Chrisler’s (2017) Theoretical Framework of Parental Reactions When a Child Comes Out as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual suggests that parental reactions to having a non-heteronormative child are impacted by a process of cognitively appraising information about their child’s identity and experiencing and coping with emotional responses, both of which are influenced by contextual factors such as a parent’s value system. However, some religious values can challenge parents in the process of accepting a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) child. The purpose of this study was to test a model that examines the influence of cognitive-affective factors (cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation), religious-value based factors (religious fundamentalism, parental sanctification), and gender and sexual identity on self-reported parental acceptance. Participants were 663 parents of LGBT children who submitted responses to an online survey. A Tobit regression with a single-indicator latent variable approach revealed that religious fundamentalism, parental sanctification, the control component of cognitive flexibility, parent gender, and parent sexual identity significantly predicted parental acceptance. Lower religious fundamentalism, higher parental sanctification, and higher cognitive flexibility scores were associated with parental acceptance of an LGBT child. Participants identifying as a woman or LGB parent also significantly predicted acceptance. Implications of findings are discussed.

Thesis (MMAS) -- U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2006. / AD-A463 803. Also available via the World Wide Web.

The Gender Role Stress paradigm asserts that individuals experience distress when they cannot or do not want to live up to the roles prescribed to their gender, and this stress is related to Gender Role Ideology. Within American Christian culture, gender roles are socialized and shaped according to tradition and the Bible. To investigate the intersection of these factors, Christian adults will respond to questionnaires about their Gender Role Ideology, Gender Role Stress, and religiosity. Significant positive correlational relationships between Gender Role Ideology and Gender Role Stress, between religiosity and Gender Role Ideology, and between religiosity and Gender Role Stress are expected for both men and women. However, Gender Role Ideology is expected to partially mediate any relationship found between religiosity and Gender Role Stress. This will imply that for Christian individuals, religiosity and Christianity are related to Gender Role Stress but this relationship is dependent on an individual’s beliefs about gender roles. Implications and further directions are discussed, including spiritual gender role negotiation and the sanctification paradigm.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, ideological criticism combined with use of muted group theory are employed to analyze four Quiverfull mothering blogs in order to unveil the models of mothering and maternal messages that emerge from the discourse. The Quiverfull, comprised of fundamentalist Christians who advocate prolific birth rates and strict traditional gender norms, propose a very narrowly defined view of motherhood. Therefore, the goal of this study is to analyze how Quiverfull mothers choose to construct and maintain their own rhetorical vision of motherhood through mommy blogs, in an effort to understand if Quiverfull mothers also struggle to “get it right” like so many other contemporary mothers, faced with cultural contradictions. The findings unveil that Quiverfull mothers struggle with many of the same ideological pressures that mainstream mothers endure such as being almost entirely responsible for childrearing, wanting to find time for themselves amidst society’s demands that children become a mother’s “everything,” and negotiating their role as mothers in the public sphere. However, Quiverfull mothers’ primary difference from mainstream mothers is through their relationship with God. They relinquish all control to God’s will, challenging the notion that good mothers must always be in control. Additionally, Quiverfull mothers distance themselves from feminist ideology by promulgating the need for male authority and criticizing all pro-choice sentiment. Moreover, through the exploration of these online artifacts, this study acknowledges the ideological differences between mothering groups, yet exposes that both mainstream and Quiverfull mothers find success as a mother almost unattainable. As a result, this study proposes that mommy blogs have the rhetorical ability to challenge mothering models that destine many mothers to “fail,” imbue value into motherhood, and unite women of competing and polarized ideologies as a way to question the “timeless truth” of what constitutes good mothering.

This thesis is concerned with the world of The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and The Testaments (2019), works of Margaret Atwood. The dystopian theocratic totalitarian regime featured in these novels invites a socio-historical and anthropological analysis and interpretation from the perspective of the subjugated female characters. The theoretical part, introduced by an overview of Atwood's work, provides the reader with crucial information regarding the historical parallels which inspired the narrative, as well as a delimitation of relevant anthropological concepts, such as liminality or status reversal. Subsequently, using both the knowledge gathered in the theoretical and in Atwood's works, the rise of the fundamentalist cult of the Sons of Jacob and their project, the Republic of Gilead, is explained, and their ideology is uncovered in the first section of the practical part. Second part of the interpretation focuses on the position of women within the system that subjugates and oppresses them. The analysis is performed by the means of comparing and contrasting the ideal models of the positions of women as designed by the architects of the system with the actual application on the example of selected characters. The ultimate aims of this thesis are to prove the innate sexism and misogyny of the...

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In this thesis, I argue that discourses of victimhood, victory, and xenophobia underpin both Sinhalese and Tamil nationalist and religious fundamentalist movements. Ethnic discourse has allowed citizens to affirm collective ideals in the face of disparate experiences, reclaim power and autonomy in contexts of fundamental instability, but has also deepened ethnic divides in the post-war era. In the first chapter, I argue that mutually exclusive narratives of victimhood lie at the root of ethnic solitudes, and provide barriers to mechanisms of transitional justice and memorialization. The second chapter includes an analysis of the politicization of mythic figures and events from the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahāvaṃsa in nationalist discourses of victory, supremacy, and legacy. Finally, in the third chapter, I explore the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) rhetoric and symbolism, and contend that a xenophobic discourse of terrorism has been imposed and transferred from Tamil to Muslim minorities. Ultimately, these discourses prevent Sri Lankans from embracing a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nationality, and hinder efforts at transitional justice. By shedding light on the discourses underlying popular nationalist movements, I hope to promote understanding and further post-war reconciliation between ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Text in English / The southern Appalachian mountain region is home to a sincere group of religious fundamentalists. They obey Jesus' last command that serpents should be taken up (Mark 16:17-18). They believe the Holy Ghost anoints them and gives them the power to handle serpents, drink poisons, handle fire, and to heal the sick. Nevertheless, they are fully aware that they may be bitten and may even die. Each church is autonomous. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

This thesis examines the ideological nexus of nationalism and heritage under the social conditions of neoliberalism. The investigation aims to demonstrate how neoliberal economics stimulate the irrationalism manifest in nationalist idealisation of the past. The institutionalisation of national heritage was originally a rational function of the modern state, symbolic of its political and cultural authority. With neoliberal erosion of the productive economy and public institutions, heritage and nostalgia proliferate today in all areas of social life. It is argued that this represents a social pathology linked to the neoliberal state's inability to construct a future-orientated national project. These conditions enhance the appeal of irrational nationalist and regionalist ideologies idealising the past as a source of cultural purity. Unable to achieve social cohesion, the neoliberal state promotes multiculturalism, encouraging minorities to embrace essentialist identity politics that parallel the nativism of right-wing nationalists and regionalists. This phenomenon is contextualised within the general crisis of progressive modernisation in Western societies that has accompanied neoliberalisation and globalisation. A new theory of activist heritage is advanced to describe autonomous, politicised heritage that appropriates forms and practices from the state heritage sector. Using this concept, the politics of irrational nationalism and regionalism are explored through fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews and photography. The interaction of state and activist heritage is considered at the Wewelsburg 1933-1945 Memorial Museum in Germany wherein neofascists have re-signified Nazi material culture, reactivating it within contemporary political narratives. The activist heritage of Israeli Zionism, Irish Republicanism and Ulster Loyalism is analysed through studies of museums, heritage centres, archaeological sites, exhibitions, monuments and historical re-enactments. These illustrate how activist heritage represents a political strategy within irrational ideologies that interpret the past as the ethical model for the future. This work contends that irrational nationalism fundamentally challenges the Enlightenment's assertion of reason over faith, and culture over nature, by superimposing pre-modern ideas upon the structure of modernity. An ideological product of the Enlightenment, the nation state remains the only political unit within which a rational command of time and space is possible, and thus the only viable basis for progressive modernity.