According to the Library of Congress Webcasts summary, in this video, "Joseph Kip Kosek, assistant professor at George Washington University, discussed the impact of radical Christian pacifists on American democratic theory and practice, at the Library of Congress. Kosek, the author of Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy and a former fellow of the Library's John W. Kluge Center, talked about his book. According to Kosek, in response to the massive bloodshed that defined the 20th century, American religious radicals developed an effective new form of nonviolent protest, one that combined Christian principles with new uses of mass media. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi, these 'acts of conscience' included sit-ins, boycotts, labor strikes and conscientious objection to war. Beginning with World War I and ending with the ascendance of Martin Luther King Jr., Kosek traces the impact of radical Christian pacifists on America."

Maurice Jackson discusses Anthony Benezet, the founder of the antislavery movement in America in the mid-1700s. Benezet believed the British ban on slavery should have been extended to the colonies, and worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine.

According to the Library of Congress website, "As "colonists" in 19th-century Russia, Mennonites sang German diasporic choral music and borrowed Russian choral music; when war drove many to North America, Mennonites drew on this repertoire and borrowed new repertoires to forge links to a new elite: North American classical choral singing circles. In this webcast, Jonathan Duek, an ethnomusicologist and visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Music, traces this story not as a linear narrative, but as genealogical fragments, beginning with the resonances of particular songs for present-day Mennonite writers, historians, and singers; and then exploring past moments of the production and reception of these songs in Russia and North America."

Julie Roy Jeffrey of Goucher College discusses the effect of the Second Great Awakening on young people and women and the drive to enact social reforms it encouraged.

To view this clip, select "The Second Great Awakening and Antebellum Social Reform" under "Religion and Culture Video."

John Mack Faragher of Yale University discusses the significance of religion to antebellum settlers in Illinois. He looks at the diversity of sects represented and the importance of religion in community-forming.

To view this clip, select "Religion on the Illinois Frontier" under "Religion and Culture Video."

Professor Salvatore Nick reviews the life of C.L. Franklin (1915-1984), African-American Baptist preacher and civil rights activist. Nick looks particularly at the greater social context within which Franklin spoke and worked—that is, the daily experiences of the African American communities to which he spoke and which he spoke for.