Benevolent Intentions: Decolonizing the Religious Liberal Imperial Mind, an American Story
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Fredric Muir explores a period of American history that is "difficult knowledge": the country’s determination to be a member of the imperial era’s club of colonizing nations. While the book’s characters are Christian religious liberals in particular, what is surprising is not that they were in positions to direct and enforce colonial hegemony but that there were so many of them; in fact, there was a disproportionately large number of religious liberals in positions of authority and leadership. Addressing topics that are still current, this book describes the intersection of religious liberalism and imperialism and identifies those who were in positions of power while observing what it was about the liberal Christian faith that was informing them (and the limited and failed resistance of the anti-imperialist and anti-immigration movements). The results have been lasting and continue as headline news.
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- Highlights how U.S. religious liberalism intertwined with imperial projects in the Philippines.
- Explores the complex relationship between faith, science, and colonial power.
- Offers a critical decolonial perspective for rethinking American religious history.
- The Magic Mirror
- Faith of Our Fathers
- Movers, Shakers, and Shapers
- Romancing the Empire
- Seduced By the Sound of Science
- Anti-Imperial Shibboleths
- PKs On Luzon
- Into the Wilderness
- What Do We Want History to Do to Us?
- Full Text of President McKinley’s Benevolent Assimilation
“Reverend Muir’s deeply researched and powerful examination of how American liberal religion’s theology—rooted in reason and tolerance—has at times been complicit in imperialism, nation-building, and colonial expansion. He unpacks the tangled history of Unitarian and Universalist political and religious leaders (in particular) who, under the guise of ‘benevolent or liberal imperialism’ advanced an oppressive colonizing project in the Philippines. Muir opens the door for truth-telling which is an important first step to co-creating more just and equitable futures.”
—Alicia R. Forde, Director of Formation, Texas Methodist Foundation
“Unitarian Universalists today may be surprised to learn that religious liberals were often at the forefront of U.S. empire. In this powerfully written book, Fred Muir shows how and why so many religious liberals in the United States joined enthusiastically in imperial projects. At a time when powerful forces aim to whitewash U.S. history, Muir insists that we must first grapple with its unwelcome truths if we are to secure more just futures.”
—Tisa Wenger, Professor of Divinity, American Studies, History, and Religious Studies, Yale University
“Benevolent Intentions is a must read for every Unitarian Universalist and person of liberal religious outlook who is prepared to honestly face how easily liberal religion can align itself with white supremacy. Beautifully researched and engaging to read, Fred Muir’s historical study of religious complicity in the nineteenth-century US takeover of Hawaii and the Philippines offers vitally important internal critique of our faith tradition. With the help of Muir’s insights and analysis we are better equipped to move beyond the tragic limits of ‘benevolent intentions’ to become more faithful builders of beloved community.”
—Rebecca Ann Parker, President Emerita, Starr King School for the Ministry
“In this era of neo-imperialist rhetoric and posturing, Fred Muir’s book reminds us that we have been here before. In unpacking America’s colonial past—not as a colony but as nineteenth-century colonizers—he sheds light on the current political situation in the United States. It is not an apparition. This exploration of the American overthrow of the Hawai’ian monarchy and colonization of the Philippines at the turn of the twentieth century serves as reminder of the inflated self-regard and imperialist values that thrived then. Benevolent Intentions maps out a religious liberal legacy and describes how it arose along with nineteenth-century exceptionalism of which religious liberals were proselytizers and enablers. It is a cautionary tale.”
—Mark D. Morrison-Reed, author of Black Pioneers in a White Denomination