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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Reviving “Cult”: A Qualitative Analysis Of A Female-Led Cultic Sect, Olivia Summers
Reviving “Cult”: A Qualitative Analysis Of A Female-Led Cultic Sect, Olivia Summers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This research analyzes the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOF), a female-led Evangelical church that social scientists have not yet studied. My thesis explores how a female leader operates within a patriarchal space and why WOF owns a Holocaust Museum. I conducted content analysis of the church and museum websites, Google reviews, and visited the museum in person. My research highlights the limitations of current taxonomies of religion in sociology. I address this oversight, argue for the re-introduction of “cult” as an analytical term, and propose a rubric for cult identification. I suggest that WOF is a sectarian cult with similar …
What Discrimination? Christian Microaggression Rhetoric Against Nontheists, Nicole Dolfi Hall
What Discrimination? Christian Microaggression Rhetoric Against Nontheists, Nicole Dolfi Hall
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Theories of microaggressions have been used in the last decade as a framework for studying subtle forms of discrimination against racial minorities and other marginalized groups. However, there is a dearth of research on the scope and types of microaggressions nontheists face. This qualitative study examines microaggressions against nontheists by interviewing 16 religious Christians on their experiences and opinions of the discrimination Christians and nontheists face. The narratives were analyzed for thematic patterns between the rhetoric used and the type of microaggressions employed. The study revealed nine categories of microaggressions. The findings also showed how experiences of discrimination, political viewpoint, …
Decolonizing Interfaith Interaction: Common Humanity And Colonial Legacies, Teresa A. Crist
Decolonizing Interfaith Interaction: Common Humanity And Colonial Legacies, Teresa A. Crist
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Among various formations of interfaith interaction in the United States, practitioners strive to build relationships across religious difference through appeals to commonality. Problematically, relying on commonality to unite religiously diverse groups can ignore the colonial history behind what is considered common across humanity, and may serve to make interfaith interaction ineffective. The interfaith project is itself connected to the colonial legacy of Western epistemology, which tacitly normalizes Protestant Christian norms and conceptions of “Religion” and human subjectivity. This dissertation explores whether interfaith interaction, while trying to relieve the religious oppression caused by the normalization of Christianity, may in fact support …