Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2004

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Graduate School of Theology

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Carly H. Dodd

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Paul N. Lakey

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Debbie Williams

Abstract

The increased levels of homosexual discussion in mainstream media culture have aroused opinion diversity in both secular and religious circles. The case of Bishop Gene Robinson has brought the issue of homosexuality in the priesthood to the forefront. However, the main issue does not rest on the issue of homosexuality but rather on the inspiration, validity, and authority of the Bible as scripture. After the evaluation of two pieces of rhetoric, including an interview given by Bishop Gene Robinson on a local radio broadcast and a speech given by B. L. Mauser concerning homosexuality as sin, Kenneth Burke's pentad will be used to discover the dominant term of these pieces. This rhetorical analysis forms two sets of communication discourse regarding this issue. Through analytic research, the results are expected to represent the nature of persuasive argument and rhetorical strategy on moral and social questions. Thus, the results should expand the nature and quality of communication pertaining to relevant religious issues. In the end, the reader should come to a better understanding of the true argument being presented by all parties involved in this discussion.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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