Season 5: Ep. 6 Heathens: Chinese Religion and American Exclusion

About this episode

This episode explores the history of religious diversity in the United States through a conversation between Reza Aslan and Dr. Jonathan Lee.

Under the backdrop of our nation’s 250th anniversary, Our Seven Neighbors, season 5, explores the long, contested history of religious diversity in the United States—not as a feel-good celebration of pluralism, but as a hard-won achievement forged through conflict, exclusion, resistance, and moral struggle. Episode 6 features host Reza Aslan in conversation with Dr. Jonathan Lee.

People in this episode

Host: Reza Aslan

Guest: Dr. Jonathan Lee

Topics covered

• religious diversity
• American exclusion
• Chinese religion
• conflict
• resistance
• moral struggle

Keywords

• religion
• exclusion
• Chinese religion
• American history
• pluralism
• conflict
• resistance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: InterReligious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary

More episodes of Our 7 Neighbors: Religion and Resistance in America

• Season 5: Ep.5 Strangers at Home: The American Tradition of Antisemitism · June 2, 2026 · 44 min
• Season 5: Ep.4 Rome and the Republic: Catholicism and Questions of Loyalty and Identity · May 26, 2026 · 47 min
• Season 5: Ep. 3 From Slave Ships to 9/11: Islam and the Long Struggle to Belong in America · May 19, 2026 · 42 min
• Season 5: Ep. 2 Soul Wounds: Indigenous Survival and the Limits of Religious Freedom · May 12, 2026 · 52 min
• Season 5: Ep. 1 The Myth of a Religious Freedom · May 5, 2026 · 36 min
• Our 7 Neighbors Season 5 Trailer · March 21, 2026 · 2 min