Out of the “moral thicket”: The American Christian religious leaders and the Persian Gulf War
Abstract
Using daily newspapers from six major American cities and miscellaneous additional newspapers, journals, and a few books, Fullerton locates and explores the statements, sermons, and actions of prominent Christian religious leaders in America during the Persian Gulf Crisis and its immediate aftermath, 1990–1991. To set the stage, she discusses statements by President George H. Bush and concludes that he was skillful with civil religion rhetoric and “just war” theory; also he used several prominent religious leaders to help him convince the American public that the war was morally acceptable. She argues that many Christian leaders fit into one of two categories. First, the peace and justice leaders opposed the war and wanted international peace in order to save resources which could be used for domestic needs. Then, by applying the social-political writings of Edward W. Said, she demonstrates that too many religious leaders were Orientalists. They supported the war because they believed in their own superiority and in force and refused to see and deal with the social, political, economic, cultural, and human actualities of Third World countries like Iraq. Their actions and their histories of events were based upon Western interests. Indicating by page two that she opposed the war with Iraq, she sustains her position by discussing many specific figures, both Catholic and Protestant, both those who supported the war and those who opposed it. A few of those included are Bishop Edmond L. Browning, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Father Robert F. Drinan, Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson, Richard Land, Pat Robertson, Robert Schuller, and Billy Graham. She provides a chapter on African American clergy and one on military chaplains. Among her sometimes ironic material is text transcribed from videotapes of television news and religious programming which she made during the war. Always the overwhelming violence of the war looms behind her words.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Oreovicz, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American studies|Religion|American history
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