This papers session investigates the internal debates that occur within transnational evangelical communities. Presenters will engage multiple case studies, exploring questions of how Christians should best relate to social media technologies and social media influencers, how to evaluate individual exemption requests from civil law, and various other attitudes toward war, the religious fringe, and entertainment media. This session presents evangelicals not as a monolithic, morally unified movement but as a spiritually diverse and socially heterogeneous community.
This paper investigates internal debates within the U.S. evangelical community about how Christians should best relate to social media technologies and social media influencers. While some argue that influencing is as old as Christianity itself and that Jesus was the first influencer, others critique the gathering of followers and likes as distracting and even idolatrous. I show that in these spaces we can see evangelical influencers attempting to articulate new theological justifications and standards for proper self-regulation and engagement for themselves and their followers.
This presentation examines over 1,100 letters submitted by American employees in public and private sectors requesting religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine, obtained through public records requests. The thesis differentiates those that were based on truly religious reasons (objections to fetal stem cell lines) from those that were not (e.g., fears over the chemical contents of the vaccine). It has been widely reported that Evangelical Christians are the group most likely to believe in conspiracy theories and reject the vaccine, so the question is: to what extent are the ideas surfacing in COVID-19 vaccine exemption request letters Evangelical? How are these ideas disseminated via the internet and social media? These findings will be used to inform a new framework for evaluating religious exemptions to civil law that is fair to those who have religious beliefs and also does not threaten public health and safety.
American evangelist Billy Graham has conducted evangelistic meetings in Japan. Numerous Japanese Christians have demonstrated a significant interest in Graham's events. Although small, the Christian population in Japan exhibits heterogeneity. Denominations are diverse and there are two groups: mainstream and evangelical. Each group has its own organization: the mainstream National Christian Council in Japan (NCC) and Evangelical Japan Evangelical Association (JEA).
This study aims to elucidate how mainstream Christianity and evangelicals in Japan evaluate Graham's mission to Japan. Specifically, it focuses on 1967 Graham's evangelistic meeting because the NCC rejected it and criticized Graham’s attitude toward the Vietnam War, while Japanese evangelicals sought a collaborative framework following the meeting. To achieve this objective, this research analyzes the publications of both mainstream and evangelical organizations. This study contributes to the understanding of the diversity of Christianity in Japan and the development of a global Christian network.
The Christian streaming and distribution service Angel Studios is a lightning rod of contemporary disputes about the place of Christian belief in mainstream media production and reception. The company's Mormon founders, the Harmon brothers, are overtly motivated by belief-based principles to “tell stories that amplify light.” Jeff Harmon says “truth should not be something that people look at subjectively.” Yet the studio has been mired in controversy since its inception. Sued by Disney, losing the series The Chosen in legal arbitration, and generating sharp contention about representation in Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin (2024) and Sound of Freedom (2023), the company’s beliefs impact the way they do business. Although owned and run by Mormon brothers, Angel Studios has established itself as a darling of the far-right, attempting to appeal to a wide Christian viewership. Angel Studios serves as a contemporary gauge of disputes about what mainstream Christian media is, what it can do, and what it should do.