Defending Faith

The Politics of the Christian Conservative Legal Movement
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7006-2460-7
Verlag: University Press Of Kansas

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, HC gerader Rücken mit Schutzumschlag, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 547 g

When, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the US Supreme Court held that bans on same-sex marriage violate the Constitution, Christian conservative legal organizations (CCLOs) decried the ruling. Foreseeing an “assault against Christians,” Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver declared, “We are entering a cultural civil war.” Many would argue that a cultural war was already well underway; and yet, as this timely book makes clear, the stakes, the forces engaged, and the strategies employed have undergone profound changes in recent years.

In Defending Faith, Daniel Bennett shows how the Christian legal movement (CLM) and its affiliated organizations arrived at this moment in time. He explains how CCLOs advocate for issues central to Christian conservatives, highlights the influence of religious liberty on the CLM’s broader agenda, and reveals how the Christian Right has become accustomed to the courts as a field of battle in today’s culture wars. On one level a book about how the Christian Right mobilized and organized an effective presence on an unavoidable front in battles over social policy, the courtroom, Defending Faith is also a case study of interest groups pursuing common goals while maintaining unique identities. As different as these proliferating groups might be, they are alike in increasingly construing their efforts as a defense of religious freedom against hostile forces throughout American society—and thus as benefitting society as a whole rather than limiting the rights of certain groups.

The first holistic, wide-angle picture of the Christian legal movement in the United States, Bennett’s work tells the story of the growth of a powerful legal community and of the development of legal advocacy as a tool of social and political engagement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bennett, Daniel

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction
- The Christian Legal Movement and Its Organizations
- Christian Conservative Legal Advocacy by the Issues
- Promoting Religious Freedom in Christian Conservative Legal Advocacy
- Marriage and the Family in Christian Conservative Legal Advocacy
- Defending Life in Christian Conservative Legal Advocacy
- Niche Advocacy in the Christian Legal Movement
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Daniel Bennett is assistant professor of political science at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.