Religion in the American Experience

• A Journalist's View of 20th-century American Religion

  We deeply appreciate Kenneth Woodward taking time to speak with us and share stories and perspectives on religion in the latter half of 20th-century America. This will help each of us better understand what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion, equipping us to more successfully buttress the fragile and meaningful American experiment is self-government. Kenneth Woodward was hired as a journalist by the Omaha Sun newspaper in 1962. In 1964, he was named Religion Editor for Newsweek and remained in that position until 2002. He also served as the Ideas section editor from 1974 through 1978, and was named Senior Writer in 1988. After his retirement as Religion editor, he continued as a contributing writer to Newsweek, and as Regent's Lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara.. He is the Writer-in-residence at the Lumen Christi Institute of the University of Chicago. In his book Getting Religion, which was published in 2016, he shares unique views and perspectives from his journalistic perch of the American religious landscape in the latter-half of the 20th century.

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• American Religion: The Seventh-day Adventist Church

  Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo. Season 3, Episode 24: American Religion: The Seventh-day Adventist Church Guest Bio Dr. David Trim is the Director of the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research for the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. Born to missionary parents in Bombay, India, David was raised in Sydney, Australia, and educated in the United Kingdom. He has a BA from Newbold College and a PhD from King’s College London, University of London. For ten years he taught undergraduate courses in history and graduate courses in missiology at his alma mater, Newbold College, in England, and then for two years held the Walter C. Utt Chair of History at Pacific Union College in California. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 18 books, and has additionally published eighty scholarly articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is an adjunct professor of church history at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Background The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the few religions founded in the United States, coming into existence during the 19th century’s Second Great Awakening. Today it has approximately a million members-plus in the United States and upwards of 21 million members outside the U.S. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world. On today’s episode we will explore the history of this home-grown American church, what its beliefs are, what roles it has played in the unfolding of the American project, and what roles it plays today on America’s dynamic religious landscape.    

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• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Responds to "American Primeval"

  Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo. Season 3, Episode 23: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Responds to “American Primeval.” Guest Bio Dr. Matthew C. Godfrey is a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers and a senior historian in the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He holds a PhD in American and public history from Washington State University. Matt has authored or coedited several books, including five volumes in the Joseph Smith Papers, The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden: Essays on Mormon Environmental History, and Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921. Instagram handle: @matacious. Background On January 9th, 2025, Netflix released “American Primeval”, a series that uses the Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah as a lens to explore frictions between Latter-day Saints and other cultures in the Utah Territory during the latter half of the 19th century. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement addressing the series, which reads in part: "A recently released streaming series presents a fictionalized interpretation of events in mid-19th century Utah. While historical fiction can be illuminating, this drama is dangerously misleading. Brigham Young, a revered prophet and courageous pioneer, is, by any historical standard, egregiously mischaracterized as a villainous, violent fanatic. Other individuals and groups are also depicted in ways that reinforce stereotypes that are both inaccurate and harmful. As to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which the series inaccurately portrays as reflective of a whole faith group, the Church has long acknowledged and condemned this horrific tragedy. It has also taken significant steps to uncover and share the full truth of what happened and promote healing. The problem with such deceptive, graphic and sensationalized storytelling is that it not only obscures reality and hinders genuine understanding but can foster animosity, hate and even violence." The National Museum of American Religion felt it important to provide an opportunity for the main subject in the series, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to share its understanding of the historical record around Brigham Young, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the church’s efforts to establish itself in the 19th-century Great Basin.

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• The Making of US: Lived Religion in America with Trey Ferguson

  Welcome to another episode of “The Making of US: Lived Religion in America”, a subseries of the podcast “Religion in the American Experience.” In this subseries we explore the role religion has played in the lives of everyday Americans, reminding us that while religion exerts a significant influence on the events and movements of the American project, religions primary work and where it has the most influence, is in the everyday lives of adherents. Today Trey Ferguson of Homestead, Florida and joins to tell us about his own religious history. You can see more about Trey here.   Religion in the American Experience is the podcast of The National Museum of American Religion. This private, digital-first museum explores what America has done to religion and what religion has done to America, which includes the establishment of religious freedom as a governing principle, defined by the Constitution's Article VI and First Amendment religion clauses. Advice advice for podcast episodes is provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance is provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

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• The Women and Men of American Religion. Story 7: Dr. Betty Shabazz

  Dr. Ali is an assistant professor of religion and politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University at St. Louis. Dr. Ali’s research interests include Islam and gender, race and religion, and Muslims in popular culture. Her first book, The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam was published in 2022 with NYU Press, and analyzes how American Muslim women negotiate the Islamic tradition to cultivate religious authority and build gender-equitable worship communities. She received her PhD in religious studies from Boston University in 2019. 

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