Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland

by Robert Wuthnow

Overview

What Kansas really tells us about red state America

No state has voted Republican more consistently or widely or for longer than Kansas. To understand red state politics, Kansas is the place. It is also the place to understand red state religion. The Kansas Board of Education has repeatedly challenged the teaching of evolution, Kansas voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage, the state is a hotbed of antiabortion protest—and churches have been involved in all of these efforts. Yet in 1867 suffragist Lucy Stone could plausibly proclaim that, in the cause of universal suffrage, "Kansas leads the world!" How did Kansas go from being a progressive state to one of the most conservative?

In Red State Religion, Robert Wuthnow tells the story of religiously motivated political activism in Kansas from territorial days to the present. He examines how faith mixed with politics as both ordinary Kansans and leaders such as John Brown, Carrie Nation, William Allen White, and Dwight Eisenhower struggled over the pivotal issues of their times, from slavery and Prohibition to populism and anti-communism. Beyond providing surprising new explanations of why Kansas became a conservative stronghold, the book sheds new light on the role of religion in red states across the Midwest and the United States. Contrary to recent influential accounts, Wuthnow argues that Kansas conservatism is largely pragmatic, not ideological, and that religion in the state has less to do with politics and contentious moral activism than with relationships between neighbors, friends, and fellow churchgoers.

This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand the role of religion in American political conservatism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691150550
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/04/2011
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Robert Wuthnow, a native of Kansas, teaches sociology and directs the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. He is the author of many books about American religion and culture, including Remaking the Heartland: Middle America since the 1950s and Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future (both Princeton).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Preface ix

Prologue 1

Murder at the Glenwood 10

1 Piety on the Plains 17

Abraham Lincoln in Kansas 18

Establishing a Civic Order 29

Public Religion

Serving the Community 42

Church Expansion 47

Cooperation and Competition 57

2 An Evolving Political Style 67

Prairie Politics 72

Populism and Religious Politics 79

Protesting against Inequality 90

A Divided Party 95

Law and Order 101

For the Children 104

3 Redefining the Heartland 110

Harvest of Progress 112

Consolidation and Expansion 117

Forward-looking Initiatives 124

Church and State 130

Hunkering Down 134

Fundamentalism and the Great Depression 142

Simian Peasants 152

Novel Movements 162

4 Quiet Conservatism 169

Grassroots Resentments 171

The Senator from Pendergast 183

Hometown Religion 187

I Like Ike 200

A Well-Qualified Catholic 208

5 An Era of Restructuring 215

Stirrings on the Right 217

From Desegregation to Black Power 229

Nixon at Kansas State 241

Division in the Churches 252

6 The Religious Right 267

Mobilization on the Right 269

Government Is the Problem 279

The War in Wichita 287

Shifting the Focus 294

Questioning Evolution 303

7 Continuing the Struggle 312

The Churches and Activist Networks 314

Electing George W. Bush 321

Regulating Abortion 326

The Campaign against Gay Marriage 330

Evolution Revisited 338

The Death of Dr. Tiller 347

Swatches of Purple 354

Epilogue 361

Notes 71

Selected Bibliography 45

Index 655

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Robert Wuthnow's study of religion and public life in Kansas—from controversies over the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the 1850s to strife over abortion, evolution, and gay rights in the 2000s—is thoughtful, fact-filled, empathetic, often moving, and always informative. When he addresses the hackneyed question, 'what's the matter with Kansas?' his answer eschews simplistic blue state-red state stereotyping in favor of patient attention to moderate Methodists and Catholics and a historically flexible Republican Party, along with careful explanation of when and how that moderation began to give way. This is sparkling history."—Mark A. Noll, author of God and Race in American Politics: A Short History

"Scrutinizing Kansas's red state religion, Wuthnow discovers a complex, compassionate, and balanced approach to social goods and moral choices. Upending stereotypes about his home state's embrace of the Religious Right, he reveals that the beating heart of the heartland is devotion to church and community."—Diane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication

"This is a fascinating portrait of the interplay between religion and politics in the Midwest over the past 150 years. It also provides a necessary corrective to accounts that have long portrayed Kansas as a monolithic cultural backwater populated by dupes who cannot grasp their own interests. As a native son, Robert Wuthnow has an understanding of Kansas that runs deep; as a leading scholar, he provides an analysis with broad implications. This is an illuminating and impressive book."—Brian Steensland, Indiana University

"Red State Religion is an impressive work. In contrast to the simple headline-grabbing arguments that something is the matter with Kansas, Robert Wuthnow starts from the beginning to understand the current confluence of religion and politics in his home state. Drawing on an enormous range of sources and data, he uses his nearly unrivaled ability to explore important debates and to set them in the context of compelling stories of the lives of ordinary people."—Paul A. Djupe, Denison University

Editorial Reviews

Wuthnow does an excellent job tracing the development of religious institutions in the state.

Great Plains Research - James E. Sherow

Elegantly written, passionately argued, and deeply researched, Red State Religion challenges our basic assumptions about the influence of the Religious Right in particular, and the role of religion in American politics more generally.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History - Andrew Preston

Red State Religion is a model of clarity and is surely one of the best books available on the intersection of religion and politics.

Voice of Reason - Al Menendez

[Red State Religion] thoughtfully and compassionately explores the rich and complex political and religious history of the place.

Christian Century - Rebecca Barrett-Fox

Robert Wuthnow, a brilliant sociologist of religion and himself a native of Kansas, gives us a careful sociological history of the intertwining of religion and politics in this quintessential red state. . . . In Wuthnow's nuanced and careful study, Kansans come across less as hayseeds or off-the-wall moralizers than as pragmatic conservatives, committed to traditional families and fiscal conservatism. They are skeptical of big government and dedicated to preserving simple and vital virtues. Wuthnow has penned a 'must read' book for those who would understand—and not just caricature—red state religion and how it intertwines with politics.

America - John A. Coleman

With the publication of Red State Religion, we profit greatly from a majestically comprehensive account of Kansas' history. In turn, we get a truer story, one that inspires a less ideological reading of the state, perhaps freeing Kansans themselves from any notion of how they must think—or vote.

Philadelphia Inquirer - Alexander Heffner

Red State Religion is a model of clarity and is surely one of the best books available on the intersection of religion and politics.
— Al Menendez

Voice of Reason

[Red State Religion] thoughtfully and compassionately explores the rich and complex political and religious history of the place.
— Rebecca Barrett-Fox

Christian Century

Robert Wuthnow, a brilliant sociologist of religion and himself a native of Kansas, gives us a careful sociological history of the intertwining of religion and politics in this quintessential red state. . . . In Wuthnow's nuanced and careful study, Kansans come across less as hayseeds or off-the-wall moralizers than as pragmatic conservatives, committed to traditional families and fiscal conservatism. They are skeptical of big government and dedicated to preserving simple and vital virtues. Wuthnow has penned a 'must read' book for those who would understand—and not just caricature—red state religion and how it intertwines with politics.
— John A. Coleman

America

With the publication of Red State Religion, we profit greatly from a majestically comprehensive account of Kansas' history. In turn, we get a truer story, one that inspires a less ideological reading of the state, perhaps freeing Kansans themselves from any notion of how they must think—or vote.
— Alexander Heffner

Philadelphia Inquirer

[Wuthnow] takes Kansas state conservatism seriously in grounding his conclusions in archival research rather than journalistic sensationalism.

Choice

Finalist for the 2013 Christianity Today Awards in Christianity and Culture

From the Publisher