What makes a group of people? Amy Frykholm discusses the view that a group of people is made by boundaries--that conservative protestants were conservative protestants because "drinking, dancing, smoking, watching movies, playing cards, and swearing were forbidden," (Rapture Culture 23) creating a clear line between members and nonmembers. She proposes instead that what makes a group is something that most people have in common. Reading books like Left Behind gives conservative protestants something to gather around.
This issue is relevant especially to this period in American history, because of the civil war. This pushed to the fore the question of who was American and who wasn't. How can we know if "what binds us together is greater than what drives apart" if we don't know what holds us together?
No comments:
Post a Comment