A Matrix of Tensions: CCM Magazine and the Creation of Evangelical Culture Warriors

This thesis, “A Matrix of Tensions: CCM Magazine and the Creation of Evangelical Culture Warriors,” looks at the flagship publication of the contemporary Christian music industry during the 1990s. It argues that the magazine was a site of cultural formation where readers learned that to be a Christian was to be a white Republican, and that being a faithful believer meant engaging the secular culture by fighting for the white priorities of Republicans. Unlike other work done on the Christian music industry, this thesis centers the whiteness of the industry, not taking it for granted, but looking at how money, power, and privilege helped create a space where whiteness was institutionalized. Bringing together history, sociology, and media studies, “A Matrix of Tensions” shows how a generation of white teenagers was able to so fuse politics and faith that when they left one, the other also disappeared.