"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"-- Provided by publisher.

"Why are religious conflicts over sex and sexuality so inescapable in American politics today? The answer, argues R. Marie Griffith in Moral Combat, lies in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians almost a century ago. In the 1920s, after women gained the right to vote nationwide, a longstanding religious consensus about sexual morality began to fray irreparably. The slow but steady unraveling of that consensus in the decades that followed has transformed America's broader culture and public life, dividing our politics and pushing sex to the center of our public debate"-- Provided by publisher.