Liberty as a Cloak for Vice
Orientation and Order in the Southern Baptist Convention Sexual Abuse Scandal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21633337 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mike Milford (0000-0002-1262-5687, Auburn University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 499-514 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communication Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1051-0974 • E-ISSN: 1745-1035 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10510974.2023.2216245 |
| OpenAlex | W4378388432 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
In 2019 a series of articles detailing decades of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches. Reports revealed that the convention and its congregants downplayed rather than confront the abuses by relying on two doctrinal components, congregational autonomy and scriptural inerrancy, to excuse inaction and silence survivors. Kenneth Burke argues that orientations such as the Southern Baptist Convention is governed by a moral order that is established, maintained, and enforced by a group of rhetors he terms “priests” who are granted ownership of the key rhetorical components. Building from Burke’s positions, I argue that when confronted by moral failings, priests will use their associations with the symbols of authority in an orientation to rationalize inaction. Priests will argue that to act would be to reject core terms in the orientation’s identity and rely on communal allegiance to bypass responsibility. This rhetorical maneuver is demonstrated in the Southern Baptist sexual abuse scandal. The leadership of the convention and local congregations relied on key denominational terms to champion inaction when confronted. However, a closer inspection of their rhetoric on other issues, such as women in ministry and LGBTQIA + issues shows that their operations are more complicated than advertised
Autonomy · Compassion · Convention · Excuse · Hatred · Poison control · Political science · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sexual abuse · Sexual orientation · Silence · Sociology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American Political and Social Dynamics · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |