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Losing Faith in the Secular: the Politics of Faith and Knowledge at Two American Parachurches

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Losing Faith in the Secular: the Politics of Faith and Knowledge at Two American Parachurches LOSING FAITH IN THE SECULAR: THE POLITICS OF FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE AT TWO AMERICAN PARACHURCHES Carie Little Hersh A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology. Chapel Hill 2010 Approved by: Christopher T. Nelson, Ph.D. James Peacock, Ph.D. Dorothy Holland, Ph.D. Patricia Sawin, Ph.D. John Jackson, Ph.D. © 2011 Carie Little Hersh ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT LOSING FAITH IN THE SECULAR: The Politics of Faith and Knowledge at Two American Parachurches (Under the direction of Christopher T. Nelson) How do religious organizations understand and experience the secular? This dissertation analyzes how secular institutions and philosophies are experienced by two seemingly opposite religious organizations, the conservative, evangelical Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and the liberal, new age Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE). Despite ideological differences, the organizations share a similar social positioning in that their core philosophies are religious or metaphysical in nature but their institutions are secular in design. As parachurches, these non-denominational religious organizations offer religious or spiritual guidance in combination with political discourse, academic knowledge, and public services in realms that for more than 140 years have been dominated by secularism: education and academia, media, law and government, science, and medicine. As a result, both CBN and ARE offer insightful critiques of the concept of ―the secular‖. Data for this project were gathered primarily during a year‘s participant- observation research in Virginia Beach in 2006, during which the author divided the year between ARE and CBN, working, leading tours, and attending graduate school courses, conferences, prayer meetings, yoga classes, and meditations. Speaking informally with hundreds of participants, the author gathered three dozen formal interviews from people at all levels, from volunteer to CEO, and in a variety of roles across both organizations. Adopting Holland and Lave‘s stance that identities are crafted through collective iii struggles through which positionings of self and other are made meaningful, this dissertation uses Bakhtin‘s sociolinguistic evaluations of dialogue combined with Christian Smith‘s and Talal Asad‘s critical assessments of institutions of power to analyze three core debates: (1) academic representations of Jesus and early Christian history, (2) scientific histories and predictions of earth changes, and (3) medical conceptions of healing and the body. It is through these struggles at the edge of the secular that its authority and power are most clearly experienced, as parachurch members who appeared vaguely confused at references to ―the secular‖ became impassioned and articulate in their description of an oppressive and often invisible force in mainstream American culture that relegates the parachurches to a bounded and often denigrated position outside of mainstream authority and influence. iv To Matt, who has been indispensible from the start, and to Anya, who gave me a reason to finish. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would have never seen its current incarnation without the support of a vast array of friends, family, and mentors. I first wish to deeply thank my advisor, Christopher Nelson, who endured years of listening to my thoughts out loud before he endured years of reading my thoughts on paper. His advice and guidance provided key insights along the way and his support saw this project through to the end. I also wish to thank Jim Peacock for his unfailing support and excellent feedback regardless of distance. I am very grateful to Dottie Holland, Patricia Sawin, John Jackson, and Terry Evens as well for their exceptional insights and constructive criticism along the way. I am deeply appreciative of both the Association for Research and Enlightenment and the Christian Broadcasting Network, along with all of their affiliated organizations and universities. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the organizations and their participants, who gave interviews when they were busy, answered questions no matter how stupid, welcomed me into their organizations and events, and offered personal and financial support for the project. My time and experiences there have enriched my life well beyond this project. Thank you also to the UNC Graduate School and Center for the Study of the American South, along with the Edgar Cayce Foundation, which offered financial support in the research and writing of this dissertation. And finally, I am enormously grateful to my family and friends, who helped me to carry out and, against all odds, finish this project in spite of some notable life events. Whether offering editing, babysitting, moral or financial support, or just a friendly shoulder, I wish to particularly thank my parents and brothers, my parents-in-law, Jerry and Hadara Hersh, Anna Noller, Lucy and Daisuke Takato, Susan Koechner, Cara Shank, Lance Greene, Carole Lewald, Maya Parson, Shannon Couture, Gaby and David Stein, and Amy and Damon McLean. If I were to acknowledge everything my husband Matt has done for me over the last fifteen years I would need another 200 pages. I will say simply that none of this would have happened without him. And of course I must thank Anya for bringing sunshine, silliness, and so much joy to my life. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ xi Chapter I INTRODUCTIONS ..................................................................................................... 1 What is Religion? What is Secular? ............................................................................ 8 Engaging Culture in Christ‘s Name at CBN ............................................................. 14 Synthesizing Eclectic Vision at ARE ........................................................................ 26 Religious Selves and Secular Others ......................................................................... 39 II TRUE TEXTS: HISTORICAL IDENTITY, KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, AND THE SELF ........................................................................... 46 Resurrecting Christian origins – Orthodoxy and Heresy .......................................... 60 Talking Back to Judas at CBN .................................................................................. 65 Reverence .............................................................................................................. 67 Ridicule ................................................................................................................. 73 Common Sense ..................................................................................................... 75 Belief ..................................................................................................................... 76 The Politics of True Knowledge ................................................................................ 77 The Christian Compass and Fear of Secular Knowledge ...................................... 77 Marking the non-Christian ―Other‖, Producing the CBN ―Self‖ ........................... 83 ―Sometimes the Winners Deserve to Win‖ ............................................................ 91 vii Understanding Judas (ARE) ...................................................................................... 96 Respect ................................................................................................................... 97 Scholarly Thesis ................................................................................................... 100 Seeking ................................................................................................................. 106 Locating True Knowledge Within ........................................................................... 106 Heretical Truth, Paulitans, and the Venture Inward ............................................ 107 Fear, Pity, and the Dogmatic ―Other‖ .................................................................. 112 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 117 III FIGHTING SCIENCE WITH SCIENCE AT PAT ROBERTSON‘S CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK ...................................................... 120 Science versus Religion? ......................................................................................... 128 ―Fighting Science with Science‖ ............................................................................. 135 Taking the Scientism out of Science ....................................................................... 151 IV FLEXIBLE KNOWING: HEALING AND THE BODY AT THE ARE ............... 159 Edgar Cayce and Holistic Medicine: Karma as a healing paradigm? ..................... 161 Patient, heal thyself .............................................................................................. 163 ARE and the Holistic Health Movements ............................................................ 166 Truth in Healing ...................................................................................................... 167 Science and Faith at the ARE .................................................................................
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