{"id":4744,"date":"2020-03-11T13:31:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T18:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/?p=4744"},"modified":"2020-03-11T19:35:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T00:35:52","slug":"benjamin-rolsky-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/benjamin-rolsky-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-left","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Rolsky on The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/ra\/rolsky_031120.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>Paul talks with Benjamin Rolsky on March 11, 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\" style=\"grid-template-columns:39% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/benjaminrolsky.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/benjaminrolsky.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/benjaminrolsky-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/benjaminrolsky-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/benjaminrolsky-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p style=\"font-size:14px\">L. Benjamin Rolsky is an adjunct instructor in the History and Anthropology Department at Monmouth University and a part-time lecturer in the Religion Department at Rutgers University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His website is <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.benjirolsky.com\">benjirolsky.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-left\/9780231193634\">The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left:  Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond <\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nFor decades now, Americans have believed that their country is deeply divided by \u201cculture wars\u201d waged between religious conservatives and secular liberals. In most instances, Protestant conservatives have been cast as the instigators of such warfare, while religious liberals have been largely ignored. In this book, L. Benjamin Rolsky examines the ways in which American liberalism has helped shape cultural conflict since the 1970s through the story of how television writer and producer Norman Lear galvanized the religious left into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The creator of comedies such as&nbsp;<em>All in the Family<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Maude<\/em>, Lear was spurred to found the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in response to the rise of the religious right. Rolsky offers engaged readings of Lear\u2019s iconic sitcoms and published writings, considering them as an expression of what he calls the spiritual politics of the religious left. He shows how prime-time television became a focus of political dispute and demonstrates how Lear\u2019s emergence as an interfaith activist catalyzed ecumenical Protestants, Catholics, and Jews who were determined to push back against conservatism\u2019s ascent. Rolsky concludes that Lear\u2019s political involvement exemplified religious liberals\u2019 commitment to engaging politics on explicitly moral grounds in defense of what they saw as the public interest. An interdisciplinary analysis of the definitive cultural clashes of our fractious times,&nbsp;<em>The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left<\/em>&nbsp;foregrounds the foundational roles played by popular culture, television, and media in America\u2019s religious history.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>L. Benjamin Rolsky is an adjunct instructor in the History and Anthropology Department at Monmouth University and a part-time lecturer in the Religion Department at Rutgers University. His website is benjirolsky.com. The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/benjamin-rolsky-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-religious-left\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4747,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions\/4747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}