The Department of Religious Studies presents
NOTES FROM THE FIELD || FALL 2023
White American Evangelicals & the Science of Race
Tuesday, Oct 31
12:00-1:00 pm
De Carli Room
Memorial Union
Lunch is served
Current white Evangelical Christian ideas about human origin and human difference are both startlingly contemporary and deeply beholden to past ideas. For example, many white conservative Evangelical preachers accept that direct-to-consumer genetic testing can tell where a person’s ancestors come from. At the same time, these preachers still adhere to the idea that all human beings are descended from Adam and Eve and human differentiation is the result of the dispersion of peoples described in the book of Genesis. This talk explores how contemporary Evangelical sermons engage with current scientific ideas while drawing on 18th and 19th century race science.
MEAGHAN O’KEEFE’S research focuses on the intersections of religion, politics, and the health sciences. Her book project, Biblical Marriage and the Reproduction of Whiteness , examines how white Evangelical Christian theologies of marriage and family frame Evangelicals’ approaches to public assistance, human trafficking, and assisted reproductive and genetic technologies.
