Introduction
PART I. CHILDREN
Chapter 1. Christian Schools
Chapter 2. Textbook Politics
Chapter 3. Home Schools
PART II. MOTHERS
Chapter 4. Abortion
Chapter 5. Feminism
PART III. FATHERS
Chapter 6. Gay Rights
Chapter 7. Military Men
Chapter 8. Promise Keepers
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right chronicles how the family values agenda became so powerful in American political life and why it appealed to conservative evangelical Christians.
Seth Dowland is Associate Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University.
"Seth Dowland's monograph makes a fresh and valuable contribution
to a densely populated literature, not simply with impressive
research and writing, but with innovative engagement with the
historical development of the contemporary Christian Right. . . .
Dowland shows . . . that gender was not simply one issue among many
but was the central organizing category, fundamental analytical
logic, and discursive self-understanding."
*Journal of Southern Religion*
"What Dowland gives us is a remarkably perceptive analysis of white
conservative evangelicals' beliefs about the family, the state, and
American society. Other books may chronicle the history of the
Christian Right, but few other works succeed so well in taking
readers inside the mind of conservative evangelicals to explain how
Christian Right activists think."
*Reading Religion*
"Dowland's work elucidates the underbelly of the Christian right
movement and clarifies the importance of many topics to this
group."
*Political Science Quarterly*
"This tightly argued, well-executed study stands up admirably on a
crowded bookshelf."
*American Historical Review*
"As Seth Dowland explains, evangelicals hearkened to a past in
which gender lines were clear. . . . It's a story that Dowland
tells carefully and fairly."
*Christian Century*
"'Family values' politics is omnipresent in the history and
rhetoric (and study) of the Christian Right, yet what exactly does
it mean, and how, why, and when did it gain such remarkable
traction? Weaving a boldly and beautifully written story through
the many stages of evangelical family life, grassroots activism,
advocacy, and public policy, Seth Dowland tells us. His is the
definitive study of a movement-a phenomenon-that has shaped modern
American politics in its image."
*Darren Dochuk, author of From Bible Belt to Sunbelt*
"'Family values' has become ubiquitous in our culture and yet it
has not received serious, thorough, and substantive analysis-until
now. Seth Dowland has produced a smart, lively, and engaging book
that makes important contributions to political, religious, and
cultural history. This book should garner serious attention from a
wide readership."
*Matthew Avery Sutton, author of American Apocalypse: A History
of Modern Evangelicalism*
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