jcrt The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 1530-5228 Whitestone Publications 25.2.bell 10.17613/2rm1h-9gg34 Article metadata Artfully Dodging a Presidential Endorsement: How Joel Osteen Uses Rhetoric to Build an Audience for Political Gain Reginald Bell Jr. Central Georgia Technical College 26 08 2026 25 2 300 311 Copyright held by the author(s). All rights reserved.

Reginald Bell Jr. reads Joel Osteen’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump through Edwin Black’s second persona, naming the ideal audience his rhetoric builds and the third persona it silences.

 joel-osteen donald-trump presidential-endorsement second-persona third-persona edwin-black rhetorical-criticism televangelism megachurch evangelicalism religion-and-politics social-media Audiences Big churches Christianity and politics Evangelicalism Lakewood Church (Houston, Tex.) Osteen, Joel Presidents--Election Rhetorical criticism Television in religion Trump, Donald, 1946- PMC deposit statusNot deposit ready: metadata only; complete article text and submission assets are required.