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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Women In Religious Leadership Roles, Amanda Wadkins Jan 2024

Women In Religious Leadership Roles, Amanda Wadkins

MSU Graduate Theses

The experiences of women in leadership have been well studied in academia, but there remains a gap in the literature regarding and understanding of the experiences of women who are in religious leadership roles. I examined what challenges these women experience in their roles, and how they make sense of those challenges, using the constant comparative method of data analysis to analyze interviews with 12 women who have leadership roles within their protestant church or nonprofit organization. The results indicate that these individuals experience challenges that are consistent with past research on women in leadership. However, the results also illustrate …


Experiences Of Appalachian People With Conflicting Christian And Lgbtq+ Identities, Zacharias Smith Dec 2023

Experiences Of Appalachian People With Conflicting Christian And Lgbtq+ Identities, Zacharias Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of six LGBTQ+ individuals living in Appalachia who have felt conflict between their LGBTQ+ and Christian identities. Using data from six one-on-one intensive interviews, the study examines the various kinds of conflict participants experienced, the strategies they used to manage those conflicts, and the role that Christianity played in their lives. The author found that participant conflicts were grounded in struggles to find acceptance from others while living authentically, to reconcile ideological disputes with the church, and to accept themselves as LGBTQ+ and/or Christian. Included among their various management strategies were finding accepting people and …


Dissonance Between Christian Beliefs And Eating Habits In The South, Karli Dianne Stringer Dec 2021

Dissonance Between Christian Beliefs And Eating Habits In The South, Karli Dianne Stringer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to initiate understanding of how obesity in the South is still so prevalent even though the majority of inhabitants subscribe to a faith that discourages unhealthy lifestyles. Furthermore, the information presented in this research sought to fill the knowledge gap for communicators and educators concerning the dissonance between Christianity in the South and the unhealthy eating habits of Southerners. Grounded in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this study comprised of a semi-structured interview route in which Protestant evangelical Christians in the South (N = 11) participated in a descriptive study conducted by a committee …


"Femme Fatales Of Faith": Queer And "Deviant" Performances Of Femme Within Western Protestant Culture, Kelsey Waninger Minnick Jan 2019

"Femme Fatales Of Faith": Queer And "Deviant" Performances Of Femme Within Western Protestant Culture, Kelsey Waninger Minnick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women and queer folk are changing the religious landscape of Christianity in America, and the scope of visibility for these figures and their apostolic endeavors is widening as more and more Christians are seeking out communities rooted in doctrines of love and connection rather than exclusion and hegemonic piety. Thinking on this phenomenon, this dissertation focuses on the intersectional dilemmas of faith practice and rhetorical discourse with Western Christianity, particularly as it revolves around those female pastors and clergy - considered "dangerous" by many within the church - who are advocating for a more inclusionary church space. By conducting a …


Holy Alliance? Navigating Evangelical Political Identity In The Era Of Donald Trump, Anthony Comer Jan 2019

Holy Alliance? Navigating Evangelical Political Identity In The Era Of Donald Trump, Anthony Comer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Evangelical Christians have always had a complex relationship with political issues in the United States, especially with the rise of the Christian right in the 1980s. Pastors and church leaders function as crucial communicators of political values in a contemporary American context. Since 2017 the Trump presidency has provided a new set of issues to consider. With Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance theory and Tajfel’s (1981) Social Identity theory as the foundation, this study examines how evangelical Christian pastors conceptualize their religious and political identities, how they communicate with their congregants about political issues and how they handle differences between their …


Examining The Political Motivations Of Christian Women Following The 2016 Presidential Election, Julie Grace Jul 2018

Examining The Political Motivations Of Christian Women Following The 2016 Presidential Election, Julie Grace

Master's Theses (2009 -)

As research begins and continues to examine the historic nature of the 2016 presidential election, this study aims to understand the political motivations of a specific group of voters – Christian women in two Wisconsin counties that flipped from voting for a Democrat in 2012 to a Republican in 2016. Long-form, qualitative interviews were used to obtain an understanding of the participants’ faith, their view on politics, and their thoughts on the 2016 election and President Trump’s first year in office. Grounded theory was used as a theoretical framework for this study, and the constant comparative method of analysis was …


Newspaper Coverage Of Christianity In South Korea, 1996-2005, Taisik Hwang Aug 2013

Newspaper Coverage Of Christianity In South Korea, 1996-2005, Taisik Hwang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Drawing upon framing theory, this study content analyzes a sample of 2,614 news articles dealing with religions published in Chosun Ilbo from 1996 to 2005. Of this sample, it focuses on 727 news stories covering Christianity to examine how this major daily newspaper has covered this religion in terms of its tone and frames towards Protestants and megachurches. The key findings show that this religion seems to have been portrayed in a positive tone rather than in a negative tone and that Korean journalists tend to view both the Protestants and megachurches as providers of social work services. Given the …


Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethics Of Rhetoric, Joseph E. Rhodes Jan 2012

Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethics Of Rhetoric, Joseph E. Rhodes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the writings of the American public intellectual and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). My project is a unique contribution to Niebuhrian studies in that I approach these works from the perspective of a rhetorical theorist. My intention is to parse from Niebuhr’s editorial commentaries, his philosophical inquiries and lectures, his theological treatises, and his sermonic essays an specifically “Niebuhrian ethics of rhetoric.” In order to accomplish this task I investigate the rhetorical situation Niebuhr was embedded in and to which he was responding to at the turn of the twentieth century. Part of the analysis of his rhetorical …