Religious Internationalism at the Conference on Faith and History

Lauren Turek

To follow on Andrea L. Turpin's helpful recent post about Women & Gender presentations at the upcoming Conference on Faith and History, I would like to highlight presentations that will have some bearing on religion and international relations, broadly conceived. This includes panels or papers that touch on U.S. foreign policy, diplomacy, religious internationalism, foreign missionary work, war and society, and the like.

The Conference on Faith and History will hold its 31st biennial meeting on October 4-6, 2018 in Grand Rapids, MI. The theme of the conference is “History and the Search for Meaning,” and the full conference schedule is available here.

Panels and papers of particular interest to scholars of religion and internationalism include the following:

Thursday, October 4

Session 2: War, the Environment and the Fallout of Violence
Chair: William Katerberg, Calvin College

Papers:

• “Environmental Impact of the Civil War in Syria," Kincaid Wurl, Southern Adventist University
• “The National Park Service and the Story of the Buffalo National River: A Social Case Study of Environmentalism,” Coplea Donley, John Brown University
• “The Inhibitions of War and Violence on Sustainable Development,” Karyn Ashley Spirek, Huntington University
• “Khmer Rouge: A Traumatized Kingdom,” Jamie Conrad, Huntington University

Session 3: Making Peace and Ending Wars
Chair: Douglas Howard, Calvin College

Papers:

• “Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Social Mechanism Used for Genocide,” Ellie Lawson, Huntington University
• “The Iraqi High Tribunal’s Disruption of Nuremberg Legacy of Post-Conflict Justice,” Adele Duval, Eastern Nazarene College
• “Peace for Cambodia?” Alexandra Seleyman, Huntington University

Session 8: Rebuilding in Europe from Rome to the Cold War

Papers:

• “Controlling Their Emotions: How the Political Establishment Felt About Churchill,”Holly Holton, Huntington University
• “The Practicality of Morality in International Politics: Vaclav Havel and the Larger World,” Paige Hungar, Covenant College
• “Vaclav Havel: Building Democracy in a Post-Communist World,” Madison Morin, Eastern Nazarene College
• “For the Good of Res Publica: Civic Virtue in the Roman Republic,” David Engstrom, Trinity International University

Session 10: Building and Rebuilding through Development, Human Rights, and Diplomacy
Chair: Kelli McCoy, Point Loma Nazarene University

Papers:

• “Rethinking Models of International Development,” Malachi Wise, Huntington University
• “The Failure of Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Japan,” Alana Bates, Huntington University
• “A Communist Economic Miracle?” Alec Boyd-Devine, Huntington University
• “Effectiveness of HUMINT in the Middle East,” Jordan Hayley, Liberty University

Session 14: American Foreign Policy and the Cold War
Chair: William Katerberg, Calvin College

Papers:

• "Neither Saints nor Simpletons: Harry Truman, Anti-Catholicism, and the Nomination of a Vatican Ambassador," Christopher Estep, Eastern Nazarene College
• “FDR, Churchill, and the Future of Postwar Indochina, 1940-1943,” Taylor Holliday, Huntington University
• “Before Vietnam: Understanding the Initial Stages of US Involvement in Southeast Asia,” Jacob Mach, Bowling Green State University & Cedarville University
• “India’s Complications with the Cold War,” Sarah Nelson, Point Loma Nazarene University

Session 15: History, War and Politics in England
Chair: Lisa Clark Diller, Southern Adventist University

Papers:

• “The Steel Wall of England: The Curious Case of the English Knight during the Hundred Years’ War,” Mitchell Gehman, Liberty University
• “Churchill’s Reign of Regrets: A Study of Wartime Leadership,” Claire Harvey, Huntington University
• “The Politics of Terror: The British Cabinet and the Strategic Bombing Campaign of 1918,” Perry Colvin, Auburn University

Friday, October 5

Session 13: Christian Mission in the Non-Western World
Chair: Joel Carpenter, Calvin College

Papers:

• "E.H. Broadbent and Brethren Missions to Russian Turkestan, 1900 and 1908," William Wood, Point Loma Nazarene University
• “Faith and Friendship: The ‘affective cosmopolitanism’ of Charles Freer Andrews (1871-1940),” Bernardo Michael, Messiah College
• “Harriet Newell’s Conversion to Usefulness: Understanding the Memoir that Contextualized American Women in Mission,” Hannah Nation, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Comment: Joel Carpenter, Calvin College

Session 14: Missionary Anxieties: Doubt, Empire, and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century British Missions
Chair: Jason Bruner, Arizona State University

Papers:

• “‘Extending a Superior Light Farther than the Roman Eagles Ever Flew’: The Clapham Sect’s Influence in India," Ryan Butler, Baylor University
• “‘Why Doest Thou Thus?’ Suffering, Failure, and Providence in Nineteenth-Century British Missionary Documents,” Kelly Elliott, Abilene Christian University
• “Python Buys Sheep’s Farm: Using Non-British Sources on West African Christianity, 1850-1900,” Paul Grant, University of Wisconsin–Platteville

Comment: Jason Bruner, Arizona State University

Saturday, October 6

Session 34: “And He Must Win the Battle”: God and Nation in Twentieth Century England, Germany and the United States
Chair: Erik Benson, Cornerstone University

• “The Power of a Hymn: Choral Singing Defining National Identity,” Ruth Dewhurst, Georgia State University
• “Theodore Roosevelt’s Religious Support for World War I,” Benjamin Wetzel, Taylor University
• “'Massive Retaliation’: Power and Morality in John Foster Dulles’ World,” John Wilsey, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Comment: Erik Benson, Cornerstone University


Session 38: Roundtable on Dale Van Kley's Reform Catholicism and the International Suppression of the Jesuits in Enlightenment Europe
Chair: Katherine van Liere, Calvin College

Participants:
Jeffrey D. Burson, Georgia Southern University
Andrea Smidt, Geneva College
Daniel Watkins, Baylor University
Comment: Dale Van Kley, Ohio State University Emeritus

Session 44: Christianity and Secularism in the Twentieth-Century United States
Paper:  "Catholic Conscience Language in the Secular Human Rights Revolution, 1970-1985"
Peter Cajka, University of Notre Dame

Session 50: Roundtable: New Perspectives on Religion in American Internationalism
Chair: Gale Kenny, Barnard College

Participants:
Emily Conroy-Krutz, Michigan State University
Mark Edwards, Spring Arbor University
Lauren Turek, Trinity University
Daniel Hummel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Comment: Audience


Looking forward to seeing those of you who be attending the conference next week!

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Finds from the Far East Broadcasting Company Digital Archives: Missionary Radio and the Cuban Missile Crisis

Map showing potential ranges of Soviet MRBM and IRMB
missiles from Cuba. Source: JFK Library

For thirteen days in October 1962, the world stood on the precipice of disaster as the United States and the Soviet Union faced off over the placement of Soviet missiles on the island of Cuba. The construction of nuclear missile sites just 90-miles off of the coast of the United States posed an existential national security threat and brought the Cold War superpowers to the brink of nuclear war. After days of tense discussions with his advisors about how to handle the unfolding crisis, President John F. Kennedy announced to the world that he would impose a naval “quarantine” to keep Soviet ships from delivering weapons to Cuba and demanded that Soviet Premier Khrushchev remove the missile sites from the island. The October 22 speech was broadcast to televisions and radios across the United States, but it also reached radios in Cuba—thanks in part to missionary radio station networks such as the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC). Documents and images from the FEBC International digital archive provide some fascinating insight into this important moment in the crisis.


President Kennedy requested ten radio stations with the range to reach Cuba, including FEBC shortwave station KGEI in San Carlos, California, to broadcast hours of Voice of America (VOA) programming throughout the crisis as well as his October 22 speech. This speech included a direct message to the Cuban people:

Finally, I want to say a few words to the captive people of Cuba, to whom this speech is being directly carried by special radio facilities. I speak to you as a friend, as one who knows of your deep attachment to your fatherland, as one who shares your aspirations for liberty and justice for all. And I have watched and the American people have watched with deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution was betrayed-- and how your fatherland fell under foreign domination. Now your leaders are no longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals. They are puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which has turned Cuba against your friends and neighbors in the Americas--and turned it into the first Latin American country to become a target for nuclear war--the first Latin American country to have these weapons on its soil.

These new weapons are not in your interest. They contribute nothing to your peace and well-being. They can only undermine it. But this country has no wish to cause you to suffer or to impose any system upon you. We know that your lives and land are being used as pawns by those who deny your freedom.

Many times in the past, the Cuban people have risen to throw out tyrants who destroyed their liberty. And I have no doubt that most Cubans today look forward to the time when they will be truly free--free from foreign domination, free to choose their own leaders, free to select their own system, free to own their own land, free to speak and write and worship without fear or degradation. And then shall Cuba be welcomed back to the society of free nations and to the associations of this hemisphere. [1]

The speech reflected the anti-communist stance of the Kennedy administration. Drawing links between democratic governance, liberal capitalism, and support for religious freedom, American leaders such as Kennedy sought to highlight the differences between the United States and the atheistic, communist Soviet Union and its client states. In an atmosphere of Cold War competition—which included the arms race as well as the ideological battle for "hearts and minds" in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East—such rhetoric took on considerable importance.

The missile crisis ended on October 28, when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba. In early December 1962, Kennedy invited the station owners who had broadcast the speech and VOA programs to the White House to receive a special commendation for their patriotism and contributions to national security. Robert Bowman, the president of the Far East Broadcasting Company was one of the ten station owners who received this commendation.

Robert H. Bowman, president and co-founder of the FEBC, receives a handshake and award from U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on behalf of KGEI, at a ceremony following the successful blockade of ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Image used with permission from the FEBC Archives.

Associated Press article in a Danville (Virginia) newspaper on the award ceremony in which President Kennedy honored KGEI and nine other broadcasters for their communication service during the Cuban Crisis of September-October of 1962. Photos and the award can be viewed in images #200, 201, 205. Venue: White House, Washington, D.C. Newspaper: The Register: Danville,VA., December 5, 1962. Image used with permission from the FEBC Archives.

The certificate that President John F. Kennedy presented to FEBC President Robert H. Bowman in a special ceremony at the White House. Image used with permission from the FEBC Archives.

Aside from highlighting an interesting moment in the history of the roles that evangelical Christian organizations have played in U.S. foreign relations, the story also reveals the tremendous growth that American missionary radio stations had experienced by the 1960s. FEBC had begun broadcasting Christian programming from the Philippines in 1948, using a small 1000-watt transmitter with a limited range. Eager to share the Gospel with the millions of unreached people throughout the world, the FEBC and other similar missionary radio stations expanded their operations considerably throughout the decades that followed. By the 1960s, FEBC was broadcasting evangelistic programming in dozens of languages and dialects on transmitters that could reach radios across Latin America, Asia, and the Soviet Union. The story of this expansion is one that blends the histories of missionary work with the histories of technology, globalization, informal empire, and international relations during the Cold War.

Since these stories make up part of my book manuscript, I was delighted to come across the digital archive that the FEBC maintains. The archive includes a fascinating array of photographs, documents, and radio programs that have been digitized. According to the site, “The Archive consists of digital representations of audio, scanned photographs, documents, objects, and copies of digital images which represent the life of FEBC, including images of events influencing its founding in 1946 to the present. This archive was originally compiled and designed by Jim Bowman of International Christian Radio Associates after his retirement from FEBC. Not only is Jim the son of Robert Bowman, co-founder of Far East Broadcasting Company, he held a number of positions within FEBC including president of FEBC USA. The initial focus of the archive by Jim Bowman was collecting documentation from the first twenty years of FEBC's development, 1946 to about 1965." It is keyword searchable but also fascinating to browse. For historians of religion interested in the history of missionary radio, this is a really exciting resource.


[1] John F. Kennedy, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy; Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1961-1963 (Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1962), 486. For the text of the full speech, follow this link.

Note: since some of the material in the archive is sensitive, I strongly encourage anyone interested in using the materials for publication to contact the FEBC for permissions.

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"Exploring the Global History of American Evangelicalism": A Special Issue of the Journal of American Studies

Lauren Turek

The Journal of American Studies recently ran a special issue entitled "Exploring the Global History of American Evangelicalism." According to organizers Kendrick Oliver, Uta A. Balbier, Hans Krabbendam, and Axel R. Schäfer, the collected articles aim to "explore the changes over time in American evangelical conceptions of the 'global," "document the diversity of means used by American evangelicals in their efforts to make the world one in Christ," examine "the role played by the politics of affection in relations between American evangelicals and the outside world," and "identif[y] the overseas work of US evangelicals as making an integral contribution to the expansion and perpetuation of their nation’s influence as exercised across a global horizon through the long twentieth century" (1038-41). With essays by Heather Curtis, Axel R. Schäfer, Hans Krabbendam, David R. Swartz, Timothy Stoneman, Uta A. Balbier, Melani McAlister, Kendrick Oliver, and John Maiden, the issue does not disappoint. These articles will be of great value for those interested in the history of American evangelical internationalism. 

The special issue features the following articles:

• Heather D. Curtis, "Popular Media and the Global Expansion of American Evangelicalism in an Imperial Age," pp. 1043-1067.
  
• Axel R. Schäfer, "Evangelical Global Engagement and the American State after World War II," pp. 1069-1094
  
• Hans Krabbendam, "Full Members of the TEAM? Evangelical Women in the European Mission, 1945–1980," pp. 1095-1116.
  
• David R. Swartz, "Christ of the American Road: E. Stanley Jones, India, and Civil Rights," pp. 1117-1138.
  
• Timothy Stoneman, "Global Radio Broadcasting and the Dynamics of American Evangelicalism," pp. 1139-1170.
  
• Uta A. Balbier, "The World Congress on Evangelism 1966 in Berlin: US Evangelicalism, Cultural Dominance, and Global Challenges," pp. 1171-1196.
  
• Melani McAlister, "The Global Conscience of American Evangelicalism: Internationalism and Social Concern in the 1970s and Beyond," pp. 1197-1220.
  
• Kendrick Oliver, "The Origin and Development of Prison Fellowship International: Pluralism, Ecumenism and American Leadership in the Evangelical World 1974–2006," pp. 1221-1242.
  
• John Maiden, "Renewing the Body of Christ: Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA and Transnational Charismatic Anglicanism, 1978–1998," pp. 1243-1266.
  
  

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