Digital Commons Network^™

The Two-Fold Return Of Jesus Christ, Harold Willmington

The Second Person File

No abstract provided.

From Maroons To Mardi Gras: The Role Of African Cultural Retention In The Development Of The Black Indian Culture Of New Orleans, Robin Ligon Williams

Masters Theses

After a three hundred year journey from the continent, African cultural retention remains at the core of the Black Indian masking tradition of New Orleans. Prior research from progenitors in anthropology and ethnomusicology, focusing on African cultural retention, include the ground-breaking ethnographies of Robert Farris Thompson, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Michael P. Smith, Margaret Thompson Drewel, Stephen Wehmeyer, Jason Berry and others, have established a solid foundation for research on African influences and retentions in expressive folk cultures, laying a firm foundation for this project. The author’s insider experiences within the Black Indian tradition are underscored by several …

Nailing Jello To A Tree: A Christian Approach To Ethics In Intelligence, Melanie Scherpereel

Senior Honors Theses

This paper will discuss Christian involvement in the intelligence field in addition to the ethical issues inherent to intelligence, specifically deception, including lying and manipulation, and technology as a force multiplier. Many Christians believe that intelligence is fundamentally a field of extensive deception that should be avoided. Ethics and morality, what it means to tell the truth, and biblical examples of people who used deception and were commended, will be analyzed from a Christian worldview perspective. The arguments will be presented in order that Christians may be able to understand how to apply the two greatest commandments, to love our …

Article 66: Revelation At A Glance, Harold Willmington

The Owner's Manual File

No abstract provided.

Reaching The Thai People Of Southeast Asia: A Model For Discipleship And Leadership Training, Duane D. Carmody

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis addresses training the Thai national leadership in discipleship and leadership qualities to develop a church planting movement with the main goal of evangelizing the unreached people groups throughout the countries of China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. The Thai have become dependent on foreign funds and though they are an independent people, they are beginning to realize that there are strings attached—with money comes control. The model will be built around a sustainable farm, which will help in developing vocational skills in order to become indigenous and autonomous. In this thesis it is my purpose to present a …

Scriptural Justification For The American Revolution, Samuel Ewing

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will seek to examine the intention of the Founding Fathers regarding their decision to break from England in what became the American Revolution. On July 4^th, 1776, fifty-five men gathered to sign the defining document of their cause – the Declaration of Independence. As the document presents the climactic argument against the English crown, this thesis will seek to analyze its writers’ intentions, presuppositions, and rationalizations. Ultimately, this thesis will demonstrate that the Founders not only sought biblical justification for their actions and opinions, but followed the letter of biblical and common law in order to …

Christ And The Cradle: The Explanatory Power Of Christian Theism For Basic Moral Sensibilities On The Ontology Of Children, Jeffrey Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

We have excellent reasons to take moral intuitions about the moral treatment of children seriously. In fact, this gives us excellent prima facie reason to believe in God as the best explanation of, say, the inherent dignity of people, including children. But when we look to the past, we see that often children have been horribly treated and not accorded worth. And today, still, there are lots of disturbing trends as to how they’re treated, which invariably reflect deficient worldviews. Ultimately, it’s not just theism we need, but something more, arguably Christian theology, which makes great sense of our best …

Evaluating Missionary-Care Responsibilities: A Guide For Sending And Supporting Churches, Donald Hall

Masters Theses

A thoughtful approach to global missions requires a team of support personnel. This team, composed of the sending church, the supporting churches, the missions agency and other supporters, is effective when it works together to recruit, train, and maintain a healthy missionary workforce, but a sub-standard support structure jeopardizes the mission. Sadly, many sending churches do not properly understand or fulfill their missionary-care roles and responsibilities. This project provides a biblical, philosophical, and practical methodology by which churches can properly evaluate their responsibilities and address gaps in their missionary-care ministry. In the model presented in this paper, the sending church …

A Comparative Approach To Counter-Terrorism Legislation And Legal Policy, Paul David Hill Jr

Senior Honors Theses

Since the 9/11 attacks, American legislation and legal policy in regards to classifying and processing captured terrorists has fallen short of being fully effective and lawful. Trial and error by the Bush and Obama administrations has uncovered two key lessons: (1) captured terrorists are not typical prisoners of war and thus their detainment must involve more legal scrutiny than the latter; and (2) captured terrorists are not ordinary criminals and thus the civilian criminal court system, due to constitutional constraints, is not capable of adequately trying every count of terrorism. Other nations, including France and Israel, approach this problem with …

Conflict And Crisis: U.S. Interventionism And Aid In The Middle East, Timothy Effrem

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis proposes that United States’ intervention in the Middle East since World War II has led to counterproductive military policy decisions and proposes a greater focus on private humanitarian aid which engages the Middle Eastern culture more effectively than public funding entities.

Conflict within the Middle East has escalated. To understand the nature of Middle Eastern political affairs, one must understand power politics, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Shi’a-Sunni split, U.S. relations, and Just War Theory. The U.S. has played a prominent role in the region, and this thesis concludes that the amount of aid currently allocated between military and …

Islam In Saudi Arabia: The Homogeneous Portrayal And Heterogeneous Reality, John Rogeberg

Masters Theses

The objective of this thesis is to apply commonly held statistics in the world of missiology regarding folk Islamic practices to the least likely country for such practices to be found, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is believed by most to be the birth-site of an austere, strict, orthodox form of Islam, responsible for the nature and nurture (education, promotion, and financing) of Islamic extremism. Conversely, I posit that through tracing the development of Wahhabism and its current global influence on Islam, its literalist interpretation becomes a profitable tool for the student of anthropology, missiology, and cross-cultural studies to gain a …

The Leadership Behaviors Of College Freshmen, Kevin Wallace

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine if a difference exists between leadership behaviors of male and female college freshmen and the amount of extra or co-curricular activities they participated in during high school. Leadership was measured using the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (S-LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2013) and was guided by the theoretical framework of leader identity development (LID) as promulgated by Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, and Osteen (2005) and revised by Komives, Longerbeam, Osteen, Owen, and Wagner (2009). Participants consisted of 98 male and 84 female incoming college freshmen attending a mid-size Catholic university located …

Socialized Leader Development: A Phenomenological Study Of The College Army Rotc Student Perspective And Experience, Ammon Campbell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine leader development within the college Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) in order to understand from the participating cadets’ perspectives, the leader development experience. The study focused on the following central research question: How do participants view and interpret their collegiate Army ROTC leadership development experience? Guiding theories for this study were Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (1978), Bandura’s social learning theory (1977) and Tajfel’s identity theory (1982). The study involved twelve college seniors involved at three distinct universities; the data related to their experience as leaders and was collected through reflective journals, …

Exploring The Experiences Of Combat Veterans’ Degree Attainment In Online Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study, Ester Warren

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the essence of the experiences of combat veterans with significant combat exposure who successfully completed their bachelor’s degree through a private online program despite the presence of challenges related and unrelated to their combat exposure. For the purpose of this study, combat veteran was generally defined as a veteran of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or National Guard who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), or Operation New Dawn (OND). In addition, significant combat exposure was indicated by a score of “light-moderate” to …

The Soviet Disinformation Framing Of Pope Pius Xii, Naomi Centrella

Senior Honors Theses

One of the most effective tactics used to bring down one’s enemy is the ideological tool exemplified in Soviet and subsequent Russian disinformation. Disinformation has created an alternative way of looking at history that grew out of the Soviet Union’s actions in time of war. Soviet Disinformation was an effective war tactic used by Communist leaders to demonize those in a position of power who posed a threat to the Soviet regime. Joseph Stalin, the Communist leader of the Soviet Union in from 1924-1953, used disinformation to discredit such perceived enemies as the United States and the Roman Catholic Church. …

Resolving The Civilian-Military Divide Through An Examination Of Select Members Of The United States Army Profession, Caitlin Bankhead

Masters Theses

Since the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the American public and the Armed Forces have steadily drifted apart. This has resulted in a division between the people of the nation and the individuals that defend its values. Consequently, as this division increases, the American public is thankful of military servicemen, but believes that service is something others should do. Conversely, the military’s sole purpose is to protect and defend the nation, its people, and its values, but it has become more isolated. Additionally, military service is becoming a family tradition in which outsiders cannot easily understand the values and pride …

The Dying Of The American Church: Five Biblical Principles For Revival, Stan Mars

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The majority of churches in America continue to suffer a numerical plateau or a decline in church growth. As a result of disobedience to God to follow His commandments in the making of disciples, the church also suffers from a flat lined, virtually non-existent, adult conversion rate. People of the world who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are not being evangelized by the church using the first century process of discipleship and therefore, the numbers of conversions to Christ are dismal. The modern day American Church needs to return to the first century process of …

Approaching Cyber Warfare: Geopolitics, Deterrence, And International Law, Emily Bordelon

Senior Honors Theses

The increased use of cyber warfare, accomplished by both state and non-state actors, raises questions about traditional approaches to security and what can be done to stop threats in a technology-driven society. This thesis analyzes how cyber actions interact with geopolitics and how that relationship can provide a foundation for states to approach creating a cyber security strategy. Specifically, there should be a strategy of deterrence and then an international system of norms and laws. The first part of this thesis will address the connections between cyberspace and geography. It will then lay out the strategy of deterrence and how …

The Ethics Of The Vietnam War, Samuel Ewing

The Kabod

Although the Vietnam Conflict was not conducted in an entirely ethical manner, the war provided a tangible example of the extent of Kennan’s containment theory and its effect on the United States in the twentieth century.

Sebastian Gorka: Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War Study Guide, 2017, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Study Guide

Tim Marshall: Prisoners Of Geography Study Guide, 2017, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Study Guide

Rival Traditions Of Liberty: America Vs. The European Union, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Spiritual Formation: A Model To Strengthen The Mission, Operation, And Commitment Of African American Churches, Anthony Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Spiritual formation, the practice of intentional spiritual disciplines like fasting, silence, studying, and fellowship, should be the heart of growth in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina small churches. This practice assists congregants in developing closeness with God and relationships with others. Amidst a steady decline in national church attendance since 1992, few of today’s African-American Church ministries address the need for spiritual formation. This thesis explores this critical issue at the local level through interviews with pastors and church leaders, who describe their churches’ current efforts to foster spiritual formation in congregants. The findings are used to propose a model for local …

The Battle Is Real: Spiritual Warfare, Discipleship, And The Christian “Soldier”, Frank Hain

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A review of current literature demonstrates a plethora of material focused on various deliverance techniques, yet very little material is available to assist pastors with developing a spiritual warfare “basic training” plan. The purpose of this project is to illuminate a ministry’s desperate need to adopt a spiritual warfare worldview, to present the basic elements essential to a spiritual warfare basic training plan, and to create an effective strategy for implementing such a plan. Based on surveys and questionnaires sent to pastors and other ministry leaders, the project reveals the need for a spiritual warfare basic training plan for any …

Enduring The Battle Of Britain And The Blitz: Perseverance Of The British Home Front From 1940-1941, Tyler Smith

Senior Honors Theses

The Blitz was a roughly nine-month mass bombing of London and other cities in Great Britain by the German Luftwaffe in 1940-1941. It was a time of great destruction and death but also of unity and courage among the British people. After the war had ended, Winston Churchill described how “for a year, all alone, the people of this island defied the tyrants of the world and held the fort for freedom until other great nations, themselves assailed, came into the line of battle.”[1]The Germans aimed to achieve a decisive defeat of Britain. They believed that by attacking …

The Failure Of Westphalia: A Constructivist Examination Of Western And Middle Eastern Relations, Jayson Warren

Masters Theses

This thesis is not intended to be a dogmatic or pedantic endorsement of any one religion, ethic, or culture. To the contrary, it is the intent of the author to examine a number of competing ideas, philosophies, and belief systems in order to extrapolate their geopolitical implications and to pursue them to their logical (albeit sometimes inevitable) conclusions. Too often, any number of presuppositions at work within a given situation go overlooked and subsequently skew geopolitical analysis and resulting policy decisions. This thesis seeks to transcend mere opinion or speculation and achieve instead a framework of Constructivism for pragmatic comprehension …

A Fortuitous Hegemon: Cold War Presidential Foreign Policies, Benjamin Bowles

Senior Honors Theses

Following the Cold War, the United States attained the pinnacle of global influence; however, new threats and challenges have arisen that possess the potential to unseat America from its position of global dominance. While the United States’ global power has remained unchallenged since the end of the Cold War, threats have formed that take the form of both maverick upstart nations, such as Iran and China, as well as foreign powers that are clamoring to retain the status of their former glory, such as Russia. In plotting the course with which the United States should address these new threats, an …

America's Two First Freedoms: A Biblical Christian Perspective On How The Second Amendment Secures First Amendment Rights, Hon. J. Kenneth Blackwell

Liberty University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Al-Aulaqi V. Obama: Must Eliminating Dangerous Terrorists Entail Accepting Dangerous Political Doctrines?, Benjamin S. White

Liberty University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Correlational Study Of Teacher Demographics And Racial Color-Blindness, Dudley Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Two primary camps of thought guide K-12 education: Color-blind ideology and Multiculturalism (Rattan & Ambady, 2013). Color-blindness implies color does not matter (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Browne, 2000). Shifting student demographics in K-12 education and unchanging demographics of a predominately White, female teaching force create a need for better understanding the dynamics affecting teachers and their interaction with the students they teach. This correlational study utilized multiple regression analyses to answer the following research question: How accurately can racial color-blindness be predicted from the linear combination of age, years-of-experience, and political philosophy for K-12 teachers located in an urbanized …