Can I Get a Yee-Haw and an Amen: Collecting and Interpreting Oral Histories of Texas Cowboy Churches
Date of Award
12-2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts - History
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Paul J. P. Sandul
Second Advisor
Dr. M. Scott Sosebee
Third Advisor
Dr. David Rex-Galindo
Fourth Advisor
Dr. J. B. Watson
Abstract
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.
Repository Citation
McAdams, Jake R., "Can I Get a Yee-Haw and an Amen: Collecting and Interpreting Oral Histories of Texas Cowboy Churches" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 472.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/472
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
