PASSAGES DIVINELY LIT: REVELATORY VERNACULAR RHETORIC ON THE INTERNET By ROBERT GLENN HOWARD A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2001 ii "Passages Divinely Lit: Revelatory Vernacular Rhetoric on the Internet," a dissertation prepared by Robert Glenn Howard in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English. This dissertation has been approved and accepted by: Dr. Daniel Wojcik, Chair of the Examining Committee Date Committee in charge: Dr. Daniel Wojcik, Chair Dr. James Crosswhite Dr. David Frank Dr. John Gage Dr. Sharon Sherman Accepted by: Dean of the Graduate School iii © 2001 Robert Glenn Howard iv An Abstract of the Dissertation of Robert Glenn Howard for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English to be taken August 2001 Title: PASSAGES DIVINELY LIT: REVELATORY VERNACULAR RHETORIC ON THE INTERNET Approved: Dr. Daniel Wojcik Since the advent of the public World-Wide-Web in 1992, networked computer communication has rapidly become integral to the daily lives of many North Americans. Many researchers in the humanities and social sciences debate the potential power and nature of the effects of these new forms of communication. Some scholars see dangers in the changing forms of "media literacy," but others see the Internet engendering new levels of democratic debate at grassroots and personal levels. However, much of this research still lacks the basic methodological rigor necessary to make reasonable claims about actual individual human communicative behavior on the Internet. V By melding the behavioral ethnographic methods of folklore studies and soclo-linguistics to postmodern methods of rhetorical analysis, this dissertation explores the general hypothesis that Internet media encourage the use of negotiative rhetorical strategies in the everyday expression of vernacular religious belief. By participating in the specific Christian Fundamentalist discourse known as Dispensationalism, this dissertation establishes methods for locating and classifying particular Internet expressions based on their revelatory, experiential, and/or negotiative rhetorical strategies. The hypothesis is explored through a series of five cases related to Protestant Dispensationalism: early American Puritan and Quaker autobiography, 1994 and 1995 Christian e-mail lists, the 1996 and 1997 e-mail campaign of the "Heavens Gate" religious group, and 1999 and 2000 amateur Dispensationalist web-site builders. Based on e- mail, web-site, questionnaire, and face-to-face interview data, the results of this research have shown that the hypothesis overestimated the power of the Internet to encourage negotiative attitudes in deeply religious individuals. Although the Internet expressions of belief seem to have taken on a style of negotiation, little actual negotiation about religious beliefs or values occurred on the Internet among those documented. Instead, there was a constant exchange of similar ideas which seem to primarily function as attitudinal posturing. Though strong positions were taken and expressed to large and diverse audiences, only a very few individuals were willing to adjust their previously held beliefs as a result of their experiences with Internet communication. vi CURRICULUM VITA NAME OF AUTHOR: Robert Glenn Howard GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy in English, 2001, University of Oregon Master of Arts in Folklore and Mythology, 1996, University of California, Los Angeles Bachelor of Arts in English, 1993, University of California, Berkeley AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Rhetoric, Folklore Studies, and Internet/Networked Communication PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Assistant Director for the Center for the Teaching of Writing, English Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1999-01. Technology Consultant for the Center for the Study of the Teaching of Writing, English Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Summer 1999-01. Instructor of Teaching with Technology, English Department, University of Oregon, Eugene. Spring 2001. Instructor of Folk Belief; Folklore Program, University of Oregon, Eugene. Summer 2000 vii Instructor of Shamanism and Folk Medicine, with Camilla Mortensen, Folklore Program, University of Oregon, Eugene, Summer 2000. Instructor of Native American Spirituality, Religious Studies Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Summer 1997. Instructor of Computer-Aided Composition II, English Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Winter 2000, Fail 1998, Spring 1998. Instructor of Computer-Aided Composition, English Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Fall 1997, Winter 1997. Assistant Instructor of Teaching Writing in the Internet Era, with Dr. Nathaniel Teich, Oregon Writing Project, University of Oregon, Eugene, Summer 1998, Summer 1999, Summer 2000. Instructor of Introduction to Literature, Institute for Intercultural Studies, Los Angeles, California, Fail 1995, Winter 1996, Spring 1997. Instructor of Advanced Reading and Composition, Institute for Intercultural Studies, Los Angeles, California Fall 1995, Winter 1995. Instructor of Current Topics in American Culture, Institute for Intercultural Studies, Los Angeles, California, Winter 1996, Spring 1996, and Spring 1997. AWARDS AND HONORS: American Folklore Society, Don Yoder Prize. October, 1998. Graduate Teaching Fellowship. University of Oregon, Eugene 1996-2000. GRANTS: InTime Multimedia Improvement Grant, University of Wisconsin, Madison, July 2001 Risa Palm Memorial Dissertation Research Grant, University of Oregon, Eugene, March, 2000. VIII Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, Eugene, December, 1998. Center for the Teaching of Writing, University of Oregon, Eugene. June, 1998; renewed in September, 1998. Irma and John Sherwood Memorial Grant. University of Oregon, Eugene, English Department, January, 1997; renewed in January, 1998; and January, 1999. Title VI Language Fellowship for the Study of Quechua, University of California, Los Angeles, June, 1995. PUBLICATIONS: "On-Line Ethnography of Dispensationalist Discourse: Revealed versus Negotiated Truth." Religion on the Internet. Eds. Douglas Cowan and Jeffery K. Hadden. New York: Elsevier Press, 2000. 225-246. "Negotiating Finality: Electro-Folk Rhetorics of Apocalypse." Journal for Millennial Studies. 3.1 (Spring 1999): <www.mille.org>. "Toward a Folk Rhetorical Approach to Emerging Myth: The Case of Apocalyptic Techno-Gaianism on the World-Wide-Web." Folklore Forum. 29.2 (Fall 1998): 53-73. "Attitudes Toward the Tragic: A Not-So-Biased Approach to the Heavens Gate E-mail Campaign." Journal for Millennial Studies. 1.1 (Spring 1998): <www.mille.org>. "`Un-Homey Potential in the Public Discourse of Heavens Gate." Millennial Prophecy Report 6.3 (October 1997): 50-53. "Apocalypse in your In-Box: End-Times Communication on the Internet." Western Folklore. 6.3/4 (Summer/Fall 1997): 295-315. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my dissertation committee members for their comments, advice, and patience. In particular, thanks to Dan Wojcik for encouraging me to come to the University of Oregon and always making that choice and its accompanying research topic seem reasonable and valid when so many others did not; to John Gage for being the first to exclaim that the H.I.M. religious group "wasnt trying to persuade anybody of anything;" to Jim Crosswhite with Julia Major for first bringing the potential of the verna to my attention; to Sharon Sherman for always defending her field and its fellow advocates; and to David Frank for his close attention to my arguments. Thanks to the University of Oregon English Department, Composition Program, and Center for the Teaching of Writing for financial support; and to the Risa Palm Memorial Dissertation Research Grant for further financial assistance in conducting this research. Thanks to Anne Laskaya and Brian Whaley for years of encouragement and frank advice; and to Eric Reimer for enduring my insistence that he engage me on various topics when he was otherwise just trying to get some work done. A special thanks to James for sharing in so many of the experiments that seem to have led to all this; and to Camilla, Smudge, and Lily for always being close. And thanks to my family: to my brother for sharing in the ups and downs of my academic endeavors from afar; and to my mother and father for unending encouragement, advice, and support. Without them, my education would not have been possible. And a final thanks to all my respondents. Without your patience and willingness to explore deeply personal topics with a near stranger, this research could not have been conducted. To you all, 1 apologize for the necessary reductions, omissions, and simplifications in this text—but every conversation we had contributed to my understanding of both humanity and the divine in ways beyond the bounds of any dissertation. DEDICATION To Irvin and Nell Newell—and all those who came before; may your wisdom guide my acts. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20: 29). xi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION: REVELATORY VERNACULAR RHETORIC ON THE INTERNET 1 I: SYMBIOSIS OF THE VERNACULAR 9 Folklore (Not) in Cultural Studies 17 The Rise of the Vernacular 22 The Character