Bad news about the good news: the construction of the Christian-failure narrative
Many American Christians perceive that their faith is derided in public discourse. This negative portrayal is usually attributed to the secular media, which is assumed by many Christians to be liberal and biased against Christianity. This article develops an alternative mechanism for the production...
| Published in: | The journal of religion & society |
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| Authors: | ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Creighton University
2012
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| In: |
The journal of religion & society
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| Further subjects: | B
Evangelicalism; United States
B Barna Research Group B Christian (Evangelical) B Divorce B Sociology B Mass Media B Church history; 2000- B Narrative (Theology) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Many American Christians perceive that their faith is derided in public discourse. This negative portrayal is usually attributed to the secular media, which is assumed by many Christians to be liberal and biased against Christianity. This article develops an alternative mechanism for the production and distribution of bad news about Christianity - from the leaders of Christianity themselves. Church leaders may deploy negative portrayals of the church, as "failing," in "crisis," or otherwise not living up to Christian standards, in order to motivate their followers. We term this strategic negative portray the "Christian-failure narrative." We develop this concept by examining in-depth one particular Christian failure narrative - the belief that Christians have inordinately high divorce rates. We compare popular perceptions of Christians' divorce rates versus actual rates found in sociological data. |
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| ISSN: | 1522-5658 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 10504/64309 |