Course Description

Instructor:  George deMan

How the United States became and still is the strongest defender and promoter of “Christian Values”. From the Puritan, and many other, emigrants denigrating and persecuting the “Native Americans”, through Jonathan Edwards’ fire-breathing sermons to “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, such aberrant fantasies as Mormonism, Millerites, Shakers, Christian Science, Swedeborgians & the Oneida Community, on to 20^th-21^st century evangelists and their eventual cooption into politics, the country whose Founders attempted to separate Church & State has resolutely sought to tear down that wall. Will the wall hold? Will Christian Nationalism prevail? What are the alternatives? A discussion class led by an instructor who has taught comparative religion, politics, conspiracy theory and Culture Wars at OLLI and elsewhere.