White Nationalism and Faith: Statements and Counter-Statements on American Identity (Speaking of Religion)

According to Kenneth Burke, every idea houses its opposite. "Heresies and orthodoxies will always be changing places," he imagined, "but whatever the minority view happens to be at any given time, one must consider it as 'counter.'" In other words, every tradition contains its own critique. Ideas are always in dialogue, bridging gaps that we may not have known existed until the bridges were built. And alongside those bridges are other implied ways to transfer and create meaning. To foreground that pendulum and address our contemporary political climate, White Nationalism and Faith: Statements and Counter-Statements on American Identity includes American texts which wield religious arguments in order to affirm or dismantle white supremacy. William Jennings Bryan, Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones as well as Barack Obama, Phil Snider, and Mitch Landrieu are just a few of the voices in dialogue. This anthology is designed for the upper-level undergraduate or master's student so that they can explore how American rhetors since the Civil War have constituted their white nationalism through religious rhetoric. With this anthology of statements and their contemporaneous counter-statements, students of public address can craft and polish the same serious but comedic lens as Kenneth Burke imagined in the twentieth century. Camille Kaminski Lewis is Visiting Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Furman University. She holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University in Rhetorical Studies and is the author of Romancing the Difference: Kenneth Burke, Bob Jones University, and the Rhetoric of Religious Fundamentalism. Cover 1 Contents 7 Foreword 11 Acknowledgments 15 Part 1: Reconstructing America’s Religious Rhetoric 35 Chapter One: “The South and Her Problems” (Henry Grady) 37 Chapter Two: “Saving America That the World Might Be Saved” (John Roach Straton) 45 Part 2: Maintaining America’s White Piety 51 Chapter Three: “The Theater, the Cards and the Dance” (Billy Sunday) 53 Chapter Four: “Why Princeton Did Not Ask Billy Sunday” (Andrew West) 63 Chapter Five: “Modern Woman” (Bob Jones, SR.) 69 Part 3: Naming America’s White Nationalism 77 Chapter Six: “I Come from Georgia!” (Andrew Cobb Erwin) 79 Chapter Seven: “Jesus Is More Needed” (William Jennings Bryan) 83 Part 4: Separating within America Itself 89 Chapter Eight: “Evangelical Christianity Endangered by Its Fragmentized Condition” (William Ward Ayer) 91 Chapter Nine: “Segregation and the Kingdom of God” (E. Earle Ellis) 97 Chapter Ten: “The Cross and the Sickle” (Billy James Hargis) 105 Chapter Eleven: “Black Manifesto” (James Forman) 113 Chapter Twelve “Christian Manifesto” (Carl Mcintire) 121 Part 5: Redeeming America from Its Original Sin 131 Chapter Thirteen: “Southern Manhood” (Terry Rude) 133 Chapter Fourteen: “The Right Side of History” (Phil Snider) 141 Chapter Fifteen: “Eulogy for State Senator and Pastor Clementa Pinckney” (Barack Obama) 145 Chapter Sixteen: “On Removing Confederate Statues” (Mitch Landrieu) 153 Conclusion: Confessing the Sin of White Nationalism 161 Chapter Seventeen: “Ending Racial Segregation in the Church” (James Williams) 163 According to Kenneth Burke, every idea houses its opposite. "Heresies and orthodoxies will always be changing places," he imagined, "but whatever the minority view happens to be at any given time, one must consider it as 'counter.'" In other words, every tradition contains its own critique. Ideas are always in dialogue, bridging gaps that we may not have known existed until the bridges were built. And alongside those bridges are other implied ways to transfer and create meaning. To foreground that pendulum and address our contemporary political climate, White Nationalism and Faith: Statements and Counter-Statements on American Identity includes American texts which wield religious arguments in order to affirm or dismantle white supremacy. William Jennings Bryan, Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones as well as Barack Obama, Phil Snider, and Mitch Landrieu are just a few of the voices in dialogue. This anthology is designed for the upper-level undergraduate or master's student so that they can explore how American rhetors since the Civil War have constituted their white nationalism through religious rhetoric. With this anthology of statements and their contemporaneous counter-statements, students of public address can craft and polish the same serious but comedic lens as Kenneth Burke imagined in the twentieth century. "According to Kenneth Burke, every idea houses its opposite. "Heresies and orthodoxies will always be changing places," he imagined, "but whatever the minority view happens to be at any given time, one must consider it as 'counter.'" In other words, every tradition contains its own critique. Ideas are always in dialogue, bridging gaps that we may not have known existed until the bridges were built. And alongside those bridges are other implied ways to transfer and create meaning. To foreground that pendulum and address our contemporary political climate, White Nationalism and Faith: Statements and Counter-Statements on American Identity will include American texts which wield religious arguments in order to affirm or dismantle white supremacy. William Jennings Bryan, Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones as well as Barack Obama, Phil Snider, and Mitch Landrieu are just a few of the voices in dialogue. This anthology is designed for the upper-level undergraduate or master's student so that they can explore how American rhetors since the Civil War have constituted their white nationalism through religious rhetoric. With this anthology of statements and their contemporaneous counter-statements, I hope to craft and polish the same serious but comedic lens as Kenneth Burke imagined in the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher This anthology compiles a selection of American texts that wield religious arguments in order to affirm or dismantle white supremacy. William Jennings Bryan, Billy Sunday, and Bob Jones as well as Barack Obama, Phil Snider, and Mitch Landrieu are just a few of the voices in dialogue.