Lecture
President Trump and Evangelicals: Strange Bedfellows or No?Presented by: Dr. John Francis Burke, Ph.D.
Friday, October 25 • 3-5:00pm
Much attention has been given to the almost devout support that evangelicals have given to President Donald Trump, despite his character flaws, especially toward women. This presentation will make the case why there are credible reasons for this support and conversely make the case how such support erodes the moral credibility of the evangelical movement.
The presentation will also review the other notice trends in faith-based political participation in recent elections, with an eye both to the growing impact of the Latinx vote and also the impact of voters whose politics are secular in disposition – the so-called “nones.” [no religious affiliation].
The presentation will also close with a brief consideration of the relevance of the life and work of Jan Amos Comenius in terms of addressing the prevailing US political-cultural divide.
Dr. John Francis Burke, Ph.D. has spent almost all his career in Texas. John initially taught American politics, political theory, and public administration at Texas State University in San Marcos from 1985-1987. He then taught one year at Delta State University (Mississippi), and then went on to teach at the University of Houston-Downtown. John spent nine years teaching political science at UHD before moving across town to the University of St. Thomas where he taught from 1997-2012.During his years at St. Thomas he directed both the Social Justice Studies Program and the Rev. William J. Young Social Justice Institute – the latter being a partnership between UST, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston. This Institute, under John’s direction, every June from 2004-11 held an annual summer conference that brought together academics, students, activists, and practitioners regarding a topic in social justice.From 2012-14 at Cabrini College (Radnor, PA), John served as the first Executive Director for the Wolfington Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement. He facilitated community-based education initiatives between faculty and community organizations at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels. In addition, John did both public networking and fundraising/grant writing for the Center. From 2012-15, he also served in the Religious Studies department at Cabrini teaching Catholic social teaching, intercultural ministry, Latino spirituality and politics, religion and politics, and pastoral theology. In the summer of 2015, John returned to Texas teaching at several schools until he joined the Trinity faculty.John has published articles, especially on political theory, multicultural relations, social justice, and religion & politics in several journals and periodicals including The Review of Politics and Commonweal. He is the author of Mestizo Democracy (Texas A&M Press, 2002), a text on democracy and multiculturalism in the U.S. Southwest. His recent book, Building Bridges, Not Walls: Nourishing Diverse Cultures in Faith (Liturgical Press, 2016) that focuses on integrating European American and Latino spiritualities constructively in faith-based communities. John has also appeared as a political commentator on many Texas media outlets, both in English and Spanish.In addition to his academic responsibilities, John has served on several committees and conducted workshops in Texas are dealing with social justice and multicultural issues. John also has extensive experience in church liturgy and while in Houston earned a "reputation" for developing multilingual choirs. |