Sacred Tension: What’s Going On With Evangelicals? Feat. John Morehead

In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined once again by my favorite Evangelical John Morehead to discuss the psychology of evangelicals and why they do what they do. John details his research into the emotions that drive toxic evangelical behavior.

You can listen to this episode on Podbean, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, your favorite podcast app, or on the player below.

Citations provided by John for this conversation, in order of appearance:

Pew Research Center – “How Americans Feel About Religious Groups,” July 16, 201https://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/

Pew Research Center – “Americans Express Increasingly Warm Feelings Toward Religious Groups,” February 15, 2017https://www.pewforum.org/2017/02/15/americans-express-increasingly-warm-feelings-toward-religious-groups/

Pew Research Center – “US Evangelical Christians are Chilly Toward Atheists, and the Feeling is Mutual,” July 16, 2014https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/16/u-s-evangelical-christians-are-chilly-toward-atheists-and-the-feeling-is-mutual/

Ryan S. Ritter and Jesse Lee Preston, “Gross gods and icky atheism: Disgust responses to rejected religious beliefs.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011): 1225-1230http://labs.psychology.illinois.edu/pramlab/Papers/Ritter_Preston%282011%29.pdf

Ryan S. Ritter, Jesse Lee Preston, Erika Salomon, and Daniel Relihan-Johnson, “Imagine no religion: Heretical disgust, anger and the symbolic purity of mind.” Cognition and Emotion 30, no. 4 (October 2016): 778-796https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275362856_Imagine_no_religion_Heretical_disgust_anger_and_the_symbolic_purity_of_mind

Pew Research Center, “Faith: Few strong links to national identity,” February 1, 2017, (“Most white evangelical Protestants say it is very important to be Christian to be truly American”)https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2017/02/01/faith-few-strong-links-to-national-identity/

Andrew L. Whitehead, Samuel L. Perry, and Joseph O. Baker, “Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election.” Sociology of Religion 70, Iss. 2 (Summer 2018): 147-171https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article/79/2/147/4825283

Allyson F. Shortle and Ronald Keith Gaddie, “Religious Nationalism and Perceptions of Muslims and Islam.” Politics and Religion 8, Iss. 3 (September 2015): 435-457https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/religious-nationalism-and-perceptions-of-muslims-and-islam/8FD27C85AEDE0B861040FC06E3DA2248

Eric Leon McDaniel, Irfan Nooruddin, and Allyson Faith Shortle, “Divine Boundaries: How Religion Shapes Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Immigrants.” American Politics Research 39. mp/ 1 (2011): 205-233 http://www.allysonshortle.com/uploads/4/0/5/6/40561995/mcdanielnooruddinshortle.apr2011.pdf

Richard Cimino, “‘No God in Common:” American Evangelical Discourse After 9/11.” Review of Religious Research 47. no. 2 (November 2005): 162-174Abstract: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3512048?seq=1Full Text: https://www.ezus.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2015/10/Cimino_Evangelicals-Islam-after-9-11_05.pdf

Holly A. McGregor, et al., “Terror Management and Aggression: Evidence that Mortality Salience Motivates Aggression Against Worldview-Threatening Others.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74, no. 3 (590-605)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232558848_Terror_Management_and_Aggression_Evidence_That_Mortality_Salience_Motivates_Aggression_Against_Worldview-Threatening_Others

Enny Das, et. al., “How Terrorism News Reports Increase Prejudice against Outgroups: A Terror Management Account.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45, no. 3 (April 2009): 453-459https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222826181_How_Terrorism_News_Reports_Increase_Prejudice_against_Outgroups_A_Terror_Management_Account

Joanna Goplena nd E. Ashby Plant, “A Religious Worldview: Protecting One’s Meaning System Through Prejudice.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2015), 1-14https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281261002_A_Religious_Worldview

Why We Hate documentary, Discovery Channel, 2019 (Produced by Alex Gibney and Steven Spielberg)About: https://www.discovery.com/shows/why-we-hate

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