After the Wrath of God

Aids, Sexuality, & American Religion
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-19-939128-8
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 308 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 628 g

One Sunday in February 1987, protesters stood outside the Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst in Massachusetts, whose minister planned to hand out condoms during his sermon, dramatizing the need for the church to confront the AIDS crisis. The minister gave out nearly five hundred condoms as the audience exploded into applause. But he could not hang around to enjoy it; having received threats in advance of the service, he dashed out of the sanctuary immediately.
Thus was the climate for religious AIDS activism in the mid-1980s.

After the Wrath of God is the first book to tell the story of American religion and the AIDS epidemic. Anthony Petro shows how religious leaders and organizations posited AIDS as a religious and moral epidemic, and analyzes how this construction has informed cultural and political debates about public health and sexual morality. While most attention to religion and AIDS foregrounds the role of the Religious Right, this book examines the much broader-and more influential-range of
mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic groups that shaped public discussions of AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. The AIDS epidemic, Petro argues, effected a shift in Christian rhetoric regarding sexuality. Mainstream religious groups almost uniformly called for compassion for those afflicted with the
disease. While the Christian Right focused on what not to do, an increasing number of mainstream religious leaders promoted instead a positive prescription for sex, one more readily taken up in public health endeavors and sex education curricula alike-a vision that informs debates over sexual morality to this day.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Petro, Anthony M.

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Soziologie & Psychologie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Klinische und Innere Medizin HIV, AIDS
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Gesundheitssoziologie, Medizinsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit

Über Autor(innen)

Anthony M. Petro is Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University.