Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Two popular Facebook pages, each with over 350,000 “likes” and “follows,” present opposite interpretations of Christian canonical text in light of the pages’ political leanings. The paper explores this polarity and the interaction among users/likers of the page, offering a qualitative analysis of the themes, concepts, and specific Bible passages discussed on the pages. The research is currently ongoing to assure timely information at the time of the conference, and the presentation will represent content posted to the pages between November, 2018 (U.S. election season) and February, 2018. The impetus of the project is expressing the intense divide between social media representation of conservative Christians and liberal Christians, and working toward an understanding of which representations of the religion offer a positive or negative representation of that faith.