The Color of America’s Culture Wars

This essay argues that in spite of their obvious Biblically-based subject matter, clear Christian content, and undeniable evangelical perspective, the Left Behind novels for kids are not simply religious books; they are also political ones. Co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins may claim that their narratives are interested in sharing the good news about Jesus for the sake of the future, but they are equally concerned with offering commentary on contentious US cultural issues in the present. Given the books’ adolescent readership, they are especially preoccupied with the ongoing conservative crusade concerning school prayer. As advocates for this issue, LaHaye and Jenkins make use of a potent blend of current socio-political arguments and of past events in evangelical church history: namely, the American Sunday School Movement (ASSM). These free, open-access Sabbath schools became the model for the public education system in the United States. In drawing on this history, the Left Behind series suggests that the ASSM provides an important precedent for the presence not simply of Christianity in the nation's public school system, but of evangelical faith in particular.

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Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Front

Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions ◽

10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.183 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 183-184

Keyword(s):

Culture Wars

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A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars by Andrew HartmanA War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, by Andrew Hartman. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2015. 342 pp. $30.00 US (cloth), $19.00 US (paper).

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.ach.51.1.rev34 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 194-196

Author(s):

Roger L. Geiger

Keyword(s):

Culture Wars ◽

University Of Chicago ◽

History Of ◽

The University ◽

University Of Chicago Press

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Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945 Daryle Williams

The Public Historian ◽

10.2307/3379541 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 123-124

Author(s):

Bryan McCann

Keyword(s):

Culture Wars

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Culture Wars in Brazil

10.2307/j.ctv125jknm ◽

2001 ◽

Author(s):

Daryle Williams

Keyword(s):

Culture Wars

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Words as Weapons

10.1093/oso/9780198791591.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Connal Parr

Keyword(s):

Northern Ireland ◽

Working Class ◽

Culture Wars ◽

Post Conflict ◽

Literary Heritage ◽

Republican Movement ◽

Artistic Merit

‘Culture wars’ in Northern Ireland are literary and rest upon the misperception—and political claim—that Ulster Protestants lack a culture aside from Orangeism. Unionist politicians and Republican writers have accordingly cultivated the myth that Ulster Protestants lack literary heritage and have never been involved in the theatre. The community has internalized a post-conflict ‘defeatism’ and a conviction that it has produced little or nothing of artistic merit. This has been fortified by the individualist, splintered nature of the Protestant community as opposed to the more cohesive and communally robust Catholic equivalent. The Republican movement and its associated writers mainly view literature as an arm of the struggle, which is shown to be important in bringing about an end to conflict, but has led to a derogation of working-class Protestants. The chapter also considers Ulster Loyalist engagement with poetry and drama.

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