Conservative Protestants and the Family, 1920-1980
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BEFORE THE CULTURE WARS: CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS AND THE FAMILY, 1920-1980 VOLUME I A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Danielle DuBois Gottwig George Marsden, Director Graduate Program in History Notre Dame, Indiana April 2011 © Copyright by Danielle DuBois Gottwig 2011 All Rights Reserved BEFORE THE CULTURE WARS: CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS AND THE FAMILY, 1920-1980 Abstract by Danielle DuBois Gottwig This dissertation examines conservative Protestant efforts to preserve the social and religious mission of the evangelical Protestant family between the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 and the rise of the New Christian Right in the 1980s. It focuses on how members of five conservative Protestant groups—the fundamentalist movement, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, and the neo-evangelical movement—responded to sweeping changes in American family life and social thought during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Confronted with changes in women's roles, rising divorce rates, changing romantic and sexual expectations within marriage, social chaos in the form of crime and international threats, and secularization, they replied with a growing pool of advice books, periodical literature, sermons, and denominational and parachurch campaigns that aimed to define and revive Christian marriage and parenthood. Conservative Protestant writing about the family reveals that commentators sought to make the religious ideals of personal salvation and holiness cohere with Danielle DuBois Gottwig middle-class American faith in progress and self-improvement. During the interwar years writers articulated a conservative religious version of the middle-class ideal of the family as an emotionally intimate and spiritually potent institution able to build the nation by forming the minds, characters, and bodies of individual citizens. Following World War II, they increasingly presented Christian belief and practice as a means of achieving a companionable marriage, sought to ensure harmonious and sexually warm relationships between couples, and instructed parents to balance the rigors of Christian training and discipline with an appreciation for the child's feelings and developmental needs. Greater acceptance of popular and counseling psychology encouraged conservative Protestants to embrace the expectation that personal and marital happiness could be obtained through self-understanding, self-improvement, and a salvific relationship with God. In the 1970s Dr. James Dobson and Tim and Beverley LaHaye, all leaders in the emerging New Christian Right, established themselves as psychologists, counselors, and teachers invested in improving family life. In these roles, they called upon conservative Protestants to defend their conception of the family and moral order, along with the cherished hopes they had attached to each. For Jeremy Who has always offered me the privilege of being his equal partner ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................. vi INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 VOLUME I CHAPTER ONE “OUR MOTHERS, WIVES, AND DAUGHTERS”: CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS, SUFFRAGE, AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN WOMANHOOD...........................19 The Family and Protestantism in the Nineteenth Century...................................27 Southern Baptists................................................................................................. 38 Northern Fundamentalists....................................................................................63 Pentecostals..........................................................................................................79 Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.....................................................................96 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 112 CHAPTER TWO “SHE HAS SHOUTED AND SHINED HER WAY THROUGH DUTY ON CORNBREAD AND ONIONS”: MOTHERS AND THE FUTURE OF CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTISM...........................................................................114 Ideal Mothers: Community-Builders................................................................. 119 Ideal Mothers: Modern Traditionalists.............................................................. 128 Ideal Mothers: Women in Obedience to God's Pattern......................................138 The Ideal Meets the Real................................................................................... 145 Helen Sunday................................................................................................ 146 Grace Fuller...................................................................................................152 Henrietta Mears.............................................................................................156 Alice Reynolds Flower..................................................................................161 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 171 CHAPTER THREE “UNITED BY THE TIES OF LOVE”: MODERN MARRIAGE AND THE CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANT FAITH BETWEEN THE WARS.............................174 Divorce and Remarriage.................................................................................... 184 The Meaning of Marriage in a Modern World...................................................203 Experiencing God's Will and the Decision to Marry......................................... 234 Imagining the Christian Romance..................................................................... 242 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 254 iii CHAPTER FOUR “HERE COMES THE PRIDE!”: CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS AND MODERN FAMILY LIFE..................................................................................................................256 Gender Order and Harmony.............................................................................. 259 Parental Authority and Christian Discipline...................................................... 272 The Fruit of Discipline.......................................................................................286 Strong Bodies................................................................................................287 Pure Minds.................................................................................................... 292 Good Character............................................................................................. 300 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 309 CHAPTER FIVE “PANOPLIED FOR WAR”: WORLD WAR II AND THE DEEPENING FAMILY CRISIS............................................................................................................................. 311 World War as a Family Crisis............................................................................ 315 Signs of the Times: Interpreting the Family Crisis............................................321 Preparing a Response.........................................................................................333 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 354 VOLUME II CHAPTER SIX “CHRIST—OR CHAOS!”: FIGHTING THE COLD WAR AND GUIDING TEENAGERS.................................................................................................................. 361 New Opportunities in an “Atomic Age”............................................................366 Mastering Eros...................................................................................................379 Taming Teenagers ............................................................................................. 393 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 419 CHAPTER SEVEN THE AFFECTIONATE HOME: POSTWAR FAMILY LIFE AS A NEW FRONTIER. 421 The New Christian Family.................................................................................424 Togetherness and the Restoration of Christian Fatherhood ..............................443 Democracy and Gender Order........................................................................... 449 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 464 CHAPTER EIGHT EVANGELIZING THE PSYCHE: PSYCHOLOGY, CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS, AND COLD WAR MARRIAGE.....................................................................................467 The Psychologist as Friend and Foe.................................................................. 471 Freud and Conservative Protestant Dissonance............................................472 The Protestant Dialog with Modern Psychology.......................................... 477 The Gospel of Freedom from Worry.............................................................484 The Rise of Christian Psychology..................................................................... 492 Pastoral Counseling and Clinical Psychology..............................................493