Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7704-207X

Advisor

Hagerman, Margaret A.

Committee Member

Leap, Braden

Committee Member

Rader, Nicole

Committee Member

King, Sanna

Committee Member

Vivier, Eric

Date of Degree

5-16-2025

Original embargo terms

Embargo 2 years

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Sociology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Sociology

Abstract

White evangelicalism has been deeply intertwined with race relations throughout U.S. history, and this relationship is ongoing. Using ethnographic data generated with a predominantly white, Southern Baptist youth group in Mississippi, I explore and analyze how racial and religious learning processes are informed by one another. Specifically, I develop the concept of dualistic religious learning to demonstrate how members of this community, adults and kids alike, view sociopolitical issues through a framework which consists of both natural and supernatural dimensions. I also show how this framework was used by members of Riverview Baptist to construct an imagined eternal community centered on white, heteropatriarchal values, or what I term the white eschatological community. Notably, while the construction of this community is based on understandings of race and racism, it also goes beyond that to include ideas about how Christians ought to engage in matters of gender, sexuality, and politics. My work offers an important theoretical perspective through which to frame the intersection of racial and religious learning processes. It is also timely given the current political climate; I explore how the rise of Trump’s GOP is directly linked to this dualistic religious thinking as right-wing authoritarianism comes to constitute an existential imperative for many white evangelicals in the U.S.

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Available for download on Friday, June 11, 2027

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