Bio

Mark received a PhD from Indiana University and is Professor of Communication Studies at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. His areas of expertise include rhetorical theory and criticism, religious rhetoric, public discourse, and social protest. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Operation Rescue: Projecting the Christian Pro-Life Message and has conducted research on the rhetorical function of film in religious contexts.

General Session Descriptions

Avoiding Pharisaism in Our Approach to Faith and Politics

Drawing upon some of the interactions between Jesus and thPharisees in the Gospels, this talk uses the example of the Pharisees to explore one of the core problems in how American evangelicals conceptualize the relationship between religious faith and poltiical activism: the problem of expectations. In this talk we will look at some of the fundamental and pervasive expectations about how to think about the nature, role, and function of politics for the Christian, and how these expectations can lead us not only to practice politicis porrly, but also to model the Kingdom poorly to others and to our culture.

"Faithful Witness" as a Model for Faith and Politics

In this talk we will explore the idea of being a "faithful witness" -- modeling the Kingdom of God well to others and to our culture by showing and telling what we have seen, heard, and experienced of God and his Kingdom -- as a standard and a guide for thinking about and engaging in politics. We will explore both the general idea itself, as well as some of the major features of a model of faith and politics that grows out of this idea--some specific ways that we will think and do politics differently as Christians if we see our role as "witnesses" instead of "cultural warriors."