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Talk: “Sex and American Christianity: The Religious Divides that Fractured a Nation” by R. Marie Griffith

Part of the Department of Religion Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture Series

Ever since the emergence of the religious right as a political force in the late 1970s, scholars and commentators have sought to explain its origins, often by depicting it as a reaction to the sexual rebellion and social movements of the preceding decade. But the true origins of our political and religious divides lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians almost a century ago. In the 1920s, after women gained the right to vote nationwide, a longstanding religious consensus about sexual morality began to fray irreparably. The slow but steady unraveling of that consensus in the decades that followed has transformed America's broader culture and public life, dividing our politics and pushing sex to the center of our public debate.

The talk will touch on debates pertaining to birth control, censorship, interracial marriage, sex education, abortion, sexual harassment, and LGBTQ rights, among others.

Professor Griffith obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in Political and Social Thought and her Ph.D. in the study of religion from Harvard University. She held consecutive postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University and Northwestern University before joining the Princeton faculty as associate director of the Center for the Study of Religion. She earned tenure in 2003 and was promoted to Professor of Religion in 2005. While at Princeton, Griffith directed the women and gender studies program, and she was awarded both the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Cotsen Fellowship for Distinguished Teaching. She spent two years on the Harvard University faculty as the John A. Bartlett Professor before moving to Washington University in 2011. In 2015 she was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.

The Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture is presented annually by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Religion. Marjorie Hall Thulin (1910–2009) graduated from the University of Illinois in 1931. She enjoyed a successful career in advertising. Her desire for students to understand how religion grows and functions in a complex society, especially Christianity in American society, led her to endow a fund that makes it possible for an internationally known scholar of religion and contemporary culture to be resident on the Champaign-Urbana campus for several days each academic year.

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Contact

For further information, visit the Department of Religion at (external link) or call (217) 333-0473.

To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact Brian Cudiamat at or (217) 244-5586.