Between a Man and a Woman - Why Conservatives Oppose Same-Sex Marriage

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-231-15620-2
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 147 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 328 g

Reihe: Gender, Theory, and Religion

Through a probing investigation of conservative Christianity and its response to an issue that, according to the statistics of conservative Christian groups, affects only a small number of Americans, Ludger Viefhues-Bailey alights on a profound theological conundrum: in today's conservative Christian movement, both sexes are called upon to be at once assertive and submissive, masculine and feminine, not only within the home but also within the church, society, and the state. Therefore the arguments of conservative Christians against same-sex marriage involve more than literal readings of the Bible or nostalgia for simple gender roles.

Focusing primarily on texts produced by Focus on the Family, a leading media and ministry organization informing conservative Christian culture, Viefhues-Bailey identifies two distinct ideas of male homosexuality: gender-disturbed and passive; and oversexed, strongly masculine, and aggressive. These homosexualities enable a complex ideal of Christian masculinity in which men are encouraged to be assertive toward the world while also being submissive toward God and family. This web of sexual contradiction influences the flow of power between the sexes and within the state. It joins notions of sexual equality to claims of "natural" difference, establishing a fraught basis for respectable romantic marriage. Heterosexual union is then treated as emblematic of, if not essential to, the success of American political life—yet far from creating gender stability, these tensions produce an endless striving for balance. Viefhues-Bailey's final, brilliant move is to connect the desire for stability to the conservative Christian movement's strategies of political power.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Viefhues-bailey, Ludger H

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christentum und Gesellschaft, Kirche und Politik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Author's NoteAcknowledgments1. IntroductionWho Are the Conservative Christians, by and Why the Focus on Focus on the Family?Connection to Previous ResearchStructure of the BookTheoretical Considerations and Methodological Consequences2. Religious Interests Between Bible and PoliticsLove Between Gays or Lesbians Is Wrong, by Because the Bible Tells Me So?A Confluence of Forces: Religion and Politics3. America and the State of Respectable Christian RomanceSame-Sex Couples and the Moral and Spiritual Stamina of the NationTheologies of Christian MarriageAmerican (Christian) Marriage: A History of ChangeProtecting the Body Politic: A Political AnalysisConclusion: Religion, by Respectability4. Same-Sex Love and the Impossibility of Christian Femininity and MasculinityGays and Feminists: From Logic to RhetoricChristian Masculinity as CrisisSubmission and the Crisis of Christian WomanhoodComplicated Flows of Power in Ordinary Family Life5. A Political and Sexual Theology of CrisisBeyond FunctionalismStruggling for the Christian LifeA Political and Sexual Theology of CrisisNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Ludger Viefhues-Bailey is associate professor for methods and theory in the study of religion at Yale University and the author of Beyond the Philosopher's Fears: A Cavellian Reading of Gender, Religion, and Origins in Modern Skepticism. His teaching and research concerns the intersection of globalization, gender, epistemology, and the theory of religion.