to build support wherever he could find it.
The phrase then went unused by Bush Sr. and Carter, but was appropriated by Reagan who was looking to the "moral majority" to stay in power.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:07 PM on January 4, 2022 [16 favorites]
The phrase then went unused by Bush Sr. and Carter, but was appropriated by Reagan who was looking to the "moral majority" to stay in power.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:07 PM on January 4, 2022 [16 favorites]
Authors mention the plurality of symbols like America itself. The opening slide tells alot.
Ironically, A major biblical figure and probably the most widely cited figure in American History is Moses.
Didn't see no Moses in the crowd.
Bruce Feiler wrote: "in 1946, the third United States army hosted two 'survivors' Sedars" in Munich for 400 people liberated from Nazi concentration camps.The front cover of their special hagadah declared, we were slaves to Hitler and Germany with an introductory essay called Eisenhower, "Moses the liberator."
I'm willing to bet that there's not one representation of Moses in that crowd Jan. 6.
posted by clavdivs at 8:17 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ironically, A major biblical figure and probably the most widely cited figure in American History is Moses.
Didn't see no Moses in the crowd.
Bruce Feiler wrote: "in 1946, the third United States army hosted two 'survivors' Sedars" in Munich for 400 people liberated from Nazi concentration camps.The front cover of their special hagadah declared, we were slaves to Hitler and Germany with an introductory essay called Eisenhower, "Moses the liberator."
I'm willing to bet that there's not one representation of Moses in that crowd Jan. 6.
posted by clavdivs at 8:17 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
This was found with a Google search. Check your sources, maybe?
posted by jamjam at 8:39 PM on January 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
Date of Visit by Magi and Baptism of JesusThis from the Catholic Diocese of Chicago. Perhaps you should take your own advice.
The traditional belief is that Christ was baptized on January 6th. The Magi from the East also came on the same date to adore Jesus 30 years before. So, church commemorates both the events on the same day.
posted by jamjam at 8:39 PM on January 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
God trumps Google.
posted by clavdivs at 9:02 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 9:02 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I could link a zillion other sources, but this is well sourced on its own, and it explains the complicated history of the Feast Of The Baptism, and how it's observed in different eras of time and by different kinds of Christian belief groups. Feast of the Baptism of the Lord [Wikipedia]
posted by hippybear at 9:06 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 9:06 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
My mom stopped regularly attending her crypto-Baptist* church since it went overtly nationalist after 9/11 but still got the emails from the Church and Pastor(s).
The tiptoeing their communication staff had to do about vaccines and indoor masking last year with the congregation was something to behold.
* technically it should be like the Thirty-Ninth Baptist Church in town but who would want to join that??
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 3:40 AM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
The tiptoeing their communication staff had to do about vaccines and indoor masking last year with the congregation was something to behold.
* technically it should be like the Thirty-Ninth Baptist Church in town but who would want to join that??
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 3:40 AM on January 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
There’s a lot of excellent and interesting work here, but I can only handle it a little bit at a time. Last year was a serious roller coaster for my mental health, and in hindsight a significant factor to my abrupt downswing and ending up in the ER by March was the toll the January bullshit took on my anxiety about various facets of my identity and how much the people involved would like me to be gone. I’m lucky and got my shit together now, but I have to take this kind of thing slowly.
I think part of it is a lifetime of training myself to notice dogwhistles, be it my religion, my gender, my lifestyle, my choice of friends, whatever, that I need to be careful of. Watching the riots and the intense stream of news about it that followed was like watching a dam of those dogwhistles burst. And meanwhile, plenty of people around me were saying they didn’t notice much flooding and surely everything would end up fine, while knee deep in sludge.
It’s affirming to see that others saw it too, and it’s being recorded and written about. I liked the essay by Professor Du Mez about Braveheart. I remember living through all of that but was shielded from most of it due to my Jewish upbringing. A boy I knew in highschool who had a big crush on me went from sweet and nerdy to employed at the knife store at the mall and obsessed with chivalry and Braveheart. I did not understand and also rebuffed his attempts to get me to watch it. (I suggested DragonHeart instead, and was scoffed at.) He pulled away and I wonder sometimes if he ever got out of the evangelical black hole. Reading that essay I’ve got a much wider context of what was happening, instead of just a loose understanding gained in college and online geek spaces over the years.
The thing I have to remind myself of as I poke through this at my own pace is that religion establishes a feeling of safety through community. I’m convinced that many of these people would not have chosen belligerent violence if their need for safety and community was met in other ways. Religion should be a tool, not a weapon.
posted by Mizu at 4:26 AM on January 5, 2022 [11 favorites]
I think part of it is a lifetime of training myself to notice dogwhistles, be it my religion, my gender, my lifestyle, my choice of friends, whatever, that I need to be careful of. Watching the riots and the intense stream of news about it that followed was like watching a dam of those dogwhistles burst. And meanwhile, plenty of people around me were saying they didn’t notice much flooding and surely everything would end up fine, while knee deep in sludge.
It’s affirming to see that others saw it too, and it’s being recorded and written about. I liked the essay by Professor Du Mez about Braveheart. I remember living through all of that but was shielded from most of it due to my Jewish upbringing. A boy I knew in highschool who had a big crush on me went from sweet and nerdy to employed at the knife store at the mall and obsessed with chivalry and Braveheart. I did not understand and also rebuffed his attempts to get me to watch it. (I suggested DragonHeart instead, and was scoffed at.) He pulled away and I wonder sometimes if he ever got out of the evangelical black hole. Reading that essay I’ve got a much wider context of what was happening, instead of just a loose understanding gained in college and online geek spaces over the years.
The thing I have to remind myself of as I poke through this at my own pace is that religion establishes a feeling of safety through community. I’m convinced that many of these people would not have chosen belligerent violence if their need for safety and community was met in other ways. Religion should be a tool, not a weapon.
posted by Mizu at 4:26 AM on January 5, 2022 [11 favorites]
For many, "Christianity" is the same as "Conservatism" in that has no meaning other than the label of their team, and the team's fans only attach meaning to winning.
posted by Gelatin at 5:59 AM on January 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Gelatin at 5:59 AM on January 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
Du Mez’s book, Jesus and John Wayne, is eye-opening. It focuses on white evangelicalism’s movement toward making their religion a call to rugged masculinity in all things. No more namby-pamby turning of the other cheek or feeding the hungry. The strongest would be first, and women would know their place. Which many white women are fine with, because their place is still higher than non-white men. I think I learned about this book here, so thank you Metafilter.
posted by zenzenobia at 6:29 AM on January 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by zenzenobia at 6:29 AM on January 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
> MeFites arguing about what's the "true anniversary" of the Baptism of Christ
Do you people have no knowledge of the history of calendars, and of how undecidable this whole question is (even stipulating that the thing being commemorated is an actual historic event)?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:20 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Do you people have no knowledge of the history of calendars, and of how undecidable this whole question is (even stipulating that the thing being commemorated is an actual historic event)?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:20 AM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
When it appeals to faith, politics can Trump truth:
Israeli group mints coin bearing Trump's image … bearing the images of President Donald Trump and King Cyrus [and the Jewish Temple: see photo] to honor Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, CBS News, February 28, 2018.posted by cenoxo at 7:22 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Is Trump Our Cyrus? The Old Testament Case for Yes and No — Christians’ eagerness to understand God’s will in real time can cause them to overlook fundamental biblical and divine principles., Christianity Today, Daniel Block, October 29, 2018.
The Trump administration’s obsession with an ancient Persian emperor, Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, October 31, 2019 (alternate Archive.org link).
And it did strike me with the force of a revelation . . . of the amazing and irreversible extent to which Christianity is woven into the fabric of the US.Not only the US. The entire world west of the Dardanelles and east of the Pacific. Never was there a belief system that so effectively extirpated all alternatives to itself as Western Christianity, and the very languages of half the world's surface are permanently marked by that. There is no escaping Yahweh for anyone born to any of the societies of the former Christiandom. We cannot even express our strongest emotions without making reference to Him.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:27 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]
Aardvark Cheeselog: "Not only the US"
Well, yes, but the role religion plays is different in other countries. In Chile, with a traditional 3rd world Catholic culture, the Catholic church managed to block equal marriage rights and abortion for a long time after public opinion had turned against them, but on the other hand we've had 3 presidents (including newly elected Boric) who openly label themselves as "agnostic", and we just roundly trounced Kast in the presidential elections, and he was the only candidate among an initial 8 (including 4 right wingers) who spoke of Christ, God, etc., during his campaign, and he was denounced for it by people on both sides.
posted by signal at 10:20 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, yes, but the role religion plays is different in other countries. In Chile, with a traditional 3rd world Catholic culture, the Catholic church managed to block equal marriage rights and abortion for a long time after public opinion had turned against them, but on the other hand we've had 3 presidents (including newly elected Boric) who openly label themselves as "agnostic", and we just roundly trounced Kast in the presidential elections, and he was the only candidate among an initial 8 (including 4 right wingers) who spoke of Christ, God, etc., during his campaign, and he was denounced for it by people on both sides.
posted by signal at 10:20 AM on January 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
And it did strike me with the force of a revelation . . . of the amazing and irreversible extent to which Christianity is woven into the fabric of the US.
This isn't Jesus's Christianity. It's Paul's. Jesus was like "oh let me use magic to make a few fish and loaves feed thousands" and Paul was immediately "you don't work, you don't eat" after the ascension of Jesus.
We're a society that can use magic to feed thousands but don't because of Paul.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:55 AM on January 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
This isn't Jesus's Christianity. It's Paul's. Jesus was like "oh let me use magic to make a few fish and loaves feed thousands" and Paul was immediately "you don't work, you don't eat" after the ascension of Jesus.
We're a society that can use magic to feed thousands but don't because of Paul.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:55 AM on January 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
This isn't Jesus's Christianity. It's Paul's.
It's amazing how well Jesus anticipated the faith-versus-works controversy and tried to address it explicitly on the side of works:
posted by Gelatin at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
It's amazing how well Jesus anticipated the faith-versus-works controversy and tried to address it explicitly on the side of works:
41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:Nowhere does Jesus ever condition charity on whether someone "deserves" it.
42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
posted by Gelatin at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
Mizu: A boy I knew in highschool who had a big crush on me went from sweet and nerdy to employed at the knife store at the mall and obsessed with chivalry and Braveheart. I did not understand and also rebuffed his attempts to get me to watch it. (I suggested DragonHeart instead, and was scoffed at.) He pulled away and I wonder sometimes if he ever got out of the evangelical black hole. Reading that essay I’ve got a much wider context of what was happening, instead of just a loose understanding gained in college and online geek spaces over the years.
It's part of that whole incel/neckbeard/mallninja axis; the complexities of modern life, especially relationships, get boiled down to being a guy with a sword, fighting a lonely, gallant battle against whatever their personal bugbear is, hoping to be appreciated by women for their ostensible nobility, but ready to blame them for being too woke or whatever when they're not. (The "I studied the blade" meme is a great encapsulation of this.) The late Navy SEAL/serial fabulist/right-wing pseudomartyr Chris Kyle was best known for appropriating the logo of the comic-book vigilante the Punisher, but he also had a tattoo of a Crusader cross and asserted that he was part of a new crusade.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:54 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]
It's part of that whole incel/neckbeard/mallninja axis; the complexities of modern life, especially relationships, get boiled down to being a guy with a sword, fighting a lonely, gallant battle against whatever their personal bugbear is, hoping to be appreciated by women for their ostensible nobility, but ready to blame them for being too woke or whatever when they're not. (The "I studied the blade" meme is a great encapsulation of this.) The late Navy SEAL/serial fabulist/right-wing pseudomartyr Chris Kyle was best known for appropriating the logo of the comic-book vigilante the Punisher, but he also had a tattoo of a Crusader cross and asserted that he was part of a new crusade.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:54 AM on January 5, 2022 [6 favorites]
This isn't Jesus's Christianity. It's Paul's.
I'm ethnically Jewish (though I don't practice anymore). My immediate ancestors fled Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe to escape pogroms and other forms of violence against them. Branches of the family that remained in Hungary, Romania, and Moldova were exterminated in the Holocaust. After coming to the US, there was thankfully no physical violence, but plenty of anti-Jewish discrimination from all quarters for generations. And, of course, going further back there are millennia of anti-Jewish attacks.
For 2,000 years every form of Christianity, be it Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, every flavor of Protestantism, etc. has proclaimed itself to be the real Christianity, then proceeded to carry on with business as usual towards non-Christians as long as it had even a modicum of power to do so.
All this is to say, as a non-Christian I don't give a shit what "Jesus's Christianity" is. That's between you and Jesus. I am only concerned with not being discriminated against, abused, or killed, and the track record of Christians of all stripes across time and space is pretty abysmal on that front. I suspect this is inevitable in a system of belief that holds forth (i) it is the only true belief; and (ii) it has a divinely-ordained Great Commission to spread this belief and convert everyone to it.
A particular flavor of Evangelical Protestant Christianity is being used by current conservatives in a relatively novel way for American politics/religion, but it's just more of the same old, same old for those of us who have always been outside of it.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:56 PM on January 5, 2022 [14 favorites]
I'm ethnically Jewish (though I don't practice anymore). My immediate ancestors fled Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe to escape pogroms and other forms of violence against them. Branches of the family that remained in Hungary, Romania, and Moldova were exterminated in the Holocaust. After coming to the US, there was thankfully no physical violence, but plenty of anti-Jewish discrimination from all quarters for generations. And, of course, going further back there are millennia of anti-Jewish attacks.
For 2,000 years every form of Christianity, be it Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, every flavor of Protestantism, etc. has proclaimed itself to be the real Christianity, then proceeded to carry on with business as usual towards non-Christians as long as it had even a modicum of power to do so.
All this is to say, as a non-Christian I don't give a shit what "Jesus's Christianity" is. That's between you and Jesus. I am only concerned with not being discriminated against, abused, or killed, and the track record of Christians of all stripes across time and space is pretty abysmal on that front. I suspect this is inevitable in a system of belief that holds forth (i) it is the only true belief; and (ii) it has a divinely-ordained Great Commission to spread this belief and convert everyone to it.
A particular flavor of Evangelical Protestant Christianity is being used by current conservatives in a relatively novel way for American politics/religion, but it's just more of the same old, same old for those of us who have always been outside of it.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:56 PM on January 5, 2022 [14 favorites]
This story is quite telling.
"The pastor, long filled by his faith yet fearful of sharing his beliefs as the nation was at a crossroads, felt a freedom like never before, the nervous excitement of a new path taken, and the doubt of a man who wondered if he could make any difference.
But unburdening oneself comes at a cost"
posted by clavdivs at 4:38 PM on January 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
"The pastor, long filled by his faith yet fearful of sharing his beliefs as the nation was at a crossroads, felt a freedom like never before, the nervous excitement of a new path taken, and the doubt of a man who wondered if he could make any difference.
But unburdening oneself comes at a cost"
posted by clavdivs at 4:38 PM on January 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
"Insurrection Index is a searchable database of records on individuals and organizations in positions of public trust who were involved in the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. As of January 2022, the Insurrection Index has over 1,000 records of those in public trust who played a role in the insurrection."
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:16 PM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:16 PM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
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As I learned just a few weeks ago from a fantasy novel (Ada Legend of a Healer), and I’m sure must be discussed in the links if it happens to be the case, Jan. 6 is a traditional date for the Baptism of Jesus, I presume by John the Baptist.
And it did strike me with the force of a revelation . . . of the amazing and irreversible extent to which Christianity is woven into the fabric of the US. To borrow and repurpose a phrase from Freeman Dyson, we are practicing if not believing Christians, whether we want to be or not.
posted by jamjam at 7:20 PM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]