Pub Date : 2021-06-22DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0004
Nicholas T. Pruitt
This chapter covers the World War II era and early Cold War period. During this period, mainline Protestants often promoted an “American Way of Life” while attending to Asian immigrants, Bracero workers, Japanese Americans in internment camps, and refugees through home missions. Nevertheless, such programs reflected a measured respect for cosmopolitanism and cultural pluralism, though they were by no means universal sentiments among American Protestants. The Second World War also encouraged various social sensibilities among white Protestants when it came to race, diversity, gender roles, and family values. This chapter focuses on an increasing Protestant critique of racial discrimination inherent in the immigration quota system, especially as church leaders called for overturning Chinese exclusion. It was during and immediately after the war that mainline leaders in the FCC began an aggressive push to overturn Asian exclusion once and for all, though with mixed results.
{"title":"The Huddled Masses the War Produced","authors":"Nicholas T. Pruitt","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter covers the World War II era and early Cold War period. During this period, mainline Protestants often promoted an “American Way of Life” while attending to Asian immigrants, Bracero workers, Japanese Americans in internment camps, and refugees through home missions. Nevertheless, such programs reflected a measured respect for cosmopolitanism and cultural pluralism, though they were by no means universal sentiments among American Protestants. The Second World War also encouraged various social sensibilities among white Protestants when it came to race, diversity, gender roles, and family values. This chapter focuses on an increasing Protestant critique of racial discrimination inherent in the immigration quota system, especially as church leaders called for overturning Chinese exclusion. It was during and immediately after the war that mainline leaders in the FCC began an aggressive push to overturn Asian exclusion once and for all, though with mixed results.","PeriodicalId":317289,"journal":{"name":"Open Hearts, Closed Doors","volume":"120 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116889338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-22DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0006
Nicholas T. Pruitt
This chapter recounts mainline Protestant political lobbying and testimony before congressional committee hearings, culminating in the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended the discriminatory quota system. During this time, mainline groups affiliated with the NCC increased their protest against the federal government’s racially biased immigration policy, as seen in their continued criticism of the discriminatory quotas established in 1924 and their response to the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act. In their attempts to challenge restriction, liberal Protestants encountered pushback from conservative Protestants and anti-communist figures during the Second Red Scare. Despite occasional opposition, however, mainline Protestant leaders often advocated a more liberal immigration system that would challenge racial discrimination in the spirit of the civil rights movement and elevate America’s stature internationally. Finally, this chapter concludes by exploring how Protestants aligned themselves in 1965 when Congress finally overturned the immigration quota system based on national origins.
{"title":"Paving the Way for Pluralism","authors":"Nicholas T. Pruitt","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter recounts mainline Protestant political lobbying and testimony before congressional committee hearings, culminating in the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended the discriminatory quota system. During this time, mainline groups affiliated with the NCC increased their protest against the federal government’s racially biased immigration policy, as seen in their continued criticism of the discriminatory quotas established in 1924 and their response to the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act. In their attempts to challenge restriction, liberal Protestants encountered pushback from conservative Protestants and anti-communist figures during the Second Red Scare. Despite occasional opposition, however, mainline Protestant leaders often advocated a more liberal immigration system that would challenge racial discrimination in the spirit of the civil rights movement and elevate America’s stature internationally. Finally, this chapter concludes by exploring how Protestants aligned themselves in 1965 when Congress finally overturned the immigration quota system based on national origins.","PeriodicalId":317289,"journal":{"name":"Open Hearts, Closed Doors","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117140148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-22DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0007
Nicholas T. Pruitt
The conclusion considers what this history reveals about Protestantism’s place in American society. White mainline Protestants slowly came to witness their hold on American culture slip in the face of ethnic and religious diversity. Unlike other periods of history, however, Protestants did not resort to staunch nativism, but worked instead to incorporate immigrants into a nation that they believed was Christian. Mainline Protestants arrived at a pluralistic bargain whereby they gradually embraced cultural pluralism and immigration reform with the hope that they could also maintain the Protestant character of the nation. But as a result, they unwittingly facilitated religious pluralism that was a product of continued immigration. This in turn would ultimately undermine the position of mainline Protestants in American society. Finally, the conclusion provides historical context to statements religious leaders have made during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries on the government’s immigration and refugee policies.
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"Nicholas T. Pruitt","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"The conclusion considers what this history reveals about Protestantism’s place in American society. White mainline Protestants slowly came to witness their hold on American culture slip in the face of ethnic and religious diversity. Unlike other periods of history, however, Protestants did not resort to staunch nativism, but worked instead to incorporate immigrants into a nation that they believed was Christian. Mainline Protestants arrived at a pluralistic bargain whereby they gradually embraced cultural pluralism and immigration reform with the hope that they could also maintain the Protestant character of the nation. But as a result, they unwittingly facilitated religious pluralism that was a product of continued immigration. This in turn would ultimately undermine the position of mainline Protestants in American society. Finally, the conclusion provides historical context to statements religious leaders have made during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries on the government’s immigration and refugee policies.","PeriodicalId":317289,"journal":{"name":"Open Hearts, Closed Doors","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130142066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-22DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0005
Nicholas T. Pruitt
This chapter provides a closer look at how mainline Protestants interpreted increasing pluralism following World War II as the Cold War unfolded. As America set itself apart from foreign powers whose ideology was considered “godless” (i.e., Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), home missions and evangelization of immigrants remained imperative. This chapter considers the continuity of earlier home mission impulses, while also examining white Protestant support for postwar refugee resettlement, largely under the auspices of Church World Service. Following the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, many denominations sponsored resettlement programs that provided living accommodations and employment for thousands of refugees fleeing political instability in other parts of the world. In their attention to refugee relief, Protestants were quick to note the international role of the United States and its obligation to defend freedom. All the while, these refugee sponsorship programs resulted in displaced people being relocated among white Americans not familiar with foreign ways.
{"title":"Strangers in Mayberry","authors":"Nicholas T. Pruitt","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides a closer look at how mainline Protestants interpreted increasing pluralism following World War II as the Cold War unfolded. As America set itself apart from foreign powers whose ideology was considered “godless” (i.e., Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), home missions and evangelization of immigrants remained imperative. This chapter considers the continuity of earlier home mission impulses, while also examining white Protestant support for postwar refugee resettlement, largely under the auspices of Church World Service. Following the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, many denominations sponsored resettlement programs that provided living accommodations and employment for thousands of refugees fleeing political instability in other parts of the world. In their attention to refugee relief, Protestants were quick to note the international role of the United States and its obligation to defend freedom. All the while, these refugee sponsorship programs resulted in displaced people being relocated among white Americans not familiar with foreign ways.","PeriodicalId":317289,"journal":{"name":"Open Hearts, Closed Doors","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114487397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-22DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0002
Nicholas T. Pruitt
This chapter examines home missions during the latter half of the 1920s and Protestant responses to congressional legislation. This chapter identifies the social gospel’s influence on mainline Protestant ministries among immigrant and ethnic communities, in addition to providing a survey of Americanization programs during the 1920s. Settlement houses facilitated much of this work among immigrant communities, and Protestant women were often at the forefront of these ministries. Through an investigation of home missions, it is evident that earlier social gospel sentiments were being diffused among regular churchgoers, resulting in a synthesis of evangelism and social concern among mainline Protestants. This chapter also identifies Protestant reactions to the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 that limited eastern and southern European immigration and excluded Japanese immigrants entirely.
{"title":"Settling into Restriction","authors":"Nicholas T. Pruitt","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803545.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines home missions during the latter half of the 1920s and Protestant responses to congressional legislation. This chapter identifies the social gospel’s influence on mainline Protestant ministries among immigrant and ethnic communities, in addition to providing a survey of Americanization programs during the 1920s. Settlement houses facilitated much of this work among immigrant communities, and Protestant women were often at the forefront of these ministries. Through an investigation of home missions, it is evident that earlier social gospel sentiments were being diffused among regular churchgoers, resulting in a synthesis of evangelism and social concern among mainline Protestants. This chapter also identifies Protestant reactions to the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 that limited eastern and southern European immigration and excluded Japanese immigrants entirely.","PeriodicalId":317289,"journal":{"name":"Open Hearts, Closed Doors","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116369751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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