Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Communication

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Program

Communication, MA

First Advisor

Desrene Vernon-Brebnor

Second Advisor

David K. Penno

Third Advisor

Willie Hucks

Abstract

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church has been known for its wide diversity along with its struggles in racial relations within the Black SDA community in the United States. The SDA Church established regional conferences for Black SDA leaders as an alternative to full integration within the denomination. For this analysis, an ideological criticism was performed on two videos that focused on the topic of regional conferences. The hegemonic ideology that surfaced was that separation within the church organization based on race is necessary in order to fulfill the mission of the SDA Church and that issues such as racism will be resolved at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Other perspectives such as change, forgiveness, and integration were mentioned, but were muted in order to support the dominant hegemonic ideology. These findings clash with the SDA Church’s example of a culturally diverse organization that promotes a global mission, unity, and diversity while also permitting the presence of ideologies that support racial separation.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Race relations; Race relations--Relgious aspects; Regional conferences

Creative Commons License

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

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/theses/130

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