History Commons^™

The Spiritual Is Political: The Modern Women's Movement And The Transformation Of The Southern Baptist Convention, Laura Joy Foxworth

Theses and Dissertations

"The Spiritual is Political" argues that feminist politics were central to Southern Baptist Convention's notorious schism, which began in 1979, and posits that its new conservative leaders launched the nearly fourteen million member denomination into partisan politics in the 1980s in reaction to their perception that the women's movement was dangerous to the nation's moral and spiritual character. By evaluating both religious and political primary sources from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, I trace grassroots mobilization and denominational reactions to contentious issues like women's ordination, abortion, homosexuality, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Though the Southern Baptist Convention favored moderate …