Week 4 Blog

This week was extremely productive for me! I read, took notes on, and wrote annotations for five sources! I really got into the zone and made some really good progress. I think I have found a few more sub-topics to add to by major idea of the good and bad sides of political mobilization. I found some information on the Christian right movement in the 1970s and began looking into the Moral Authority movement and more into Christian interest groups. My favorite source I read this week analyzed the religious rhetoric in President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural address. It was so interesting! I had talked to Dr. Kuhn about the religious rhetoric of presidents and politicians and found it extremely intriguing. My topic is definitely coming together but it is a bit hard to explain so I drew a bubble map at the end of this week to explain my topic currently. I am excited to continue making progress. I’ll insert a picture of the bubble map below.

Week 3 Blog

This week may seem unproductive on the surface, but in fact, I made real progress towards my thesis. I found two sources that perfectly encompassed the direction that I wanted to go. However, they were both very long (at least 30 pages each), so I spent the whole week working on taking notes and annotating those two sources. I think that they really helped me figure out my general thesis idea/question. As I discussed with Mrs. Sutcliffe, I want to understand how religion can motivate people to be religiously active/make people impact legislation. On one hand there are benefits, like how religious people gain a sense of community and organziation that causes them to subonciusly participate more in the governmnet. However, on the other hand, there are leaders that use religion directly as a reason for legislation and mobilization of people. For example, a Senator once said “What would God vote?” This impact of religion on politic, most specifically political mobilization and actions, is unconstitutional​. I’d like to keep researching these two different ways, one positive and fair, while the other is unconstitutional and unjust. This week I will continue