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Welcome to Faith and Power: Religion and American Politics
Welcome to Faith and Power: Religion and American Politics.
Religion has shaped American politics from the beginning. Preachers rallied colonists to revolution, abolitionists and slaveholders both quoted the Bible, Black churches organized the civil rights movement, Catholic farmworkers marched behind the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and white evangelicals became one of the most powerful voting blocs in the country. Today, debates over Christian nationalism, school prayer, and the Ten Commandments fill the news, the courts, and local school board meetings.
In this course you will study the founders’ debates over church and state, white Christian nationalism as scholars measure it and as its supporters describe it, and the long political traditions of Black and Latino churches. You will compare these movements: what they share, where they differ, and how they shape national, state, and local politics. You will look closely at gender, from the patriarchy taught in some churches to the women who led movements for justice. You will read Helen Lewis’s 2026 article on the men who want women to be quiet, alongside research by Black, Latina, and women scholars.
This is a course about politics, so a word about fairness. You will hear each movement described as its own supporters describe it, and as its critics, including critics within the same faith, describe it. The goal is not to tell you how to vote. It is to help you understand your neighbors and serve congregations and communities that are divided by politics.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | Five completed 100-level courses. This is a 200-level course. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in five to seven weeks, studying about five hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one essay of 1,500 to 2,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (one essay, 1,500 to 2,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry
- Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Kristin Kobes Du Mez
- The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, Jemar Tisby
- The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness, Raphael G. Warnock
- “The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet,” Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, June 2026
Many of these books are available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks. Shorter primary sources assigned in some modules, such as Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and PRRI’s 2025 report on Christian nationalism, are free online.
What you will study
Module 1: Church, State, and the Founding Module 2: What Is White Christian Nationalism? Module 3: Race and the Roots of the Religious Right Module 4: Gender, Masculinity, and Power Module 5: The Black Church and American Politics Module 6: Latino Faith and Politics Module 7: Same and Different: Comparing the Traditions Module 8: Local Politics and Ministry
Book report choices
Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez; The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted.