Superchurch: The Rhetoric and Politics of American Fundamentalism

268 Pages·2015·1.077 MB·English

by  Jonathan J. Edwards

Superchurch
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Superchurch
The Rhetoric and Politics of
American Fundamentalism
Jonathan J. Edwards
Michigan State University Press (cid:129) East Lansing
Copyright © 2015 by Jonathan J. Edwards
i
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Michigan State University Press
East Lansing, Michigan 48823- 5245
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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series editor
Martin J. Medhurst, Baylor University
editorial board
Denise M. Bostdorff, College of Wooster
G. Thomas Goodnight, University of Southern California
Robert Hariman, Northwestern University
David Henry, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Robert L. Ivie, Indiana University
Mark Lawrence McPhail, Southern Methodist University
John M. Murphy, University of Illinois
Shawn J. Parry- Giles, University of Maryland
Angela G. Ray, Northwestern University
Mary E. Stuckey, Georgia State University
Kirt H. Wilson, Penn State University
David Zarefsky, Northwestern University
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014949057
ISBN: 978- 1- 61186- 159- 4 (cloth)
ISBN: 978- 1- 60917- 447- 7 (ebook: PDF)
ISBN: 978- 1- 62895- 170- 7 (ebook: ePub)
ISBN: 978- 1- 62896- 170- 6 (Kindle)
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Contents
x
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter One. The Public and Its Fundamentalists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter Two. The Fundamentals of Revival. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter Three. Countersymbols and Confederacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter Four. The Superchurch Revealed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter Five. The Superchurch Reimagined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Chapter Six. The Limits of Accommodation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Acknowledgments
x
Im ust begin by thanking the faculty and students at Northwestern Uni-
versity and the University of South Carolina for helping to make the
last decade of my life wonderfully rich and full. I have been privileged
to be part of such amazing intellectual communities. This book began
as a dissertation, and my first thanks go to the members of my disserta-
tion committee. The late Ernesto Laclau expanded my intellectual vision
and my perceptions of what generosity, humor, and scholarship can and
should be. Dilip Gaonkar has consistently pushed me to ask bigger ques-
tions. David Zarefsky opened the doors of rhetorical history and public
address scholarship. Finally, Robert Hariman offered insightful critiques
throughout the evolution of this project, and he has consistently moti-
vated me to take my research and my writing to the next level. Among
my fellow graduate students at Northwestern University, special thanks
must go to Tim Barouch, Randy Iden, Brandon Inabinet, Kate Johnston,
Kim Singletary, and Sara VanderHaagen who have all read and responded
to various portions of the text. At the University of South Carolina, Erik
Doxtader has been a thoughtful colleague and mentor, and I am grateful
for his advice, suggestions, and support.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
At Michigan State University Press, series editor Martin J. Medhurst
has been instrumental in guiding the manuscript through the review
and acquisitions process. I want to thank Kristine M. Blakeslee, Bonnie
Cobb, Travis Kimbel, Julie Loehr, Annette Tanner, Anastasia Wraight,
and everyone else at the press who worked to bring this book to publica-
tion. Frank Beckwith, Denise M. Bostdorff, and G. Thomas Goodnight
offered critical and insightful reviews of the manuscript. Sherry L. Smith
provided indexing services. Finally, a portion of chapter 3 was previously
published in the journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and I am grateful to
the Michigan State University Press journals division for allowing it to
be reprinted here.
This book could not exist without the generous assistance of many
librarians, archivists, and support staff. In particular, I want to acknowl-
edge the staff of the Northwestern University Library, the United Library
at Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary, and the Thomas Cooper
Library at the University of South Carolina who graciously tolerated
my continual questions and requests for obscure Fundamentalist books
and pamphlets. The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College provided
critical texts from William Bell Riley and other early twentieth-c entury
Fundamentalists, and the third chapter of this volume owes much to the
generosity of their archivists and staff. Finally, thanks are owed to the
churches that I visited during my time working on this project, including
the Moody Church, the First United Methodist Church in the Chicago
Temple Building, the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, and
the Willow Creek Community Church campuses at South Barrington
and the North Shore.
Without the support of my family, none of this would have been pos-
sible. My parents, Phil and Barb Edwards, have consistently modeled a
humbling work ethic and encouraged me to ask questions. Perhaps most
importantly, they created a home full of books and offered me regular
trips to the public library to get more. I want to thank my siblings—
David, Joel, and Ellen— for their encouragement and for not taking any
of this too seriously. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my wife, Tiffany
Beverly, who devoted hours of her own time to reading drafts, kept me
going when I most needed the encouragement, and kept believing that I
would publish when I believed she was crazy. She is my home, my best
friend, and my partner, and to her this work is dedicated.
Introduction
x
Christian Fundamentalism is an undeniable facet of public and
political life in the United States.1 Yet its status within the
public sphere remains an ongoing source of confusion and frus-
tration for political theorists, pundits, and ordinary citizens. Seemingly
out of nowhere, Fundamentalist believers rose up in the late 1970s to
transform the American political and social landscape. Pastors have
joined with media personalities and conservative politicians to advo-
cate against defense- spending cuts, gun- control legislation, abortion,
and feminism. Fundamentalist perspectives dominate debates over
welfare reform, rights for same-s ex couples, and education standards in
the public schools. Questions abound: What motivates Fundamentalist
politics? How is political engagement justified in the face of apocalyp-
tic narratives that seem to negate the efficacy of human action? What
exactly are they fighting, and what are they fighting for?
These questions cannot be adequately answered unless we take seri-
ously that Fundamentalism is, at its essence, a church movement. By
this I mean not that Fundamentalism is wholly contained within a par-
ticular institution or denomination, but that Fundamentalist political
ix