rhetoric of Christian colleges: Organizational discourse and unobtrusive control in higher education

Christian colleges have been accused of "watering down" their Christian principles in admissions materials to increase enrollments. In response to these arguments, rhetorical criticism, based on conceptions of organizational discourse such as symbolic convergence and unobtrusive control, is used to examine the rhetorical strategies, the relative prominence of Christian principles, and the organizational sagas in this rhetoric. This discourse shapes the organizations and their environments; therefore, this is a rich example to explore the rhetoric of organizations from an interpretive perspective. The strategies, priorities, and sagas identified are discussed in light of the ideals promoted by scholars of Christ-centered higher education. The colleges are unapologetically described as Christian, but they are ambiguously distinguished from one another. This rhetoric provides newcomers with premises for unobtrusive control, and the scene is emphasized. Implications of this strategy and the organizational sagas in these texts are discussed.