Abstract

Research Article| September 01 2020 “Childish Things“: Tragic Conservatism, White Evangelicalism, and the Challenge of Racial Reconciliation John B. Hatch John B. Hatch John B. Hatch is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He would like to thank Prof. Martin Medhurst for dedicating space in Rhetoric & Public Affairs both to the present and previous forums on racial reconciliation, and thank Mark McPhail and David Frank for modeling consilience, mutual respect across differing views, and dialogic coherence in pursuing racial justice and healing. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2020) 23 (3): 587–616. https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.23.3.0587 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation John B. Hatch; “Childish Things“: Tragic Conservatism, White Evangelicalism, and the Challenge of Racial Reconciliation. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 September 2020; 23 (3): 587–616. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.23.3.0587 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2020 Michigan State University Board of Trustees2020 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

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Rhetoric & Public Affairs
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2020-09-01
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10.14321/rhetpublaffa.23.3.0587
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  3. and Mark L. McPhail, "A Question of Character: Re(-) Signing the Racial Contract," Rhetoric & Public Affairs …
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  12. 14. “At its core,” I wrote, the rhetoric of reconciliation “is epideictic: it shows forth agents’ actions and…
  13. 15. For example, both Brown University and Georgetown University examined their past connections with slavery…
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  25. 27. An example of ideological rigidity among Democrats arguably would be their increasing refusal to compromi…
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  28. 30. Burke, Rhetoric of Religion, 4.
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  43. 44. “Compassionate” or “heroic” conservatism is the political philosophy espoused by Washington Post columnis…
  44. 45. Apologizing for the Enslavement and Racial Segregation of African Americans.
  45. 46. Ian Schwartz, “Hume: Obama Sees Things through the Eyes of an Aggrieved Black Activist Rather than of a P…
  46. 47. For McPhail’s explication of rhetoric as coherence, see Mark Lawrence McPhail, The Rhetoric of Racism Rev…
  47. 48. See Mark Lawrence McPhail, “Complicity: The Theory of Negative Difference,” Howard Journal of Communicati…
  48. 49. Wayne Throckmorton, “Eric Metaxas: Hillary Clinton Is 1930s Fascism in Rainbow Colors,” September 25, 201…
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  50. 51. Krishnadev Calamur, “A Short History of ‘America First,‘” Atlantic, January 21, 2017, https://www.theatla…
  51. 52. Hatch, “Dialogic Rhetoric in Letters Across the Divide,” 521.
  52. 53. Hatch, “Dialogic Rhetoric in Letters Across the Divide,” 521.
  53. 54. See Sarah Pulliam Bailey, "White Evangelicals Voted Overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, Exit Polls Show," Wa…
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  57. 57. It is also shaped by the fundamentalist filter found in the commentary of the Scofield Bible on which he …
  58. 58. For example, see Daniel M. Bell Jr., “God Does Not Demand Blood: The Cross and Divine Charity,” Christian…
  59. 59. See René Girard, “Mimesis and Violence,” in The Girard Reader, ed. James G. Williams (New York: Crossroad…
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  61. 61. See René Girard, "The Nonsacrificial Death of Christ," in The Girard Reader, ed. James G. Williams (New Y…
  62. and René Girard, "The Divinity of Christ," in The Girard Reader, ed. James G. Williams (New York: Crossroad, …
  63. 62. Romans 12:1.
  64. 63. Matthew 23:11; Mark 9:33-37; and Luke 22:24-27.
  65. 64. For those evangelicals who would object that they are under serious threat from liberals, one need only c…
  66. 65. See Deborah Jian Lee, “Betrayed at the Polls, Evangelicals of Color at a Crossroads,” Religion Dispatches…
  67. 66. To cite a few prominent examples, Howard Thurman, James Cone, Dwight Hopkins, and other black theologians…
  68. 67. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writing…
  69. 68. Martin Luther King Jr., “Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writin…
  70. 69. King, “Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience,” 46-47.
  71. 70. King, “Where Do We Go from Here,” 578.
  72. 71. McPhail, “A Question of Character.”
  73. 72. 1 Corinthians 13:4-6, New International Version.
  74. 73. As the writer of 1 John observes, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:1…
  75. 74. Ironically, some leaders in the Religious Right celebrated evangelical support for Donald Trump as eviden…
  76. 75. The article goes on to cite the plight of “immigrant aliens and sojourners” and “deterioration of the ear…
  77. 76. “Who We Are,” Sojourners, 2020, https://sojo.net/about-us.
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  79. 78. “Being Completely Pro-Life,” Evangelicals for Social Action, 2020, https://www.evan-gelicalsforsocialacti…
  80. 79. “Our Story,” Justice Conference, 2018, https://www.thejusticeconference.com/about/.
  81. 80. “About (&),” AND Campaign, 2020, https://andcampaign.org/about-1.
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  83. 82. Prominent examples include Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland; Mosaic Church in Little Rock…
  84. 83. Curtiss Paul DeYoung et al., United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of…
  85. 84. DeYoung et al., United by Faith, 141.
  86. 85. The story of Perkins’s early ministry and activism is told in John Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down (Ventur…
  87. 86. John M. Perkins, One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2018), 16.
  88. 87. Charles Marsh and John M. Perkins, Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement toward Beloved Community, exp. ed. (…
  89. 88. Marsh and Perkins, Welcoming Justice, 23.
  90. 89. Charles Marsh, God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Universit…
  91. 90. Marsh and Perkins, Welcoming Justice, 33-34.
  92. 91. In personal communication with the author as the present forum was taking shape, Wilson wrote: “I contend…
  93. 92. See John M. Perkins, Dream with Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017).
  94. 93. Perkins, Dream with Me, 58.
  95. 94. Obama, “First Presidential Inaugural Address.”
  96. 95. Luke 10:37.
  97. 96. Mark 8:34-37.
  98. 97. For a cogent critique of media narratives of monolithic forgiveness by family members of the slain, as we…
  99. 98. Regarding social media response to Brandon Jean's forgiveness of Amber Guyger as versus his mother's call…
  100. and Anne Branigin, "Botham Jean, Amber Guyger and the Delusion of Forgiveness," Root, October 3, 2019, https:…
  101. 99. Luke 6:20-26.
  102. 100. See Luke 4:22-29; Matthew 8:5-12; John 8:31-41; John 6:14-15; and Acts 1:6-8.
  103. 101. See Luke 12:13-21, 14:1-14, 18:9-14, 18:18-25, 19:1-10; and Matthew 21:12-13, 21:28-32.
  104. 102. In the biblical Greek, skandalon is the word for “stumbling stone” or “stumbling block.” See Romans 9:30…
  105. 103. Historian David Bebbington famously defined evangelicalism as characterized by the four qualities of Bib…
  106. 104. King, “Where Do We Go from Here,” 578.
  107. 105. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Other America,” address delivered at Stanford University, April 4, 1967, ht…
  108. 106. For example, a Barna poll found that 94 percent of U.S. American pastors agreed that “the church has a r…
  109. 107. See Van Jones, “Welcome to the Great Awakening,” CNN, June 14, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/opin…
  110. 108. Jones, “Welcome to the Great Awakening.”