Immigrant Apocalypse with Yii-Jan Lin

Yii-Jan Lin (0:01)

Thinking about us hurtling towards climate disaster, right? Or the end of the economic world as we know it, the rise of populism, you know, is there a sense of like, well, it's foretold, you know, like a sense of teleology in which all these catastrophic, terrible things are just part of the plan. That really disturbs me to think that that kind of thinking can be entrenched and think, well, a new world is coming. Well, great, but what if it doesn't, you know, and this is what we're stuck with.

Dan McClellan (0:32)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (0:34)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (0:35)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (0:47)

Things are great, man. I'm thinking about the tour that's coming up. Data Over Dogma, we're going, we're hitting the road pretty soon. So, if you're in any of the cities that I'm about to name, go into the show notes and click on the link to either the first leg or the second leg and get your tickets now because we really want to meet you. We're going to be in Chicago, then Seattle, then Portland, then Los Angeles. And then we're going to wait a couple weeks. And then we're back out on the road in Dallas and Atlanta and Philadelphia and then Washington, DC. And we'd really love to see you guys. So please, if you're even considering it, buy a ticket. That would be great.

Dan McClellan (1:31)

Yeah, it would help us out a lot. And today we have a wonderful episode for you as far as we know. We don't plan out too much. The scripts stay pretty light, pretty loose. But we have Dr. Yii-Jan Lin is joining us today. Welcome to the show, Dr. Lin. Thank you so much for being here.

Yii-Jan Lin (1:51)

Thanks for having me.

Dan McClellan (1:52)

Really looking forward to this.

And careful viewers of my own work on social media will recognize her name because I've talked about her as well as Dr. Epp in relation to the first woman Apostle, Yii-Jan Lin. And hopefully we'll have a few minutes to talk about that a little later in the show. But Dr. Lin has a new book out right now called Immigration and Apocalypse, How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration. And Dr. Lin is Associate Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. And hopefully the weather's been warming up for you there in New Haven recently.

Yii-Jan Lin (2:32)

It was a nice crisp 35 today.

Dan Beecher (2:34)

Oh my gosh. So no, the answer is no.

Yii-Jan Lin (2:38)

Today was weird, yes.

Dan McClellan (2:41)

We're out in Utah and it was in the 60s today. So I have three girls and they're very much enjoying the fact that there is not an ice cold wind cutting through everything.

So could you tell us a little bit about, well, first of all, a little bit about your background before we dive into the book?

Yii-Jan Lin (3:03)

Yeah. So I teach New Testament at Yale Divinity School, as you've mentioned. I actually got my doctorate here before I returned after teaching out West at the Graduate Theological Union. I was at the Pacific School of Religion for a few years before I moved back out to New Haven and began teaching in 2016 So this is what, my ninth year here teaching at the Divinity School. So yeah, I began in English literature. That was where I began my studies in graduate school in University of Chicago and I felt drawn to textual analysis but wanted to dive deeper into thinking about Biblical texts, texts that are scripturalized, understood as sacred, and think about how that's working out in the world. So that's how I ended up in this realm of academics.

Dan McClellan (3:53)

That also obviously has to do with the way you're weaving together discussion of the Bible with discussion of contemporary geopolitics but also historical politics. Yeah, absolutely. And this is one of the first things I noticed. I really, you start off, not really start off, but close to the beginning of the book, you have a story about the New Haven green.

Dan Beecher (4:17)

Yeah, I was going to say, what's funny is that you were mentioning being in New Haven and I, my brain was like, oh, why didn't I not put together that like that's her home turf right there?

Dan McClellan (4:28)

That's probably how she found out about this legend. Would you mind telling the audience the relevance of New Haven green to the story you're telling about the leveraging of Revelation as kind of a lens for viewing contemporary immigration policy?