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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Theses/Dissertations

Christianity

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Inconsistent God: Attachment To God And Minority Stress Among Sexual Minority Christians, Adam David Anthony Maughan Dec 2020

An Inconsistent God: Attachment To God And Minority Stress Among Sexual Minority Christians, Adam David Anthony Maughan

Masters Theses

Having a secure Attachment to God (ATG) has been found to be related to better mental health and well-being for Christian individuals and has been shown to have a buffering effect against stressful life events for this population. However, the ATG literature has failed to examine the experiences of Christians who also identify as sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, same-sex attracted, or another non-exclusively heterosexual identity). Sexual minority Christians (SMCs) experience unique minority stressors related to prejudice, discrimination, and stigma associated with their sexual identities, and this minority stress has negative implications for their mental health and well-being. …


Short-Term Missions: Reinforcing Beliefs And Legitimating Poverty, William Vaughan Taylor Aug 2012

Short-Term Missions: Reinforcing Beliefs And Legitimating Poverty, William Vaughan Taylor

Masters Theses

Every year more than a million short-term missionaries travel abroad. Many encounter intense poverty. Popular discourse suggests short-term missionaries return home radically changed. Social movement theory shows collective experiences can transform participants. In this thesis I explore the narratives of short-term missionaries to understand how they understand the poverty they encounter abroad. I have found short-term mission participants think about encounters with the poor in ways that produce contradictory beliefs and legitimate poverty. Interviewees consistently employed deficiency and fatalistic theories of poverty that provide little moral or practical justification for helping the poor. However, these beliefs conflicted with religious convictions. …