Moral Combat

Title:

Moral Combat

How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics

Author:

Griffith, R. Marie

Subject:

Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction

History

Description:

From an esteemed scholar of American religion and sexuality, a sweeping account of the century of religious conflict that produced our culture wars Gay marriage, transgender rights, birth control — sex is at the heart of many of the most divisive political issues of our age. The origins of these conflicts, historian R. Marie Griffith argues, lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians a century ago. From the 1920s onward, a once-solid Christian consensus regarding gender roles and sexual morality began to crumble, as liberal Protestants sparred with fundamentalists and Catholics over questions of obscenity, sex education, and abortion. Both those who advocated for greater openness in sexual matters and those who resisted new sexual norms turned to politics to pursue their moral visions for the nation. Moral Combat is a history of how the Christian consensus on sex unraveled, and how this unraveling has made our political battles over sex so ferocious and so intractable.

Publisher:

Basic Books

Date:

2017/12/12

Digital Format:

READ IN BROWSER

ADOBE EPUB

KINDLE

Language:

English

ISBN:

9780465094769

Summary

From an esteemed scholar of American religion and sexuality, a sweeping account of the century of religious conflict that produced our culture wars

Gay marriage, transgender rights, birth control -- sex is at the heart of many of the most divisive political issues of our age. The origins of these conflicts, historian R. Marie Griffith argues, lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians a century ago. From the 1920s onward, a once-solid Christian consensus regarding gender roles and sexual morality began to crumble, as liberal Protestants sparred with fundamentalists and Catholics over questions of obscenity, sex education, and abortion. Both those who advocated for greater openness in sexual matters and those who resisted new sexual norms turned to politics to pursue their moral visions for the nation. Moral Combat is a history of how the Christian consensus on sex unraveled, and how this unraveling has made our political battles over sex so ferocious and so intractable.

Author Notes

R. Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directs the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Religion historian Griffith (American Religions) takes a sweeping look at the roots of today's culture wars over abortion, sexual identity, and the intersection of sexuality and racial differences in this exceptional cultural history. Griffith opens not with the free-wheeling sexual revolution of the 1960s but in the '20s with Margaret Sanger's efforts to make contraception more widely available. Griffith goes on to use D.H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover as her prime example of how sensibilities around sexuality changed dramatically during the 20th century-the novel first appeared in America, abridged, in 1928, and could not be published in full until more than three decades later. With her account of the role played by prominent clergy and religious movements working to liberalize abortion law, Griffith argues that Roe v. Wade is best understood not solely as part of the women's liberation movement but in the context of religious support for abortion rights. Likewise, her account of the theology that justified racial segregation illustrates an area where religious and cultural beliefs clash. Griffith's remarkably comprehensive book will be of interest to scholars and lay readers alike. Agent: Geri Thoma, Writers House. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Griffith offers a carefully reasoned examination of the century-long political and religious controversies over sexuality that color our national character. Her book begins in the 1920s with Margaret Sanger and the battle for birth control, and concludes in the wake of Donald Trump's election as president, which, Griffith argues, revealed the depth of the national divide over gender and sexuality. Between Sanger and Trump, she examines such hot-button issues as censorship of literature and popular entertainment, segregation and race, the Kinsey revolution, sex education in the sixties, the abortion war, sexual harassment at century's end, and same-sex marriage. Throughout, she deplores the virtual civil war that has come to seem such a disheartening and permanent part of our nation's social and political fabric. Given the passions engendered by these controversies on both sides conservative and liberal she demonstrates that comity and compromise are perennially elusive, while consensus seems to be a word in an incomprehensible language. Happily Griffith brings welcome clarity and light to what otherwise might have been impenetrable murkiness.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2017 Booklist

Choice Review

Griffith (Washington Univ.), also author of Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (CH, Feb'05, 42-3358), offers a wide-ranging, panoramic history of the relationship between American Christians and public debates about sexual morality in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The author shows that despite the changing focus of concerns--from sexually explicit literature in the early 20th century, to birth control in the middle part of the century, to sex education in public schools and abortion, to gay rights and same-sex marriage in more recent years--debates in the Christian tradition about sexual morality share common themes, among them preservation of the traditional order of the family, the "dignity" of women, and the rights of Christians to educate their own people. By treating a variety of topics, Griffiths clearly reveals the ways in which patterns of thought appear and are transformed in various debates across time. This book is well informed, carefully researched, and accessible. Nonspecialists will be able to follow the narrative with ease, and specialists will appreciate the book's overarching analytical clarity. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Aaron Wesley Klink, Duke University

Library Journal Review

Griffith (director, John C. Danforth Ctr. on Religion & Politics) has written a timely introduction to religious and political debates about sex that have animated American public life since the Progressive Era. While political divisions over human sexual behavior are often portrayed as secular progressives vs. religious traditionalists, Griffith examines how Christian values have been invoked in support of, as well as against, liberalizing change. In eight thematic chapters, Griffith examines controversies over birth control, obscenity and censorship, interracial marriage, Alfred Kinsey's sex research, sex education, abortion, sexual harassment, and LGBT rights. While most of these subjects have been treated at greater length in previous works, the strength here is a coherent narrative that seeks to understand the history of legislating sex through the lens of Christianity. As Griffith observes, over the 20th century, some American Christians chose to value extending "access to power and influence for persons once excluded," while another group, "worked to sustain the old sexual order." VERDICT This book will appeal to a range of readers seeking an entry point into the historical and religious context of today's high-stakes political -struggles.-Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, -Massachusetts Historical Soc. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.