we trace the faith that built this place, broke this place, and might yet be the thing that heals it.
Season 3 of the underview traces the faith that built Northwest Arkansas, from frontier revivals to megachurches, from the invisible church of enslaved people to the Spanish-language masses reshaping our region today.
This season asks hard questions about religion as both meaning and power. Circuit riders crossed 600 miles to preach personal transformation. Cumberland Presbyterians established Cain Hill a decade before Arkansas was even a state. But religion also watched as indigenous nations were removed, split congregations over slavery, and enforced the color line at its front doors. In hush harbors, enslaved people found in the same Bible a different gospel, one of liberation, and built a cathedral of resistance.
We explore how what we believe about God shapes what we believe about each other, and how Sunday’s message becomes Monday’s action. This is the faith that built this place, broke this place, and might yet be the thing that heals it.
Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris on FUMC Bentonville's 193-year history from slavery to inclusion, her call to ministry through tragedy, and the Methodist tradition of being handed a community and told to love them.
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Rev. Evan Garner of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville explores what it means to belong before you believe, reckon with a history of enslavement, and build a parish where wholeness means all of the people. Not most. All.
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Father Jason Tyler traces 180 years of Catholic life in NW Arkansas from 1847 baptisms of enslaved people to a multilingual congregation of 2,100+ families. A conversation about solidarity, immigration, and belonging at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fayetteville.
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Historian Rachel Whitaker reveals the KKK's deep integration with 1920s Northwest Arkansas church culture, traces the line from frontier social enforcement to organized violence, and lifts up stories of congregations that chose welcome over exclusion, including one tied to the Little Rock Nine.
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Historian Rachel Whitaker traces faith's arrival in NWA from the 1820s through the Civil War revealing how early churches functioned as institutions of social control, how denominations fractured over slavery, and how enslaved people built congregations as acts of resistance.
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Monica Kumar joins as co-host of Season 3 of the underview, "the faith of Northwest Arkansas." This episode is Monica's story and how she views faith, belonging, and how place is shaped by what people believe.
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A framing for the faith of Northwest Arkansas. Five words the season is built on faith, religion, theology, church, and why discernment begins with holding the terms apart, and what this season is and isn't asking.
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Season 3 explores how faith has shaped Northwest Arkansas. From circuit riders to megachurches, hush harbors to City Councils. This opening episode gives a beginning point of to view religion as both a system of meaning and power.
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in this third season of the underview, the faith of Northwest Arkansas, we trace the faith that built this place, broke this place, and might yet be the thing that heals it.
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