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Since World War II, Protestant sermons have been an influential
tool for defining American citizenship in the wake of national
crises. In the aftermath of national tragedies, Americans often
turn to churches for solace. Because even secular citizens attend
these services, they are also significant opportunities for the
Protestant religious majority to define and redefine national
identity and, in the process, to invest the nation-state with
divinity. The sermons delivered in the wake of crises become
integral to historical and communal memory—it matters greatly who
is mourned and who is overlooked. Melissa M. Matthes conceives of
these sermons as theo-political texts. In When Sorrow Comes, she
explores the continuities and discontinuities they reveal in the
balance of state power and divine authority following the bombing
of Pearl Harbor, the assassinations of JFK and MLK, the Rodney King
verdict, the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, the
Newtown shootings, and the Black Lives Matter movement. She argues
that Protestant preachers use these moments to address questions
about Christianity and citizenship and about the responsibilities
of the Church and the State to respond to a national crisis. She
also shows how post-crisis sermons have codified whiteness in
ritual narratives of American history, excluding others from the
collective account. These civic liturgies therefore illustrate the
evolution of modern American politics and society. Despite
perceptions of the decline of religious authority in the twentieth
century, the pulpit retains power after national tragedies. Sermons
preached in such intense times of mourning and reckoning serve as a
form of civic education with consequences for how Americans
understand who belongs to the nation and how to imagine its future.
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