14AR19-43

Apologia Report 19:43 (1,226)

December 10, 2014

Subject: 'How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex'

In this issue:

BIRTH CONTROL - What would you expect from "an old woman who loved sex and an iconoclastic lead scientist?"

ISLAM - What if "even moderate Islamists are Islamists, not liberals?"

NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM - a sinister stocking-stuffer?

REASON - "an atmosphere of visible public piety is historically invalid and unquestionably obstructs egalitarian policy?"

+ the problematic evangelical attempt to "obey multiple authorities - both secular and religious - at the same time"

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BIRTH CONTROL

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, by Jonathan Eig [1] -- writing for the New York Times Book Review (Oct 12 '14, p10), Irin Carmon tells us much that is unsurprising. However, it is the unexpected that caught our attention - some of it of questionable apologetic value. Carmon identifies the main historical characters behind the birth-control pill as "the iconoclastic lead scientist, Gregory Goodwin Pincus; the Roman Catholic physician, John Rock; ... the supplier of cash behind it all, Katharine McCormick;" and the infamous Margaret Sanger, "an old woman who loved sex and ... had spent 40 years seeking a way to make it better....

"Though The Birth of the Pill is more popular history than feminist tract, Eig's decision to focus on those four has its revisionist political implications. ...

"Along the way, as Eig shows with due detail, Pincus was perfectly happy to cut corners, presiding over the dubious ethical conditions under which the pill was tested. ... Eig also doesn't let Sanger off the hook for her willingness to ally with eugenicists....

"Eig doesn't seem to think he has to prove the offhand and highly arguable claim that in the years that followed, 'birth control would also contribute to the spread of divorce, infidelity, single parenthood, abortion and pornography.' He also blithely dismisses as futile Sanger's hope that 'the pill might lift women out of poverty and stop the world's rapid population growth. In fact, the pill has been far more popular and had greater impact among the affluent than the poor and has been far more widely used in developed countries than developing ones.'" <www.ow.ly/FzOjw>

The ageless longing for unrestricted sexual freedom rages against the reality that our Creator designed our plumbing to discourage such behavior. Growing hordes fail to grasp how parental wisdom sets up healthy social dynamics in young minds - and thinking they've gained sexual freedom, they bear the penalty of ruptured relationships and rampant sexual disease. Creation groans indeed.

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ISLAM

Confronting Political Islam: Six Lessons from the West's Past, by John M. Owen, IV [2] -- Publishers Weekly (Oct '14, #2) notes that "University of Virginia professor Owen ... aims with this comparative history to lend perspective to the Muslim world's contemporary political aims. Secularists in the West underestimate Islamism's global force ... yet Islam is not a monolith. Owen considers past ideological struggles and explores the nature of the ideological state.... [However,] don't overestimate Arab secularism. 'Even moderate Islamists are Islamists, not liberals,' Owen stresses, to explain why the secularism of an Ataturk or Nasser is simply not feasible in the future. By this reading, U.S. relations with the Muslim world cannot be as cordial as with the Anglosphere or France, and Americans should not expect too much in the way of commonality. Overall, Owen is generous, rational and balanced, more perhaps than the subject can bear. In the current world of racial and religious strife, nuclear fears, and expanding terrorist capacity, some of his historical connections seem far-fetched. While Owen clearly wants to transcend the present Islamist-secularist struggle, he is also astute enough to understand the vast real-world differences that block the resolution of conflict."

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NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM

The Lost Way: How Two Early Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins, by Stephen J. Patterson [3] -- buyer beware: Patterson (religious and ethical studies, Williamette Univ.) "is a leading scholar of the Jesus Seminar and the Gospel of Thomas, an early manuscript [allegedly] containing sayings of Jesus. In his latest work, he introduces Thomas, the 'Gospel of Q,' and wisdom literature to a lay audience and gives a clear overview of the synoptic problem and the argument for 'Q.' ... Patterson argues that these sources in particular reveal a different, fuller version of the historical Jesus and the way of 'Wisdom.' Although evangelicals will disagree with the author's conclusions, the details of both sources and their impact on scholarship are clearly presented. Each chapter includes suggestions for further research. VERDICT This fascinating account will appeal to readers of John Dominic Crossan and Bart Ehrman." Ya think? Library Journal, Oct '14, #2.

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REASON

Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason, by David Niose [4] -- "A well-intended effort to be reasonable with the enemies of reason. It's all in the definition of terms: The right is, in the main, made up of the forces of the anti-Enlightenment, who repudiate secularism and egalitarianism and are heavily invested in religion. Worse, by humanist attorney Niose's ... account, the argument has shifted. On that religious front, he writes, 'even liberals have come to expect, and too often accept, an atmosphere of visible public piety, even though it is historically invalid and unquestionably obstructs egalitarian policy.' The liberal surrender that has made this possible has other aspects, including the loss of the language and branding war - though that situation is getting better with the abandonment of terms such as 'gay rights' in favor of the more broadly accepted 'marriage equality.' In Niose's view, underlying the anti-science, anti-education, anti-intellectual Tea Party strain of the right is barely disguised corporatism, and his remedies involve taming 'the corporate beasts.' He aims to effect that taming by means of a constitutional amendment that deprives corporations of legal personhood while embarking on a vigorous program of campaign finance reform. ... Niose's brush is sometimes broad, trending into the merely rhetorical.... A smart diagnosis, if accompanied by too much wishful thinking." Kirkus, Oct '14, #2.

Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism, by Molly Worthen [5] -- writing for Choice Reviews (Oct '14), Lydia Huffman Hoyle of Campbell University explains that this is "an intellectual history of American Evangelicalism - a movement often dismissed as anti-intellectual. Focusing on the latter half of the 20th century, Worthen (UNC Chapel Hill) paints a broad and revealing portrait of evangelical intellectual life. Although plenty of relevant groups are left out of her research, the author includes a sampling of a wide range of evangelical thought by using denominational archives (e.g., Southern Baptist and Mennonite), key authors (e.g., Francis Schaeffer and Carl F. H. Henry), and the papers of major evangelical parachurch organizations (e.g., the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Fuller Theological Seminary). She focuses on the history of intellectual authority within the movement as a means of linking modern evangelicals with their predecessors and explaining their response to changes in American culture. Ultimately, she concludes that the problem with evangelical intellectual life has been that evangelicals have attempted 'to obey multiple authorities' - both secular and religious - at the same time."

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, by Jonathan Eig (W. W. Norton, 2014, hardcover, 400 pages) <www.ow.ly/FvvsL>

2 - Confronting Political Islam: Six Lessons from the West's Past, by John M. Owen, IV (Princeton Univ Prs, 2014, hardcover, 232 pages) <www.ow.ly/Fvy2j>

3 - The Lost Way: How Two Early Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins, by Stephen J. Patterson (HarperOne, 2014, hardcover, 272 pages) <www.ow.ly/FvydC>

4 - Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason, by David Niose (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.ow.ly/Fvynp>

5 - Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism, by Molly Worthen (Oxford Univ Prs, 2013, hardcover, 376 pages) <www.ow.ly/Fvz3U>

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