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Political Esperanto: Rhetorical Resources and Limitations of the Christian Right in the United States
Abstract
This study analyzes a paradox in the rhetorical strategies of the Christian Right in the United States: How can doctrinally conservative political activists justify “legislating morality” in a culture in which individual autonomy is a central value? This essay is based on the assumption that, although there exist competing values and religious frameworks in the United States, the language of liberal individualism is the lingua franca for distinctively public discourse. Such activists attempt to advance a socially conservative agenda in an individualist culture by emphasizing the existence of competing rights, invoking the special status of children, utilizing the language of the natural sciences, and identifying powerful alien forces.
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“These quotations reference and satirize politically engaged evangelicals (see Jelen 2005).”
From It's Funny Because It's True? The Simpsons, Satire, and the Significance of Religious Humor in Popular Culture (2013) · cites this paper as Jelen 2005
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Feltmate, D. (2013) · Journal of the American Academy of Religion · doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs100 · Cited by 24
Metadata
- Authors
- Jelen, T. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Jelen, Ted G.
- Venue
- Sociology of Religion
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2005
- Volume
- 66
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 303
- ISSN
- 1069-4404 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2038155855
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 15.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sociology of Religion (publishedVersion)
- Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Rhetoric and Communication Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Cultural and political discourse analysis
- Keywords
- Christian Right, political rhetoric, individualism, social conservatism, religious activism, competing rights, children's rights, political discourse, United States
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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Political Esperanto: Rhetorical Resources and Limitations of the Christian Right in the United States. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/4153101
- The paper
- Jelen, T. G. (2005). Political Esperanto: Rhetorical Resources and Limitations of the Christian Right in the United States. Sociology of Religion. https://doi.org/10.2307/4153101
