July 14, 2010

Battling over Our Values with the Pledge

Posted by K. M. Camper under culture wars | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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In the spirit of the recent 4th of July holiday, firecracker debris now finally cleared from the streets, I would like to turn the rhetorical lens on a common fixture of American patriotism: the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance is recited by millions of children everyday before they dive into math, science, and reading. We are asked to stand and recite it at formal occasions, like graduations, and sometimes sporting events. Organizations, like the Boy Scouts of America, have even incorporated the civic oath into their ceremonial fare.

In recent years, however, it has become a site of contention. More specifically it has become a battleground in the never-ending “culture wars.” Recently the North Carolina Secular Association, as part of a larger campaign “to end official discrimination by reverting to the original Pledge of Allegiance” along with other initiatives, put up a number of billboards in North Carolina around the Independence Day holiday with a particular phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance, except that they had modified it.

(Keep reading…)

 

June 2, 2010

RSA: Catholic Identity and Abortion as a Political Legitimation Strategy in the 2009 Notre Dame Commencement Controversy

Posted by Kari J. Lundgren under Catholic Church, Notre Dame, abortion, conference papers | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
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Again, as I did in November, I’m posting a relevant academic conference paper, with the accompanying increase in length and change in style (see my November 10, 2009 post for more on this). It always seems like a shame for a paper’s audience to be limited to whoever is sitting in the room during its initial presentation, so while Martin and I do not envision Religious Rhetorics becoming simply a repository for our conference papers, nonetheless, from time to time we’ll post them. Now that summer is upon us, hopefully we’ll also manage to put together more posts in general.

“Catholic Identity and Abortion as a Political Legitimation Strategy in the 2009 Notre Dame Commencement Controversy,” as prepared for presentation on May 29, 2010 at the 14th Rhetoric Society of America Biennial Conference in Minneapolis, MN. (“Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy.”) Those of you who have read my pieces from last spring will find some of the content of this paper familiar, and you’ll also find that I’ve framed it differently for an explicitly academic audience. Thanks, as ever, for reading, and I welcome your feedback.

Introduction

In this paper I examine how political and institutional legitimacy can be generated rhetorically. In particular, I look at how some activists link Catholic identity with opposing abortion and how their model of Catholic identity gains legitimacy through the public statements of Catholic bishops.  Last year’s controversy over President Barack Obama speaking at the University of Notre Dame’s commencement serves as my case study.

Through this paper, I illustrate how legitimacy is a valuable concept for rhetorical studies. In addition, I show how the concept of master narrative, as manifested in the discourse of these activists, is valuable for the study of rhetorical legitimation. In what follows, I first explain my theoretical framework with an overview of legitimacy and master narrative. I then offer discourse samples from the case study to illustrate how these theories manifest rhetorically.

(Keep reading…)

 

February 11, 2010

Historical Revisionism in the Manhattan Declaration

Posted by K. M. Camper under Christian Social Action | Tags: , , , , , |
[13] Comments 

The attention span of the American media is short and the time span between Religious Rhetorics posts is longer.

By now, many may have forgotten about the “Manhattan Declaration: A Call to Christian Conscience.” A document produced at the end of last year (2009), it is a Christian ecumenical statement on the contemporary issues of abortion, (gay) marriage, and religious liberty, taking an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and pro-religious liberty stance on each issue, respectively. Those who sign the Declaration pledge to speak up and take political action on what the document declares to be the three most pressing issues of the day—life, marriage, and liberty, which are the “foundational principles of justice and the common good.”

At the time of the writing of this post, the Manhattan Declaration website boasts over 400,000 signatures. On Facebook, the document has over 78,000 fans. It marks a striking coalescing of an often fractious religion over three issues to effect socio-political change.

Regardless of the actual effects of the text in the political sphere, which remain to be seen, the Manhattan Declaration represents some of the arguments made in Christian circles where similar positions are taken, and for this reason, it deserves our analytical attention.

(Keep reading…)

 

November 13, 2009

NCA: Abortion Criminalization as a Master Narrative in U.S. Catholic Political Rhetoric

Posted by Kari J. Lundgren under Catholic Church, abortion, conference papers | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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Here’s one more – as prepared for presentation on November 14, 2009, at the 95th Annual National Communication Association Convention in Chicago, IL (“Discourses of Stability and Change”).

In a November 8, 2009 article in Time magazine, Amy Sullivan writes,

The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church traditionally couch even the harshest disagreements in decorous, ecclesiastical language. But it didn’t take a decoder ring to figure out what Rome-based Archbishop Raymond Burke meant in a late-September address when he charged Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley with being under the influence of Satan, “the father of lies” [for presiding over pro-choice Senator Ted Kennedy’s Catholic funeral this past August].

As Sullivan goes on to explain,

The debate nominally centers on the question of how to deal with politicians who support abortion rights. Burke and others who believe a Catholic’s position on abortion trumps all other teachings have faced off against those who take a more holistic view of the faith. But at the core, the divide is over who decides what it means to be Catholic. [emphasis mine]

In this paper, I examine abortion politics and “who decides what it means to be Catholic” from a rhetorical perspective. I argue that the emphasis on abortion opposition as a litmus test for Catholic identity manifests rhetorically as a master narrative in U.S. Catholic political discourse.  This master narrative shows up in simple matters of religious ritual (like Sen. Kennedy’s funeral), but also in questions of voting practices and national legislation (such as the current health care reform debate), amongst other places. In other words, this master narrative is pervasive in U.S. Catholic political discourse today.

(Keep reading…)

 

November 10, 2009

NCA: Catholic Social Teaching and the Abortion Reduction Counterstory in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Posted by Kari J. Lundgren under Catholic Church, abortion, conference papers | Tags: , , , , |
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This is a different kind of post than our usual Religious Rhetorics material. It is, rather, a relevant academic conference paper. This has the advantage of both adding more material to RR (otherwise, as evidenced by the rate of posts of late, somewhat difficult during the semester) and increasing the audience for our academic work. Thus, Martin and I may post more of these in the near (and distant) future, when it seems appropriate. It’s a different genre (and by necessity a bit longer), but feedback is just as welcome.

Without further ado, here is my paper, “Catholic Social Teaching and the Abortion Reduction Counterstory in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election,” as prepared for presentation on November 12, 2009, at the 95th annual National Communication Association Convention (“Discourses of Stability and Change”) in Chicago, IL.

(Keep reading…)

 

August 24, 2009

Rhetoric and Interpretation (A Response to a Reader’s Question)

Posted by K. M. Camper under hermeneutics | Tags: , , , , , |
1 Comment 

As you may have noticed, there is now a form that you can fill out, to submit questions on issues of religion, rhetoric, and politics. Our very first question comes from David:

So I’ve been wondering (and have never hassled a poor proselytizer to answer) how any interpretation of “god’s word” can be certain to be the right interpretation among countless others.  Claiming this certainty seems like an instant-fail argument.  If every true believer comes to my door with a different gospel of Truth, what sound defense do they have against the charge that competing fictions (i.e. one handy interpretation over the others) can only result in relative popularity, not ontological accuracy.  (yup, I’m assuming that every interpretation is a fiction [lest I learn how to definitely read a text's singular meaning]).

Hi David,

Thanks for your question! As a rhetorician, addressing the certainty of the rightness of an interpretation is out of my league. I can however offer an explanation as to the process by which believers (and non-believers alike) arrive at varying interpretations of a religious text. In short, it comes down to the rhetoricity of an interpretation, and how convincing an individual finds a particular interpretation to be.

(Keep reading…)

 

August 1, 2009

Buttiglione and the Abortion ‘Battle’

Posted by Kari J. Lundgren under Catholic Church, abortion | Tags: , , , , , , |
[6] Comments 

(Cross-posted at Vox Nova.)

In this piece, I’d like to reflect on recent developments in Italy, which offer both an important model for U.S. Catholics’ political involvement, as well as an opportunity for self-reflection within the American pro-life movement.

After a July 15 legislative victory in which pro-choice and pro-life members of the Italian parliament worked together to pass a UN resolution condemning forced abortion, prominent conservative Catholic politician Rocco Buttiglione gave an interview to Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera saying that he no longer thinks criminalization should be the primary goal of the pro-life movement. He argues that instead, pro-lifers should work to make sure women are empowered and do not feel forced into abortion. He is quoted as saying (all emphasis mine),

Let me explain it theologically. God gives the child to the mother in a very special way, such that to defend the child in opposition to the mother may be an act of justice, but it is impossible. We should instead support the mother, work to free her: the more free she is, the harder it will be for her to give up her child.

(Keep reading…)

 

June 16, 2009

Three Fallacies in the Gay Marriage Debate (Part II)

Posted by K. M. Camper under gay marriage | Tags: , , , , , |
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Welcome to Part II of Three Fallacies in the Gay Marriage Debate. Since the writing of the first post in this series, New Hampshire has become the sixth state to legalize gay marriage. The need for thoughtful, critical, and reasoned dialogue about this subject is needed more than ever as all sides marshal various rhetorical techniques to try to convince the American public of their respective views.

In Part I, I examined the argument that the existence of two genders proves that same sex relationships are unnatural. Using concepts found in Aristotle’s Rhetorica, we find that this is an argument from a non-necessary sign. In this post, I will examine two more arguments: 2) that same-sex marriage advocates want to force their definition of marriage on everyone, and 3) that male-female coupling is a fundamental aspect of the family unit, because male-female copulation is necessary for the survival of the species. I will show that these fall prey to the Aristotelian fallacies of 2) argument from exaggeration and 3) argument from the omission of when and how, respectively. (more…)

 

June 8, 2009

Nefarious Narratives in the Catholic Abortion Conflict

Posted by Kari J. Lundgren under Catholic Church, abortion | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
1 Comment 

Recent months have seen a rekindling of the abortion wars, particularly in Catholic political rhetoric. In the process, we have seen that master narratives about abortion from both the Left and the Right can be equally pernicious.

This spring’s controversy at Notre Dame offered a clear glimpse of the Right’s master narrative, which equates Catholic identity with Republican political strategies and frames the politics of abortion in terms of a heroic crusade.  Now, in the wake of controversial late-term abortion provider George Tiller’s murder, we are also seeing rhetorical manifestations of a powerful master narrative from the Left, courtesy of the newly re-energized pro-choice movement. This narrative asserts that the only way to be a progressive is to accept the status quo on the rhetoric of “choice.” Both narratives frame abortion politics in terms of conflict, pushing respectful dialogue and common ground solutions – like President Obama called for in his Notre Dame commencement address – further out of reach. (Keep reading…)

 

June 1, 2009

Three Fallacies in the Gay Marriage Debate (Part I)

Posted by K. M. Camper under gay marriage | Tags: , , , , , , |
[14] Comments 

The debate over gay marriage has heated up in the past few months as it has come to the foreground of domestic politics. Iowa, Vermont, and Maine have joined Connecticut and Massachusetts in legalizing same-sex marriage. Washington, D.C. legislators voted almost unanimously to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states within the district. Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court upheld the result of its state’s voters’ decision to ban gay marriage. As gay marriage spreads throughout the union, both proponents of marriage equality and defenders of traditional marriage are fighting hard for their respective positions.

In my next two posts, I will examine three common arguments made by the traditional marriage side. (Keep reading…)

 

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