Abusing religion : literary persecution, sex scandals, and American minority religions /
Megan Goodwin.
- New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, (c)2020.
- 1 online resource.
Includes bibliographies and index.
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction: Contraceptive Nationalism -- 1. America's Contraceptive Mentality: Catholic Co-belligerence and the New Christian Right -- Part I: Sex, Abuse, and the Satanic Panic -- 2. Satan Sellers: Michelle Remembers and the Making of a Sex Abuse Panic -- 3. Believe the Children? Catholicizing Public Morality -- Part II: Sex, Abuse, and American Islamophobia -- 4. Dark Religion for Dark People: Race, American Islam, and Not Without My Daughter -- 5. The War at Home: Muslim Masculinity as Domestic Violence Part III: Sex, Abuse, and Mormon Fundamentalism -- 6. From Short Creek to Zion: Mormons, Polygyny, and Under the Banner of Heaven -- 7. This Is Not about Religion: Raiding Zion to Save It -- Conclusion: Religion, Sex, Abuse -- Epilogue: Religion Trains Us Like Roses -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
"Sex abuse happens in all communities, but American minority religions often face disproportionate allegations of sexual abuse. Why, in a country that consistently fails to acknowledge-much less address-the sexual abuse of women and children, do American religious outsiders so often face allegations of sexual misconduct? Why does the American public presume to know "what's really going on" in minority religious communities? Why are sex abuse allegations such an effective way to discredit people on America's religious margins? What makes Americans so willing, so eager to identify religion as the cause of sex abuse? Abusing Religion argues that sex abuse in minority religious communities is an American problem, not (merely) a religious one"--
9781978807808 9781978807822
Sex crimes--Religious aspects--Public opinion. Americans--Public opinion.