tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/messiah-college-1889/articlesMessiah College2021-10-04T13:09:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689952021-10-04T13:09:11Z2021-10-04T13:09:11ZCherry-picking the Bible and using verses out of context isn’t a practice confined to those opposed to vaccines – it has been done for centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424263/original/file-20211001-21-1yt9i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C0%2C4850%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people are using Bible verses to justify their stance against vaccines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-holds-a-sign-quoting-the-bible-as-anti-vaccination-news-photo/1234683079?adppopup=true">David McNew/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said.</p>
<p>This story that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A11-19&version=NIV">St. Luke tells in his gospel (17:11-19)</a> is not the only Bible verse I have seen and heard evangelical Christians use to justify anti-vaccine convictions. Other popular passages include <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2030%3A2&version=NIV">Psalm 30:2</a>: “Lord, I called to you for help, and you healed me.”; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%206%3A19&version=NIV">1 Corinthians 6:19</a>: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?”; and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2017%3A11&version=NIV">Leviticus 17:11</a>: “For the life of a creature is in the blood.” </p>
<p>All of these verses have been lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement. As a <a href="https://www.messiah.edu/info/21426/our_faculty/2371/john_fea">historian of the Bible in American life</a>, I can attest that such shallow reading in service of political and cultural agendas has long been a fixture of evangelical Christianity. </p>
<h2>Bible in the hands of ordinary people</h2>
<p>In the 16th century, Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers <a href="https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9780800637392/Printing-Propaganda-and-Martin-Luther">translated the Bible</a> from an already existing Greek text into the languages of common people. Prior to this, most men and women in Europe were exposed to the Bible through the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-latin-new-testament-9780198744733?cc=us&lang=en&">Vulgate</a>, a Latin version of the Old and New Testaments that only educated men – mostly Catholic priests – could read.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman reading the bible on a digital tablet Ipad. France." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Protestant Reformation put the Bible in the hands of ordinary people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-reading-the-bible-on-a-digital-tablet-ipad-france-news-photo/1337897241?adppopup=true">Philippe Lissac/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As people read the Bible – many for the first time – they inevitably began to <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/the-people-s-book">interpret it</a> as well. Protestant denominations formed around such interpretations. By the time Protestants started forming settlements in North America, there were distinctly Anglican, Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Lutheran and Quaker reading of the Bible. </p>
<p>The English Calvinists who settled the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay built entire colonies around their reading of the Bible, making New England one of the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Literacy_in_Colonial_New_England/yc-aQgAACAAJ?hl=en">most literate societies</a> in the world. In the 18th century, popular access to the Bible was one way that the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300152807/britons">British</a> – including the North American colonies – distinguished themselves from Catholic nations that did not provide such access. </p>
<h2>American evangelicals</h2>
<p>In the early 19th-century United States, biblical interpretation became more free-wheeling and individualistic.</p>
<p>Small differences over how to interpret the Bible often resulted in the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807846490/american-originals/">creation of new sects</a> such as the Latter Day Saints, the Restorationists (Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ), Adventists and various evangelical offshoots of more longstanding denominations such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers. </p>
<p>During this period, the United States also <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/the-rise-of-american-democracy/">grew more democratic</a>. What the French traveler and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville <a href="https://www.loa.org/books/202-democracy-in-america">described as “individualism</a>” had a profound influence on biblical interpretation and the way laypeople read the sacred text. </p>
<p>The views of the Bible proclaimed from the pulpits of formally educated clergy in established denominations <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">gave way</a> to a more free-wheeling and populist understanding of the scriptures that was often dissociated from such authoritative communities. </p>
<p>But these evangelicals never developed their approach to understanding the Bible in complete isolation. They often followed the interpretations of charismatic leaders such as Joseph Smith (Latter Day Saints), Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell (Restorationist), William Miller (Adventists) and Lorenzo Dow (Methodists). </p>
<p>These preachers <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">built followers around innovative readings of the Scriptures</a>. Without a church hierarchy to reign them in, these evangelical pied pipers had little accountability. </p>
<p>When large numbers of Irish and German immigrants arrived on American shores in the middle decades of the 19th century, evangelicals drew on <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384093.001.0001/acprof-9780195384093">longstanding anti-Catholic prejudices</a>. They grew anxious that these Catholic newcomers were a threat to their Protestant nation and often based these fears on perceptions of how Catholic bishops and priests <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=us&lang=en&">kept the Bible</a> from their parishioners.</p>
<p>While this fear of Catholics was mostly rhetorical in nature, there were a few moments of violence. For example, in 1844, nativist Protestants, responding to rumors that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from Philadelphia public schools, <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/">destroyed two of the city’s Catholic churches</a> before the Pennsylvania militia stopped the violence.</p>
<p>These so-called “<a href="http://pegasusbooks.com/books/the-fires-of-philadelphia-9781643137285-hardcover">Bible riots</a>” revealed the deep tensions between the individualistic and common-sensical approach to biblical interpretation common among Protestants and a Catholic view of reading the Bible that was always filtered through the historic teachings of the Church and its theologians. Protestants believed that the former approach was <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catholicism_and_American_Freedom/Tv93eR6f1nUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">more compatible</a> with the spirit of American liberty. </p>
<h2>Vaccine opposition and the Bible</h2>
<p>Today this American approach to reading and the interpreting the Bible is front and center in the arguments made by evangelical Christians seeking religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination mandates. When they explain their religious objections to health officials, employers and school administrations, evangelicals select verses, usually out of context, and reference them on exemptions forms. </p>
<p>Like they did in the 19th century, evangelicals who refuse to get vaccinated today tend to follow the spiritual leaders who have built followings by baptizing political or cultural propaganda in a sea of Bible verses. </p>
<p>Megachurch pastors, televangelists, conservative media commentators and social media influencers have far more power over ordinary evangelical Christians than those local pastors who encourage their congregations to consider that God works through science.</p>
<p>When I ask those evangelicals who oppose vaccines how they come to their conclusions, they all seem to cite the same sources: Fox News, or a host of fringe media personalities whom they watch on cable television or Facebook. Some others they cite include Salem Radio host and author <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/better-samaritan/2021/april/dear-eric-metaxas-anti-vax-messaging-you-are-spreading-is-h.html">Eric Metaxas</a>, the <a href="https://www.lc.org/newsroom/details/20200626planned-parenthood-humanized-mice-and-the-covid-vaccine1">Liberty Counsel</a> and Tennessee megachurch leader <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/09/14/twitter-bids-farewell-to-greg-locke-pro-trump-and-anti-vaxxer-tennessee-pastor-with-permanent-ban/">Greg Locke</a>, to name a few.</p>
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<p>Social media allows these evangelical conspiracy theorists to become influential <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRzv1ZBTQE">through</a> their <a href="https://currentpub.com/2021/07/28/eric-metaxas-dont-get-vaccinated-be-a-rebel/">anti-vaccine rants</a>. </p>
<p>From my perspective, the response of some evangelicals to the vaccine reveals the dark side of the Protestant Reformation. When the Bible is placed in the hands of the people, void of any kind of authoritative religious community to guide them in their proper understanding of the text, the people can make it say anything they want it to say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian of the Bible in American life explains how Bible verses are being picked out of context to make a case for the anti-vaxxer movement.John Fea, Professor of American History, Messiah CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/975252018-06-04T10:41:07Z2018-06-04T10:41:07ZHow the American Bible Society became evangelical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221380/original/file-20180601-142083-1kaa34z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Britain’s Queen Mother Elizabeth chats with Eric North, secretary of the American Bible Society, during a visit to the organization’s headquarters in New York City on Oct. 28, 1954.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/John Lindsay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.americanbible.org/">American Bible Society</a>, an organization that for over 200 years has been on a mission of distributing Bibles, has produced a statement of faith and lifestyle expectations that must be signed by all employees. The statement, which the ABS is calling an “Affirmation of Biblical Community,” requires employees to embrace a host of Christian beliefs and practices, including that marriage is between a man and a woman. </p>
<p>Many gay ABS employees have already <a href="https://religionnews.com/2018/05/29/american-bible-society-to-require-regular-church-attendance-strict-sexuality-codes/">left the organization</a>. Others are planning to leave because they do not feel comfortable working in an environment that opposes gay marriage. For Christians around the world, the American Bible Society represents a highly influential organization. With an <a href="https://slate.com/business/2018/05/american-bible-society-is-a-nonprofit-rarity.html">annual budget</a> of US$100 million and <a href="https://slate.com/business/2018/05/american-bible-society-is-a-nonprofit-rarity.html">revenues</a> of over $369 million, it is one of the largest religious nonprofits in the world. Its <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">goal</a> is to translate the Bible into every human language by 2025.</p>
<p>There is nothing unusual with a religious organization making employees sign a statement of faith or requiring them to practice certain behavior that fits with the teachings of historic Christianity. Christian ministries and colleges, for example, do this as a matter of course. </p>
<p>But the fact that the ABS has decided to adopt such a statement after functioning for 202 years without one does make this development noteworthy. As the <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?hl=en&user=2jINg1YAAAAJ">author</a> of perhaps the only <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">scholarly history</a> of this storied Christian organization, I can attest that the “Affirmation of Biblical Community” represents a definitive break with the vision of its founders. </p>
<p>It also represents the culmination of a roughly 20-year transformation of the Society from a diverse Christian organization to a ministry with strong ties to American evangelicalism.</p>
<h2>History of distributing Bibles</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221383/original/file-20180601-142072-1x6kv3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man reading today’s English version of the New Testament, written in plain, everyday English, in 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">Early 19-century Bible societies</a>, such as the American Bible Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, were service organizations. The American Bible Society published Bibles for churches and other ministries and allowed religious organizations to use them as they saw fit in the context of their particular denominational beliefs.</p>
<p>They were not in the business of interpreting the Bible for their constituencies.</p>
<p>For example, in 1835, the British Baptist Mission in Calcutta, India, appealed to the ABS for help in funding a translation of the New Testament into the Bengali language. ABS refused to fund the project because the translators of the Bengali Bible translated “baptizo” – the Greek word for “baptism” – in a way that preferred the Baptist practice of completely immersing new converts in a body of water over other forms of baptism, such as the sprinkling of babies.</p>
<p>In this case, the ABS reaffirmed its commitment to publishing the Bible “without note or comment” and reminded the British Baptist Mission that it was not in the business of promoting “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">local feelings, party prejudices” and “sectarian jealousies</a>.”</p>
<p>Through much of its history, ABS measured success not in terms of conversions or changed lives, but in terms of “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">tonnage</a>” – the amount of Bibles distributed around the world each year. </p>
<h2>Becoming more evangelical</h2>
<p>This all changed in 1996 when Eugene Habecker, the president and CEO of ABS, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/02/opinion/l-in-the-beginning-there-was-something-091162.html">expressed concern</a> over lack of Bible knowledge and questioned whether young people were actually reading the sacred text and applying its spiritual principles to their lives. </p>
<p>In 2001, the organization <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">adopted</a> a new vision statement. It dropped the phrase “without doctrinal note or comment” and added the clause “so that all may experience its (the Bible’s) life-changing message.” </p>
<p>From this point forward, ABS would engage in the practice of teaching and interpretation. The leadership would call this new approach “<a href="https://www.americanbible.org/uploads/content/wca-brochure-8x8-22114.pdf">scripture engagement</a>.”</p>
<p>Other changes took place at ABS under Habecker’s watch. He added more evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to the board of managers. Some longtime ABS employees believed that Habecker was trying to move the organization away from the mainline Protestantism that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">defined its identity</a> for much of the 20th century.</p>
<p>Habecker said that he was just trying to make the board more “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">interconfessional</a>.” He hoped that the people who ran ABS could affirm, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">Jesus Christ is Lord</a>” – nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>But from this point forward, ABS began working <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=ca&lang=en&">more closely with evangelical groups</a>. They started providing grants for the publication of Bibles to organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism, Liberty University, and a host of evangelical missionary agencies.</p>
<p>Nearly all of the presidents who followed Habecker, including the current President <a href="https://www.americanbible.org/about/leadership">Roy Peterson</a>, have been evangelical Christians.</p>
<h2>Redefining a historical identity</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221385/original/file-20180601-142102-5w58ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/funfilledgeorgie/9718257224/in/photolist-fNLBi3-aifwQ8-e3JQsx-eyt9Pg-ewknT1-8hDEQe-H5bNDS-5f7QX6-G6Q6e6-nbuWed-4Ff7WP-ewkohJ-ewknHC-nbwsSa-njxEpq-e71hzZ-eb5vdj-pKhxNq-gWG2SX-D2QyJX-Fb6ceW-4Ff83z-gWAfGi-4Fjm5G-gWzL69-nKjAng-piADfs-9oKakk-3LpSkK-22rPYwL-btYtCk-TnHfyh-3LpT94-KBdUB-KBdXM-bmqtaA-eFKT5g-7KHX8n-7KN2Yd-SGeEv6-m5SucG-bFEha6-eFMDLu-aJf7in-7KN7p9-7KHX8v-dbkeET-2G6Zv5-VaLyYF-2G6Yj7">George Redgrave</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The “Affirmation of Biblical Community” needs to be understood in light of this recent history. Christians – Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox – committed to the historical creeds of the early Christian church could gladly sign this document. However, it excludes Christians who, for example, may not affirm a belief in the Virgin Birth, or who are convinced gay marriage is compatible with the teachings of the Bible. </p>
<p>The statement also includes a reference to the Christian doctrine of “regeneration,” the belief that the Holy Spirit instills believers with a new spiritual orientation toward life. While most forms of Christianity believe in some form of this doctrine, it is hard to read its inclusion in the ABS statement as anything but a veiled reference to being “born-again,” another word for the personal conversion experience that has long been a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Evangelicalism_in_Modern_Britain.html?id=bLOIAgAAQBAJ">part of evangelical teaching</a>. </p>
<p>Many evangelicals, and I imagine a good number of conservative Catholics, will celebrate the “Affirmation of Biblical Community.” Others will part ways with the organization. Indeed, many <a href="https://religionnews.com/2018/05/29/american-bible-society-to-require-regular-church-attendance-strict-sexuality-codes/">already have</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever one thinks about the new statement, it is definitely part of an ongoing effort by the evangelical leadership of ABS to redefine the historical identity of the Bible society movement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I received travel money from the American Bible Society, access to their archives, and funded research assistant to write *The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society. This piece is based on my research for that book. My agreement with the American Bible Society gave me complete autonomy and control over my work and the book was published with Oxford University Press in 2016.</span></em></p>The American Bible Society, with an annual revenue of nearly $370 million, is one of the largest religious nonprofits, and a highly influential one.John Fea, Professor of American History, Messiah CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/456902015-10-01T08:24:09Z2015-10-01T08:24:09ZHomeschooled children do not grow up to be more religious<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96812/original/image-20150930-5828-x7oevl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Does homeschooling make children share the religious beliefs of their parents?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iowapolitics/6721493181/in/photolist-beXpKt-beXoVa-pZab42-fW1jaV-fW112J-bSG75H-i6souY-fXm2jf-4QDsem-cxLgYJ-cxLhk1-6fYsM9-aiwi3V-cxJXoG-4wGu31-a22Ltz-qWKTbd-qWT2jH-6iF5tM-a25zgS-8TwaD6-6hHaF4-fJmmaZ-det166-4wCkZx-qWSSU6-5enDCt-oKg6hd-desYqt-6fWCHf-i6qLtm-qWK6cS-rc1xYj-reddSU-6cUL9x-a25zYA-a25u9W-a25ysh-a25BQL-rqmaK-qWLBV3-fKFBde-4Ecdk9-a22CGk-5YModC-44xpEV-i6qHN9-qWHUF1-fKFy8x-cVEkis">IowaPolitics.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An estimated <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_206.10.asp?current=yes">two million children</a> are being homeschooled in the United States. Scholars studying homeschooling often talk about the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/cbs/43/3/195/">academic achievement</a> of homeschoolers or their <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0161956X.2013.796825#.Vb-EjvNViko">social skills</a>. </p>
<p>But, as important as those things are, they are not the main concern of many families who choose homeschooling. According to the <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544174.pdf">surveys conducted</a> by the National Center for Education Statistics, 91% of homeschooling parents are more concerned about the environment of schools and want to offer a religious (64%) and/or moral (77%) alternative. </p>
<p>Smaller-scale studies of parental attitudes have found the same thing, from the <a href="http://has.sagepub.com/content/37/3/201.short">conservative fathers</a> who try to form a moral cocoon around their children, to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7709/jnegroeducation.82.2.0123?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">African-American</a> families who want to foster a sense of racial pride in their children, to “<a href="http://kathrynjoyce.com/books/quiverfull/">quiverfull</a>” families trying to have enough children to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2014.991703#.Vb_Hz_NViko">Christianize the United States</a> by demographic transformation.</p>
<p>Does homeschooling help parents achieve what they want?</p>
<h2>Broad social trends</h2>
<p>Let’s first look at the broader findings about the success or failure of passing on religious and political beliefs to children. </p>
<p>Demographers have <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/">consistently shown</a> that the United States is gradually <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9567.html">growing more secular</a>. This secularization is a <a href="https://www.barna.org/barna-update/teens-nextgen/612-three-spiritual-journeys-of-millennials#.VcDFovNViko">generational phenomenon</a> – that is, <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/American-Grace/Robert-D-Putnam/9781416566731">each generation</a> is becoming less religious than the one preceding it. </p>
<p>This is consistent with the finding that children of intensely polarized parents often embrace their parents’ views when they are young but go on to <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/273040001_Why_Does_the_Apple_Fall_Far_from_the_Tree_How_Early_Political_Socialization_Prompts_Parent-Child_Dissimilarity">reject them as they enter young adulthood</a>. At the same time, however, many adult children <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2009/04/27/faith-in-flux/">continue to identify</a> with the religion in which they were raised, especially if they had a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/families-and-faith-9780199948659?cc=us&lang=en&">strong bond with a devout father</a>.</p>
<p>Given these trends, many conservative religious families have turned to homeschooling as a way to better ensure that their children will grow up to be like them. </p>
<p>Since the publication of my book on the <a href="">history of the homeschooling movement</a>, I have been publishing <a href="http://icher.org/blog/">weekly reviews</a> of new research about homeschooling. Six recent studies bear directly on the question of homeschooling’s effectiveness as a strategy for passing on belief – three of them based on data drawn from surveys of several thousand people, and three of them based on careful, intensive studies of a smaller group of subjects.</p>
<h2>What do the data show?</h2>
<p>Baylor University sociologist <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/sociology/index.php?id=88792">Jeremy E Uecker</a> found through his <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00427.x/abstract">analysis of data</a> from the massive <a href="http://youthandreligion.nd.edu/">National Study of Youth and Religion</a> that the key factor in transferring religious commitment was the level of religiosity of the parents and not the sort of schooling children received. </p>
<p>On average, homeschooled young adults were no more religious than demographically similar young people who attended public or private schools.</p>
<p>Another large-scale study, the <a href="http://www.tpcs.org/about-us/Cardus-Cardus_Education_Survey_Phase_I_Report.pdf">Cardus Education Survey</a>, conducted in 2011, likewise found that parental religious devotion is the most important factor for young adult religious commitment.</p>
<p>The Cardus Survey found that homeschooled young adults were not noticeably different in their religious lives from their peers who had attended private religious schools, though they were more religious than peers who had attended public or Catholic schools. </p>
<p>Interestingly, homeschoolers were less political overall.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96813/original/image-20150930-5822-z2wiqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studies show that homeschoolers grow up to be more tolerant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiotsrun/4876331893/in/photolist-hWig44-xhMQkw-peFSS5-6iE3tU-77jCoQ-77jBnS-77fFmr-77fEfM-77jzdE-77jyN1-77fD7p-77jyeo-77jxMo-77fBUP-77jx1w-77jwAL-77fAU2-77jvdJ-77juX7-77juJf-77juqU-77jtQN-77jtyC-77fxuT-77fwDe-77jryb-8vZ3hu-qbuKKt-4r7juX-8W3DSN-8VZz9v-4r7iYv-q4gusR-q49UaA-q49TsU-qkDpZA-6nFKfj-6iEXup-8vZ2sS-peV99F-a25wNJ-a25w43-5Gs5to-8qUtzP-4rbmAQ-8qXAZb-q9oGRS-8vZ3sA-7hcJGE-7h8K3R">Chiot's Run</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cardus researchers David Sikkink and Sarah Skiles’ <a href="http://crsi.nd.edu/assets/168208/crsi_homeschool_report_ces2014.pdf">analysis</a>, based on a <a href="https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/survey_schedule/">second round of the Cardus Education Survey</a> conducted in 2014, found that while adults raised in a Christian homeschool context were a bit more likely to hold conservative theological views, they were less likely to have an active religious life or to be deeply involved in a religious congregation than demographically equivalent public and privately schooled young adults.</p>
<h2>Observations of homeschooling families</h2>
<p>Indiana University professor <a href="http://profile.educ.indiana.edu/rkunzman/Home.aspx">Robert Kunzman</a>, in his <a href="http://www.beacon.org/Write-These-Laws-on-Your-Children-P708.aspx">careful study</a> of six homeschooling families, found that, at least for his sample, homeschooled children tended to become more tolerant and less dogmatic than their parents as they grew up.</p>
<p>Southern Methodist University doctoral student Braden Hoelzle’s <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10656219.2013.851000#.VgGfMdJViko">case study</a> of four homeschooled college students found that, at least for the students he studied, going to college liberalized homeschoolers raised as conservative Protestants. </p>
<p>He found that the more authoritarian the parenting style, the more pronounced the liberalization tended to be.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/albert-cheng/">Albert Cheng</a>, a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas, found <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15582159.2014.875411">in his study</a> of students at a Christian university that homeschoolers were a bit more tolerant of other views than graduates of private and public schools attending the same university.</p>
<p>In general, both the quantitative and qualitative studies have found that most homeschooled Christian children continued in their faith when they grew up, as did most Christian children who attended public and private schools. </p>
<p>The type of schooling did not really make a lot of difference, especially not the sort of transformative difference many parents who choose it hope for. </p>
<p>If anything, homeschooled children, especially those raised in very conservative homes, tend to liberalize over time, especially if they went on to college.</p>
<h2>Beware of the anecdote</h2>
<p>These studies are among the most compelling on the question of the religious outcomes of homeschooling. Unfortunately, however, the best studies are not those that are most widely circulated on the internet. </p>
<p>Readers need to be aware that there are more partisan studies that exist.</p>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/07/methodological-problems-with-brian-rays-study-on-youth-and-religion.html">poorly designed</a> survey by a longtime homeschooling booster suggests that the great majority of children raised as conservative Protestant homeschoolers <a href="http://www.nheri.org/Gen2SurveyASpiritualandEducationalSurveyonChristianMillennials.pdf">grow up to be committed conservative Protestants</a> themselves. </p>
<p>On the other hand, a <a href="http://icher.org/blog/?p=1469">poorly designed</a> survey by a critic of unregulated homeschooling found that most former conservative Christian homeschoolers had liberalized significantly, and a substantial minority had jettisoned their families’ religious and political views completely. </p>
<p>Anecdotes abound both of people like <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/14/birthright-jill-lepore">Lila Rose</a>, a homeschooler who followed the family tradition and became a leading <a href="https://liveaction.org/lilarose/">pro-life culture warrior</a>, and of people like <a href="http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org/rachel-coleman/">Rachel Coleman</a>, a former homeschooler who has become a leading <a href="http://hsinvisiblechildren.org/">critic of unregulated homeschooling</a>.</p>
<p>So what does it all mean? Anecdotes and biased studies aside, it seems from this emerging body of work that homeschooling itself will not automatically produce adults who share the conservative political, religious and moral beliefs of their parents.</p>
<p>The data also suggest that family climate, especially faithful religious devotion by both parents, delivered in a context of loving nurture, is far more important than where a child goes to school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Milton Gaither is a founding board member and co-director of research at the International Center for Home Education Research (ICHER), a non-partisan organization devoted to the scholarly study of home education. </span></em></p>Conservative religious families turn to homeschooling as a way to ensure that their children will grow up to be like them. Does it work?Milton Gaither, Professor of Education, Messiah CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/456762015-08-07T10:03:34Z2015-08-07T10:03:34ZCalvin Klein’s new sexting ads are not only unethical, they may not even be effective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90816/original/image-20150804-12028-3gr72l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Calvin Klein is known for its especially sexy ads.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/en321/3936917157/in/photolist-6ZTJj2-61UEpi-8rgjNs-8rdbCX-4zpyzY-2Dm5Dw-9ZtUJr-6oyFd-6ZTM9K-6ZXMVY-6ZTKCX-3XKEHo-5yzgUf-aBkna5-bot8J1-jUPiJT-4HE4ru-Lgi7z-ezHTG-7nAQn3-6525o7-RThVg-5Hni6K-6pvacC-7nxuFy-7ntzpM-RR64h-5HrBc5-7nwV9X-a5pjsB-a5scgf-Ka3ti-T3xD3-dDZoeQ-epidj-5dCqCC-6DQ6ea-7zmrTL-7ntAax-7nwVrB-7nAQem-d9SuKq-7nwVhr-7ntzcX-ezJ4e-d9SuhB-8PaHcA-7ntzPZ-RR5CU-5HnhA6">Susan Sermoneta/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A shirtless man lounges on a large couch while two attractive young women recline next to him. A text message appears: “Hahah a light threesome never hurt anyone.” Where might this scene be from? An adult novel, an X-rated movie?</p>
<p>No, it’s a new Calvin Klein ad. </p>
<p>The brand known for risqué promotion has adapted its advertising for the digital age with a <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/style/calvin-klein-takes-on-sexting-tinder-to-promote-125357644583.html">new jeans campaign</a> that features young people sexting, or sending sexually explicit text messages. </p>
<p>Each ad in the campaign contains a provocative picture, the words of a sexually charged text message and a tempting tagline: “raw texts, real stories.” </p>
<p>There’s little question from the ads that the company endorses more than denim.</p>
<p>In comparing ads from 100, 50 and 25 years ago with ones like the current Calvin Klein ads, it’s easy to see that sexual content has become more explicit. You also may have noticed that the number of such ads has risen. For instance, a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10641734.2012.675566#abstract">2012 study</a> from the University of Georgia that looked at advertising from 1983 to 2003 showed the share with sexual imagery almost doubled.</p>
<p>Such ads raise two questions: one, are they effective? And two, even if they are, do they cross a moral line that shouldn’t be crossed? </p>
<p>Through a 25-year career that’s spanned industry and higher education, I’ve had many opportunities to consider how marketing and ethics interact. Based on my experience, I’ve come to believe that what’s best for business and what’s moral are not mutually exclusive. </p>
<p>Rather, organizations can excel both economically and ethically. In fact, the two goals are often complementary. For instance, <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ethical-companies-shown-to-be-more-profitable-over-time-56555987.html">Corpedia’s Ethics Index</a>, comprising publicly traded companies rated high for ethical behavior, outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 370% during a recent five-year period.</p>
<h2>Does sex sell?</h2>
<p>First off, does more carnal creativity mean that “sex sells”? Not necessarily. For example, a <a href="http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1016-9040/a000016?journalCode=epp">2010 study</a> from Texas A&M International University did find that people were more likely to remember commercials that contained sexual or violent content. But that doesn’t mean they were more likely to make a purchase. </p>
<p>Memory doesn’t always predict purchase intentions or other positive behavior. While people remember positive experiences, they also remember things they’d rather forget, like car accidents, relationship breakups and kidney stones. Memory only leads to sales if it’s tied to a compelling reason for purchase.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3151194?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">classic study</a> conducted by Baker and Churchill in 1977 found that advertising models’ physical attractiveness increased viewers’ attention as well as their positive evaluations of the ads. But at the same time, it found that sexual content in ads did not affect respondents’ deeper cognitions, thus rendering physical attraction ineffective in gaining the target market’s acceptance of the advertising message.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.1325/abstract">Parker and Furnham</a> in 2007 realized that sexual ad content had no effect on viewers’ abilities to recall details of television commercials. The study also found that women recalled ads without sexual content better than they did sexualized ads. </p>
<p>A more <a href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/07/sex-violence.aspx">recent study</a> conducted in July at Ohio State University discovered an even more conflicting effect. Violent and sexual content in ads again succeeded in grabbing attention, but it also overshadowed other important aspects of the marketing effort, including the product being promoted. As a result, the researchers concluded that sex and violence in ads actually impeded product memory and lessened purchase intentions. </p>
<p>But what if sex does “sell” for some companies? Maybe erotic advertising is effective for Calvin Klein and certain others who continue to use it for their target markets. Although companies may find exceptions for what works, there are no exclusions for what’s ethical.</p>
<h2>Why ethical advertising matters</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, some advertisers and other marketers have spurned morality for decades to the detriment of the industry.</p>
<p>For instance, when asked to “rate the honesty and ethical standards” of individuals in various fields, respondents to a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx">December 2014 Gallup poll</a> placed advertisers near the bottom of the list, only above car salespeople (another group of marketers) and members of Congress. Such disrepute, however, shouldn’t be the case. </p>
<p>Of course, most people don’t want to be thought of as unethical, so such a reputation can discourage morally minded people from entering the discipline. Also, people generally don’t want to do business with individuals they don’t trust.</p>
<p>Although I know <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2014/09/24/why-mindfulness-is-the-next-revolution-in-marketing/">many others</a> share this conviction, marketing unfortunately has lacked a common paradigm for identifying and addressing the field’s moral issues. For instance, each year Ethisphere announces its selections for “<a href="http://ethisphere.com/ethisphere-announces-the-2015-worlds-most-ethical-companies/">The World’s Most Ethical Companies</a>,” which many of the winners are eager to promote. The organization’s <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/03/19/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies-2015/">140-question application</a>, however, is hardly a tool that marketers can readily use to help make daily ethical decisions.</p>
<p>This absence convinced me last year to develop a straightforward model of marketing ethics called <a href="http://mindfulmarketing.org/">Mindful Marketing</a> to evaluate marketing strategies and tactics, including morally suspect ones like sexualized advertising. </p>
<p>Simply put, to be considered “mindful,” marketing practices must be two things: effective, that is, they accomplish their marketing-related objectives; and ethically sound, that is, they don’t invite any obvious moral compromise.</p>
<p>Together these two goals form the foundation of what I call the “<a href="http://www.mindfulmarketing.org/mindful-meter--matrix.html">mindful matrix</a>,” a visual representation of the concept and its four categories of marketing: mindful, single-minded, simple-minded and mindless.</p>
<h2>Like a bad case of food poisoning</h2>
<p>So where does sex in advertising fall within the mindful matrix? As mentioned above, there may be times when sexualized ads are effective at accomplishing their marketing goals. More often, however, the sensual promotion fizzles, distracting target market members from product benefits and failing to create stakeholder value. </p>
<p>In terms of societal values, the erotic images that such ads often employ undermine decency and respect by objectifying individuals (usually women), fueling unhealthy sexual appetites and reducing human existence to the satisfaction of sensual desires.</p>
<p>Yes, sexually charged advertising grabs attention, and it is often memorable, but so is a bad case of food poisoning. Like other mindless marketing, oversexualized ads leave an ill feeling for many consumers and may sicken an entire society.</p>
<p>Will there come a day when advertising is automatically considered honest and marketing tops the list for trustworthiness? That remains to be seen, but right now <a href="http://www.mindfulmarketing.org/">Mindful Marketing</a> invites marketers and consumers to share in this vision of ethical exchange and to help move forward to such a future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hagenbuch is the founder of Mindful Marketing (<a href="http://www.mindfulmarketing.org">www.mindfulmarketing.org</a>) and Professor of Marketing at Messiah College where he teaches marketing and ethics courses, integrating the Mindful Marketing paradigm. He offers consulting services in the areas of marketing and ethics, often to nonprofit organizations in partnership with his students.</span></em></p>Studies show sexualized advertising often isn’t effective, and may even have adverse consequences for the product being promoted.David Hagenbuch, Professor of Marketing, Messiah CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/376892015-02-23T06:58:30Z2015-02-23T06:58:30ZOscars 2015: expert reaction<p>This year’s edition of the Oscars have wrapped up, and featured a little bit of everything – from Birdman’s crowning moment and calls for equal pay for women (along with calls for calls home to loved ones!) to a Lady Gaga-Julie Andrews convergence and the sight of Neil Patrick Harris’ tighty-whities. </p>
<p>Our panel of academics have taken a moment to weigh in. Responding to the victories and defeats, while touching themes of race and Hollywood politics, many also point to what was missing from this year’s show. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Birdman Soars</h2>
<p><strong>Stephen Benedict Dyson, University of Connecticut</strong></p>
<p>Best Picture winner Birdman is a soaring piece of filmmaking, layered and meta to a dizzying degree. It also had the year’s best Audio/Visual gag, when Michael Keaton’s character walks past a busking drummer on the street who is hammering out the movie’s omnipresent score. Keaton casually tosses him a quarter, and continues through the movie accompanied by the same clattering beat long after the street musician has been left behind. The direction was too flashy for some tastes; I thought the movie had enough heart to see it through.</p>
<p>A few words for the lightly laureled Boyhood. This elegiac film took a long time to make. But for me, seeing 12 years pass in less than three hours drove home how short life is. And I couldn’t have been the only person whose sensibilities are so ruined by Hollywood tropes that I spent the whole movie waiting (happily, in vain) for the terrible turn of events that always accompanies these stories. The verisimilitude, then, was in both the on-screen aging of the actors and the portrayal of normal lives as accretions of quiet joys and draining defeats. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Twenty-something years later: Gen-X at the Oscars</h2>
<p><strong>Fabrizio Cilento, Messiah College</strong></p>
<p>They were the underachievers, self-centered and impractical. </p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s, indie filmmakers such as Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater gave voice to the overeducated (but often unemployed) sons of fractured families, paralyzed by social problems. An alternative cinema required alternative stars, and some of the early roles played by Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette, Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo and Laura Dern captured the essence of the era’s anti-traditional bent. </p>
<p>When Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu started working within the US industry, he added his intercultural sensibility to the equation in films characterized by a narrative structure comprised of labyrinthine, overlapping paths.</p>
<p>However, there was a sense that Gen-X never flourished, condemned to eternally mourn the loss of River Phoenix, or to age bitterly, like in This is 40 or Greenberg.</p>
<p>Then Beck won at the Grammys, Father John Misty covered Nirvana and what remains of the Miramax-Sundance era had their moment at the Oscars. They were supposed to be having a midlife crisis – but instead they made an aesthetic out of an impending midlife crisis, and produced their most ambitious works. Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood are grounded in years of research, and focus on the themes of real time, image composition, and the heritage of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Age-New-Waves-Globalization/dp/0199858306">global new waves</a>.</p>
<p>In the words of Kurt Cobain: Here we are now, (keep) entertaining us.</p>
<hr>
<h2>White and winning…</h2>
<p><strong>Kellie Carter Jackson, Hunter College</strong></p>
<p>Neil Patrick Harris should not have corrected himself. This <em>was</em> Hollywood’s whitest night. And not only was this year white, but it was also heavily white male-centric – not surprising, given that 77% of the voting block are white males. So when Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs gave a speech about filmmaking and responsibility, it couldn’t have rung more false.</p>
<p>While congratulations are due to John Legend and Common winning best song, even their win felt predictable. (like, “You people are so soulful!”) </p>
<p>Consider this: what if Boyhood were about the story of Enrique, the Mexican laborer in the film played by Roland Ruiz. What if we saw a film about his growth into adulthood? Instead we watched a white American boy vandalize, drink alcohol, take drugs (without repercussions), complain about his entitlement to his father’s car – and then go off to college. </p>
<p>Booker T. Washington once said, “The study of art that does not result in making the strong less willing to oppress the weak means little.” With voting patterns like this, the Academy may be paving its own irrelevance. </p>
<p>So much for responsibility.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Other worlds</h2>
<p><strong>Marissa J. Moorman, Indiana University, Bloomington</strong></p>
<p>Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski’s crisp, quiet drama – took home the Best Foreign Language Film award. The favorite going in, Ida is an arresting tale of a novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who learns of her Jewish ancestry. </p>
<p>It’s one of the few Oscar contenders that focuses on women’s stories (protagonist Ida and her aunt, Red Wanda). The acting is tight, the plot efficient and wrenching. Shot in black and white, with a keen sense of framing, the visual storytelling is as significant as the dialogue. It’s no surprise, then, that Ida also was nominated in the cinematography category, breaching national filmmaking borders with technical flair. </p>
<p>The Best Foreign Language Film category offers an alternative to the usual Hollywood formulas. It’s a chance to confound our common sense assumptions about how race, class, gender, religion and sexuality operate in everyday life. But we see too little of these films. It’s unfortunate, then, that we didn’t see more of Leviathan (Russia), Tangerines (Estonia), Timbuktu (Mauritania), or Wild Tales (Argentina) during this year’s Oscars. </p>
<p>All are important films (Timbuktu just won a Cesar, France’s Oscar), and with the rise of global filmmaking industries that rival Hollywood’s (like Bollywood in India and Nollywood in Nigeria), our shameful national narrowness (#bestandwhitest) shows what navel gazers we are: slow to look outside our borders for new ways to see and represent the world.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Middlebrow prestige culture: keeping things unreal</h2>
<p><strong>Catherine Liu, University of California, Irvine</strong></p>
<p>The Weinstein formula of marrying independent film with middlebrow prestige finally reached its apotheosis this year, but Weinstein’s The Imitation Game was outflanked by Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman. </p>
<p>I was rooting for Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, a film that explores and expands on the meaning of realism. Both Gone Girl and Boyhood dealt with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and address the anxieties of family finance and everyday life. Neither film dealt with race at all. </p>
<p>I blame Harvey Weinstein for the mediocrity and whitewashing of independent cinema, which is far behind network and cable television narratives in dealing with the complexities of gender and race. My son and I are watching ABC’s Fresh off the Boat. (Yes, Asian Americans exist!)</p>
<p>As a side note, Neil Patrick Harris’s emceeing was awful. The transition from Citizenfour’s winning best documentary to commercial break reminded me of <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/04/they-shoot-oscars-dont-they/">this brilliant takedown</a> of 2013 Oscars host Seth McFarlane by Jacobin Magazine’s Eileen Jones.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Indies to the rescue…again</h2>
<p><strong>Michael Green, Arizona State University</strong></p>
<p>The 87th Academy Awards affirmed that the gap between what the Oscars purport to stand for (great, bold, creative movies) and the kind of movies Hollywood actually makes (formulaic, special effects-infused blockbusters aimed at teenagers) is wider than ever.</p>
<p>For two decades, the Oscars have appropriated independent movies to fill the major categories, while Hollywood studio films have dominated the visual, sound effects and feature animation categories. Without independent cinema, Hollywood’s biggest awards show wouldn’t even exist. </p>
<p>The broadcast seemed defensive about this from the outset. Jack Black acknowledged Hollywood’s reliance on formula and bottom-line mentality in the opening song, but was quickly shooed off in favor of hokey nostalgia. Liam Neeson protested that Hollywood was more than a comic book factory, while another presenter lamented that the “Industry is becoming more digital every day.”</p>
<p>The President of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, gave a speech on responsibility and the need to protect the right to self–expression (clearly referring to Sony’s hacking last year). She mentioned that movies are for “challenging ideas” and presenting “alternative points of view.” But this is absolutely the last thing that Hollywood movies attempt – or want – to do. </p>
<p>How much longer can Hollywood pretend it makes the kind of movies it wants to honor? </p>
<hr>
<h2>What if Alice were Alan?</h2>
<p><strong>Michele Schreiber, Emory University</strong></p>
<p>If you hadn’t given much thought to how male-centric this year’s Oscars were, it probably became clear tonight when the introduction to every Best Picture nominee clip could have easily started with, “Our next nominated picture is about a boy/man who does X.” In fact, this sentence not only sums up the plot of most films made in Hollywood throughout its history, but also all but a handful of Best Picture winners. </p>
<p>We don’t label these films “men’s films.” They’re simply “great films.” However, when a film features a female protagonist, it often acquires a label that marks it as different. During the classical period it was called a “woman’s picture.” Now it’s a “chick flick.” These labels persist despite the fact that the content of these films is often no different from many films featuring male protagonists. </p>
<p>Would a film like Still Alice have been more acclaimed and garnered a Best Picture nomination if it were called Still Alan? Would it be a more “important” story if it was about a brilliant man whose mind is ravaged by Alzheimer’s? </p>
<p>The dismissal of women’s stories into some “other” category is evidence of a significant systemic problem. But it isn’t only Hollywood’s problem to solve. It also lies in the hands of moviegoers who continue to pigeonhole women in film in ways that they would deem unacceptable in their everyday lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indies to the rescue, the quiet power of foreign language films, Gen-X’s crowning moment. All – and more – are covered by our experts, who weigh in on this year’s Oscars.Michael Green, Film and Media Studies Senior Lecturer, Arizona State UniversityCatherine Liu, Professor of Film & Media Studies, University of California, IrvineFabrizio Cilento, Assistant Professor of Film & Digital Media, Messiah CollegeKellie Carter Jackson, Assistant Professor of History, Hunter CollegeMarissa J. Moorman, Associate Professor of History, Indiana UniversityMichele Schreiber, Associate Professor of Film & Media Studies, Emory UniversityStephen Benedict Dyson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.