This study presents an intertextual narrative analysis of 524 news stories on 11 high profile faith healing cases involving death or life-threatening illness of a child. Analysis traced growth of the public narrative of faith healing through elements of news production, distribution, and consumption. Findings suggest, first, an epic narrative form that allowed growth of a conceptual narrative. Second, results suggest that framing of news is influenced more by proximity of related historical events than proximity of the current action to the audience. Lastly, results suggest that where religion and law clash, media narrative resigns religion to antenarrative.

In this essay, we examine King’s rhetoric during the last year of his life, (April 4, 1967April 3, 1968)—focusing specifically on the issues of race. In examining several texts of King, we argue that King adopts a prophetic persona of a pessimistic prophet—especially when addressing issues of race and racism. In exploring King’s rhetoric and noting King’s directness and firmness when addressing the race issue, we argue that King’s rhetoric found a home in the African American prophetic tradition in his attempt to dismantle hegemonic politics and institutional racism. Specifically, we argue that Martin Luther King was radically dismantling white hegemony; and becoming one of the most hated men in America.

Over the past eight years, the rhetoric of many pundits, politicians, and preachers has shifted from pronouncements about the beginning of a “post-racial” age to proclamations about the persistence of racism in the social fabric of the West. What of the tenacity of what Willie Jennings has called the “racialized imagination” owes to its genesis in religion?1 What if race is at heart a theological construct? This paper traces the genealogical accounts of Jennings and J. Kameron Carter, two recent contributors to the field of theological race studies,2 and contrasts them with common theological ways of thinking about Christian identity as a return to traditions of Western virtue.3 The paper closes by suggesting a way forward in resisting the sociopolitical order of whiteness through a scandalous mutual participation in joined bodies politic marked by difference and inhabiting shared space.

The elections of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 to the role of President of the United States were noted as benchmarks in our country's history. There was a strong societal belief that his historic elections reflected a shift in societal attitudes towards racial differences, primarily between Whites and people of color, specifically African Americans; however, public discourse over time revealed deep-seated hate for the country's first African American president. Despite his efforts to fight for social justice for all, he received unrelenting opposition from Congress, and the US public was subjected to horrifying racial attacks on Obama, his wife Michelle, and his daughters that went largely ignored and dismissed. The racist tenor of the US became much clearer with the election of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential run. What is more troubling is that Christian evangelicals came out in full force to elect a man whose very being is the antithesis of what it means to be a Christian. To better understand this national and global phenomenon, this critical essay will explore the various arguments that White Christian evangelicals have used to rationalize the election of a man whose policies and behaviors are in direct opposition of Christian ideologies and sensibilities. This contradiction was not lost on many others within and outside of the Christian world, including Black Christians and other evangelical communities of color who have had a range of reactions to the racism that has been revealed by their fellow White believers. Thus this essay will offer greater insight into the gulf that exists in the racism of the Christian community through the lens of this historic political election. It will also aim to offer suggestions for reformation in the Christian community that can potentially serve as a model for positive race relations in society and the larger political landscape of the US.

At its 2017 meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) encountered controversy when it initially declined to debate a resolution condemning the “Alt-Right”—a movement representing ideologies that promote white nationalism in America. Given the SBC’s recent efforts to embrace diversity, many of the denomination’s members thought such a resolution would be supported. A version of the resolution was ultimately approved but only after the SBC faced accusations of bigotry. In this article, we argue that the controversy, although jarring, is instructive. Without open disagreement, expressions of suffering, and public redress, religious individuals and groups cannot heal wounds inflicted by racism.

Whereas biblical texts were used to justify the practice of discrimination and prejudice, Christian principles have also been the motivation for social activism. However, today it is arguable that the Christian church has lost sight of this mission in light of other goals such as expansion and profit. Rapper Lecrae Moore has been the topic of controversy as his music aims to carry out the mission of social justice by intentionally challenging the assumptions of whiteness rooted in the institution of the American Christian Church. Using Stewart’s (1980) functional approach to the rhetoric of social movements, this study examines the extent to which Lecrae uses his music to transform perceptions of history, transform perceptions of society, and prescribe a course of action. The mission of this research and arguably of Lecrae’s work is to hold people of the Christian faith across all races accountable to the mission and biblical commands of unity and social justice often overlooked or dismissed in the American church.