- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Religion / Ethics
基本説明
What the fight over same-sex marriage can tell us about religion and politics in America.
Full Description
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.
Contents
Author's Note Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Who Are the Conservative Christians, by and Why the Focus on Focus on the Family? Connection to Previous Research Structure of the Book Theoretical Considerations and Methodological Consequences 2. Religious Interests Between Bible and Politics Love Between Gays or Lesbians Is Wrong, by Because the Bible Tells Me So? A Confluence of Forces: Religion and Politics 3. America and the State of Respectable Christian Romance Same-Sex Couples and the Moral and Spiritual Stamina of the Nation Theologies of Christian Marriage American (Christian) Marriage: A History of Change Protecting the Body Politic: A Political Analysis Conclusion: Religion, by Respectability 4. Same-Sex Love and the Impossibility of Christian Femininity and Masculinity Gays and Feminists: From Logic to Rhetoric Christian Masculinity as Crisis Submission and the Crisis of Christian Womanhood Complicated Flows of Power in Ordinary Family Life 5. A Political and Sexual Theology of Crisis Beyond Functionalism Struggling for the Christian Life A Political and Sexual Theology of Crisis Notes Bibliography Index
