Can I Get a Yee-Haw and an Amen: Collecting and Interpreting Oral Histories of Texas Cowboy Churches

<p>With more than 850 Christian cowboy ministries worldwide and approximately 160 individual cowboy churches in Texas, the cowboy church movement is an immensely important religious movement that speaks volumes about contemporary culture. Cowboy churches' "Low Barriers Model" Christianity attracts many disenchanted with traditional evangelicalism's assumed sterilized and feminized religion. Despite the cowboy church movement's exponential growth since the late-1980s, few outside the movement understand the complexity cowboy churches envelop. Using Cowboy Christians' oral histories, Jake McAdams argues that the cowboy church movement is a suburban seeker church movement centered around the mythic cowboy identity in which participants have a sincere religious experience. Gaining invaluable primary sources and understanding the cowboy church movement in its historical contexts provides a "voice" to Conboy Christians and allows interested individuals to better understand the complexities of contemporary Texas and American society.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts - History

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• McAdams, Jake R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Paul J. P. Sandul
• Dr. M. Scott Sosebee
• Dr. David Rex-Galindo

• History
• United States History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/472

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1520