Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Incompatible: The Construction Of The Homosexual Subject In American Mainline Protestantism, John Joseph Anderson

Dissertations

Many American mainline Protestant denominations discriminate against gays and lesbians or have discriminated against them in recent history by denying ordination to "self-avowed practicing homosexuals." This dissertation analyzes such ordination policies and their enforcement in ecclesial courts in three denominations, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Moving from a theoretical framework that integrates Michel Foucault's theories of discourse and subjectivity with Christian body theology, this dissertation argues that the language of the "self-avowed practicing homosexual" discursively produces a homosexual subject that does violence to gays and lesbians in these churches.

The …

Systematic Sexual Violence By U.S. State Agencies: A Victimology Approach, Sarah Brightman

Dissertations

Women experience sexual violence at the hands of the United States military, police, corrections officers and border patrol agents. The study of state crime has been expanding rapidly in criminological research, however there has been little attention paid to its victims, particularly women, and especially to women's sexual victimization. The purpose of this research is to expand current research to develop a gendered analysis of state crimes in the context of sexual violence against women. This research applies Kauzlarich, Matthews and Miller's (2001) six propositions of a Victimology of State Crime to four cases of sexual victimization by U.S. agencies. …

Understanding The Dimensions Of Spirituality In Caucasian Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual College Students, Michele L. Mcgrady

Dissertations

Spiritual development is a critical task for college students, but there is a paucity of information about how college students understand the construct of spirituality. Historically, organized religion has been oppressive to the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. Furthermore, little is known about the spiritual understandings and spiritual experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual college students. This quantitative investigation sought to understand the underlying dimensions of spirituality for Caucasian LGB college students through the use of multidimensional scaling. Sixty Caucasian LGB college students were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. Findings indicate three dimensions of spirituality for this sample: …