Award Date

5-1-2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Communication Studies

Department

Communication

First Committee Member

Sara VanderHaagen

Second Committee Member

Thomas Burkholder

Third Committee Member

David Henry

Fourth Committee Member

Marcia Gallo

Fifth Committee Member

Gregory Borchard

Number of Pages

236

Abstract

There is a view of gay rights debates that pits Christians against gay rights advocates. According to this perception, Christians oppose gay rights, because the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin, and those who support gay rights do so using purely secular arguments. However, this perception of the gay rights debate is flawed and overly simplistic because not all Christians oppose gay rights. In fact, there are multiple interpretations of biblical texts that support homosexuality and have caused a gay rights debate within the church that is as complex and intricate as gay rights debate outside of the church. This thesis examines the gay rights debate within the church and, specifically, investigates the biblical arguments used by two individuals, Matthew Vines and Reverend Nancy Wilson, to convince others that homosexuality is not a sin.

Keywords

Christian gays; Gay rights--Religious aspects—Christianity; Gays—Identity; Rhetoric

Disciplines

Communication

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Included in

Communication Commons

Share

COinS