Digital Commons Network^™

A Brief History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints With Emphasis On The Charismatic Roots Of The Race-Based Priesthood Denial, Wayne A. Denton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation provides an overview of the history of race relations and the evolution of authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). It traces the early charismatic leadership of Joseph Smith and his liberal racial views, which increased tension between the LDS church and broader American society. After Smith's death, Brigham Young instituted racist policies like slavery in Utah and a priesthood ban for black members to reduce tensions. In the Progressive Era, LDS scholars theologically entrenched the priesthood ban despite their progressive leanings. A push towards correlation and centralized control of doctrine in the twentieth …

Missionary Of Faith: Uniting And Educating Catholic Youth Under God, Joshua Ryan Mcgarvie

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Religion, as discussed further in the following research, is clearly not the focus of many people’s lives in our society today. In my opinion, younger generations should be taught Catholicism to develop a solid moral foundation at a young age. For my capstone project, I volunteered to teach a Religious Education (RE) class to 6th-8th graders in my local parish. Through the development of a more robust and engaging curriculum, specifically designed to teach the most profound concepts of the Church, I was able to further the cause of bringing Catholicism to these younger members of society. As a leader …

“In A Religious Celebration”? The Religious Defense Of Lgbt Rights In U.S. Federal Courts, Kelsy Burke, Emily Kazyak, Maia Behrendt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article advances scholarship on the relationship between sexuality, religion, and the law within the United States by analyzing case summaries and court opinions of the federal appellate cases decided between 1990 and 2020 that involve a religion-based claim being used to advance or defend gay and lesbian rights. Contrary to dominant public narratives that position religion uniformly in opposition to progressive sexual values, these cases show how Americans’ religious beliefs and practices include diverse sexual identities. We find that the courts’ reactions to such cases, however, illustrate the tension within legal discourse and hesitancy for the courts to equate …

Digital Media, Ageing And Faith: Older Sri Lankan Migrants In Australia And Their Digital Articulations Of Transnational Religion, Shashini Gamage, Raelene Wilding, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

To date, older adults have received little attention in the newly emerging technological narratives of transnational religion. This is surprising, given the strong association of later life with spiritual and religious engagement, but it likely reflects the ongoing assumption that older adults are technophobic or technologically incompetent. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with older Sinhalese Buddhist migrants from Sri Lanka, living in Melbourne, this paper explores the digital articulations of transnational religion that arise from older migrants’ uses of digital media. We focus on how engagements with digital media enable older Sinhalese to respond to an urgent need to accumulate merit …

The Impact Of Changes In Religion On Health Among Sexual Minority Mormons, G. Tyler Lefevor, Samuel J. Skidmore, Kiet D. Huynh, James S. Mcgraw

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study presents data from the first longitudinal examination of sexual minority (SM) Mormons (n = 132). Over the course of 2 years, SM Mormons reported decreased psychological (e.g., orthodox beliefs), behavioral (e.g., service attendance), and social (interpersonal religious commitment) religiousness. Analyses revealed that, at baseline, service attendance was related to lower levels of meaning in life and higher levels of depression at time 2, while interpersonal religious commitment at baseline was related to higher levels of meaning in life and lower levels of depression. Latent change scores of religiousness suggested that decreases in interpersonal religious commitment over …

“Jamás Os Conocí”: La Utilización Del Discurso Católico Para Justificar La Represión Ilegal Durante La Última Dictadura Militar De Argentina / “I Never Knew You”: The Utilization Of Catholic Discourse To Justify The Illegal Repression During The Final Military Dictatorship In Argentina, Molly Jirgal

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En las décadas anteriores a la dictadura, el ala derecha de la política argentina trabajó para construir una identidad nacional inextricablemente entrelazada con el catolicismo. Esta identidad impregnó, y sigue impregnando, una plétora de aspectos de la sociedad argentina, incluido el ámbito político. Durante la dictadura militar de 1976-1983, la derecha utilizó esta identidad católica argentina construida para ordenar divinamente su represión brutalmente violenta de la izquierda. Este trabajo explora cómo la institución de la Iglesia católica contribuyó a una justifcación religiosa para acciones de otro modo injustificables según la doctrina católica. A través del análisis de cartas, comunicados de …

The Role Of Religious Contexts On Hate Crimes, 2003–2017, Shawn Ratcliff, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objective: Combining insights from socio-criminological theories of (hate) crimes and the moral communities perspective, this article examines how the religious makeup of a county— evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, and Catholic adherence rates—affects county-level hate crime patterns.

Methods: Zero-inflated negative binomial regressions were conducted on a unique county-level data set that included reported hate crimes, religious adherence rates, and related correlates of hate crimes for three distinct temporal periods: 2003–2007, 2008–2012, and 2013–2017.

Results: Results demonstrate that a county’s total adherence rate, mainline Protestant rate and, to a lesser degree, Catholic adherence rate are associated with fewer hate …

Homemaking In And With Migrant Churches As Communities Of Care, Ma. Adeinev M. Reyes-Espiritu

Theology Department Faculty Publications

Research on migration and religion reports the significance of religion to migrants, particularly those who self-identify as religious. In particular, migrant churches have served as a sanctuary, a venue for social networking, and a community supportive of migrants’ wellbeing, to name a few things. However, migrant churches are also criticized for the possibility of becoming instruments of control over migrants. Heeding Boccagni and Hondagneu-Sotelo’s invitation to use the “homemaking optic” to inquire into the experience of integration of migrants, this paper analyzes how migrant churches foster migrants’ becoming at home in the receiving societies using Philippine migrant communities as a …

Correlates Of Christian Religious Identification And Deidentification Among Sexual And Gender Minorities: A U.S. Probability Sample, G. Tyler Lefevor, Lauren J. A. Bouton, Edward B. Davis, Samuel J. Skidmore, Ilan H. Meyer

Psychology Faculty Publications

Using a U.S. nationally representative sample of 1,529 sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), we examined the demographic and developmental correlates of Christian religious deidentification. We found that SGMs who were older, Black, cisgender men, and/or lived in the American South were more likely to identify as Christian in adulthood, relative to other SGMs. Those who were never Christian reported being more out to family and friends at earlier ages than those who were raised Christian. SGMs who were raised Christian, but did not identify as Christian in adulthood reported, more adverse childhood experiences and bullying than other SGMs. Sexual minorities …

Muslim Prisoner Litigation: An Unsung American Tradition (Introduction), Spearit

Book Chapters

For most Americans, “prison jihad” may sound frightening and conjure images of religious militants, bearded, turbaned, and under the spell of foreign radical networks…. While this may be the immediate impression, there is nothing like that happening in American prisons. However, there has been a different type of jihad taking place, one that is real and identifiable. This is not the sensational jihad of headline media; rather, this jihad is uneventful and quiet by comparison and has persisted since the 1960s with hardly any public notice.

Despite little attention and recognition, Muslims in prison occupy a unique spot in the …

We Shall Overcome: A Case Study Of The Lgbt Asylum Task Force, A Parish Ministry, Max Niedzwiecki

Sustainability and Social Justice

This is a case study of the LGBT Asylum Task Force in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Task Force is a ministry of Hadwen Park Congregational Church, UCC. It is the only program in the U.S. dedicated to providing wrap-around services, including housing, to LGBT asylum seekers. Since its inception in 2008, it has provided services to over 219 people from 24 countries. The discussion of the Task Force makes extensive use of interviews with its leadership and membership to showcase lived experiences of asylum seekers and those who assist them. © 2023, The Author(s).