Daily Archives: March 12, 2026

Album Review: Midnight Light

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Midnight Light, by LeBlanc and Carr You may be forgiven if you have never heard of the duo LeBlanc & Carr. I certainly had not until recently, and the circumstances that brought them to my attention were unusual. First, while … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Music History, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why Religious Institutions Attract Moral Enforcers: Structural Factors, Institutional Ecology, and the Conditions That Sustain Unauthorized Holiness Enforcement

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract Religious institutions are not randomly selected environments for the emergence of self-appointed moral enforcers; they possess a distinctive combination of structural features that make them particularly hospitable to the formation of informal moral authority and the dynamics of unauthorized … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Church of God | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Modern Congregational Purity Policing: Modesty Movements, Sabbath Enforcement Disputes, Doctrinal Purity Crusades, and Social Media Denunciation

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The dynamics of unauthorized holiness enforcement, symbolic boundary policing, and the creation of parallel authority structures that the preceding literature in this series has traced from the Old Testament through the medieval and Reformation periods are not historical curiosities … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Church of God, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

White Paper: Reformation Era Moral Policing: Puritan Communities, Calvinist Discipline Systems, and the Institutionalization of Moral Enforcement

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced not only a theological revolution in Western Christianity but a series of unprecedented experiments in the institutional governance of community morality, in which the enforcement of personal and communal … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, History | Tagged , | Leave a comment

White Paper: Medieval Purity Movements: Institutional Compromise, Lay Holiness, and the Recurring Pattern of Separatist Purity

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The medieval period produced a remarkable proliferation of movements organized around the pursuit of radical religious purity, ranging from the dualist heresy of the Cathars to the internal reform movements of Benedictine and Franciscan monasticism to the diverse expressions … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

White Paper: The Social Psychology of Religious Zealotry: Moral Grandstanding, Identity Signaling, Purity Status Competition, and Shame Dynamics

Posted on March 12, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract Religious zealotry, understood not as sincere devotion to genuine theological conviction but as the compulsive social performance of religious seriousness oriented toward the correction and assessment of others, represents a distinct psychological and social phenomenon that recurs with remarkable … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Biblical History, Christianity, Church of God, History, Musings | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment