Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matthew J Kuiper

@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social

5.7K followers 1.4K following 5.2K posts

Religion Prof. Islam, South Asia, Middle East. Fascinated by religious actors & movements in modernity. Author of two books on Islamic da'wa (mission, propagation). Other words in sundry other places. Opinions my own. 13.1🏃🏼‍♂️✅, 26.2🏃‍♂️✅

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · Mar 1

We are living in a time of massive underreaction.

36 140 940

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 10h

flipped classrooms & the unquestioned shift toward “student-led learning” were also part of the deprofessionalization->adjunctification->mechanization program whose ultimate goal was a fully administrative university

John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 11h

The over-reliance on standardization as the mechanism for writing instruction really was a pretty unbeatable context to produce de-professionalized teachers okay with using AI to grade

11 34 130

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 4h

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Alan Owlport 🦉 🎃 @alanallport.bsky.social · 5h

It’s not heroic to have terrible opinions.

2 6 670

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 4h

Again, the *very least* they can do is actually enforce the targeting rule, but too often they simply don’t on silly technicalities

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 4h

Another Sunday in the fall. Worth a RP

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 14d

Dude’s head is smashed, his neck snaps back in slow motion, his eyes roll backwards from a helmet to helmet hit, and… “on further review,” “ there is no penalty for targeting.” Happens all the time. Just terrible. Both the ncaa and nfl should be ashamed.

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Eladio Bobadilla @eladiobobadilla.com · 5h

😆😆😆

Faith M. Jackson @kissedbythesun.bsky.social · 21h

🚨BREAKING🚨: Portland Frog receives Nobel Peace Prize.

1 9 28

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 6h

Wordle 1,576 6/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟩⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨⬛⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Only 75% got this one in 6 today

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 6h

And I still think that 95% has to be based on a very narrow definition of “evangelical” that virtually limits it to white conservatives.

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 6h

“Almost the totality” *in the US*, though, right? Surely you don’t mean this of evangelicalism in Nigeria, the Philippines, South Korea, India, etc?

I feel like that’s where the misunderstanding lies. I’m looking at evangelicalism in its global dimensions.

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 6h

Very true, esp if you land on certain runways, those furthest from whatever terminal your headed to

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 6h

Me too, but I still think this over-focuses on the white American/Republican part of the movement. I’m just trying to remind people that the movement is bigger than that.

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Erin Burnett OutFront @outfrontcnn.bsky.social · 2d

“We could hear them laughing.”

Rev. David Black, the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, speaks to #CNN’s Erin Burnett in his first television interview since he was shot in the head with pepper balls while praying in front of an ICE facility.

#OutFrontCNN #News #ICE #Chicago

36 340 640

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

Which country?

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

I’ll check that out

1 1

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

I’m recommending the actual book.

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

…And to come up with an evidence based, stipulative definition or usage of the movement’s name/label which can account for as much of the phenomena contained under that umbrella as possible. Think “Salafi”, “Pentecostal”, and and a zillion others, and yes, “evangelical.”

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

Religious movements are *always* internally contested. It is not for historians/outsiders to decide which party to the contestation represents the “true“ version or deserves exclusive use of the movement’s name/label. Their job is rather to describe the internal diversity as accurately as possible.

1 6 23

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

Good point. I guess for some people, they’re all “evangelical”

1 1

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 9h

This is simply incorrect. Try:

A Short History of Global Evangelicalism

Cambridge Core - History of Ideas and Intellectual History - A Short History of Global Evangelicalism

www.cambridge.org

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 10h

Discourse about “evangelicals” is confusing because there is a world of often unstated difference between popular, reductionist use (as shorthand for a white American religio-political types), and more descriptive/analytic use (for an identifiable historical rel movement of global dimensions). 3/

1 3

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 10h

Conceding to such a narrow definition also removes a resource for complicating hegemonic uses. Major branches of “evangelicalism” have histories of social justice & “progressive” activism. One shouldn’t give the term over to one side in what is an ongoing struggle for the “soul” of the movement. 2/

1 4

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 10h

If we collapse or reduce the category “evangelical” to white American 20th/21st c. politically conservative/nat’list varieties, we badly garble the actual history of the movement & its global dimensions/internal diversity. It’s like reducing all of “Salafism” to one type from one national context 1/

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · Jan 10

Like, maybe (on historical grounds) Carter has as much or more right to the label "evangelical" than the white American moral majority/Reagan/Fox/m*ga crowd. Let's not forget that evangelicalism goes back to 18th c. Europe & that today there are far more evangelicals in the Global South than the US.

2 4

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 11h

Self-description is important, but, like “Pentecostal” or “Salafi”, “evangelical” is also an analytical/descriptive category for an identifiable global movement of signif internal diversity. A Xn group(s) might validly be considered “Pentecostal” even if they don’t nec use the name for themselves.

1 1

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 11h

cf my thoughts here

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · Jan 10

Good article! But…I disagree w/ one of its main points. If you reduce evangelicalism to its white US fundy wing, then sure, Carter wasn’t “evangelical.” But a better approach is to let Carter’s self-claimed evangelicalism remind us that there’s more to the movement, esp seen historically & globally.

Religion Dispatches @religiondispatches.org · Jan 9

"[Carter's] Baptist faith...did not make him want to enforce his beliefs on others, but rather made him fight for racial justice, for the Equal Rights Amendment, and for less punitive criminal penalties for victimless criminal offenses," writes @austinsteelman.bsky.social: ow.ly/bEsT50UCCLh

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 11h

I think we’re looking at this from different perspectives. I’m using evangelical as a descriptive category (as used by scholars who study the movement historically & globally), and objecting on that basis to collapsing or reducing it to white American, politically conservative/nat’list varieties.