Moral Combat

by R. Marie Griffith

  27. Brock, Real Anita Hill, 81.

  28. Ralph Reed, Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Soul of American Politics (New York: Free Press, 1996), 134.

  29. Ibid., 135–136.

  30. Ralph Reed, The Confirmation (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2010), 21, 24, 330.

  31. Ibid., 286, 389.

  32. Conversation between Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, “Ralph Reed: Turning Beliefs into Votes,” The 700 Club, CBN News, October 21, 2010, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2008/June/Ralph-Reed-Turning-Beliefs-into-Votes-/.

  33. Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, 115.

  34. Rush Limbaugh, See, I Told You So (New York: Pocket Books, 1993), 196–197, 202.

  35. Ibid., 200, 203, 204, 208, 209, 211, 210, 213. His statement about feminism and “unattractive women” was one of his “Thirty-Five Undeniable Truths of Life,” so it was repeated many times elsewhere.

  36. Geneva Smitherman, “Introduction,” in African American Women Speak Out on Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas, ed. Geneva Smitherman (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 8–9.

  37. Hill, Speaking Truth to Power, 312, 313.

  38. Adam Clymer, “Democrats Promise Quick Action on a Clinton Plan: The New Congress,” New York Times, November 5, 1992, B6; Maria Braden, Women Politicians and the Media (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 122.

  39. Some statistics for sexual harassment charges filed and resolved under Title VII by the EEOC and state and local Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs) are available online; for cases from 1992 through 1996, see US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Sexual Harassment Charges—EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1992–FY 1996,” U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment-a.cfm; For cases from 1997 through 2011, see: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Sexual Harassment Charges—EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1997–FY 2011,” U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment.cfm.

  40. Ralph Reed sought to correct the perception that those calling her “whore” were members of the Christian Coalition; see Ralph Reed, Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Soul of American Politics (New York: Free Press, 1996), 141. Others continued to insist they were Christians; see Robert Orsi, “Christian Right Learning Ropes,” Baltimore Sun, July 14, 1996.

  41. Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives (1887; reprint, Boston: Little, Brown, 1900), 234, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34060/34060-h/34060-h.htm.

  42. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (New York: Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2006), 120.

  43. Gloria Steinem, interviewed by HBO, “Gloria: In Her Own Words: Interview with Gloria Steinem,” HBO, 2011, http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/gloria-in-her-own-words/interview/gloria-steinem.html.

  44. For a very brief legal history that also cites Helen Campbell and Upton Sinclair, see Reva B. Siegel, “Introduction: A Short History of Sexual Harassment,” in Directions in Sexual Harassment Law, ed. Catharine A. MacKinnon and Reva B. Siegel (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 1–39.

  45. Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (New York: Dial, 1999), 282.

  46. Recounted in ibid., 283–284 (quote on 284); Enid Nemy, “Women Begin to Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment at Work,” New York Times, August 19, 1975, 38; Mary Bralove, “A Cold Shoulder: Career Women Decry Sexual Harassment by Bosses and Clients,” Wall Street Journal, January 29, 1976, 1. This story is recounted in detail in Carrie N. Baker, The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 27–36.

  47. Catharine A. MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979), 217–218.

  48. The longer story of how the concept of sexual harassment entered the public consciousness during the 1970s and 1980s is told in Baker, Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment. Baker’s Acknowledgments begin with her “vivid memories,” while a law student at Emory, of watching Anita Hill’s televised testimony about Clarence Thomas.

  49. EEOC, Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex, 29 C.F.R. § 1604.11 (1980); Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000–2(a) (1).

  50. Schlafly quoted in “Asking for it?” Time, May 4, 1981, 37.

  51. Paul Taylor, “Thomas’s View of Harassment Said to Evolve,” Washington Post, October 11, 1991, A10.

  52. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986).

  53. William J. Eaton, “Senate Oks Compromise Civil Rights Bill in 93-5 Vote,” Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1991, 1; George Bush, “Statement on Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1991,” November 21, 1991, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=20258; Danforth, Resurrection.

  54. Bill Hewitt, “She Could Not Keep Silent,” People, October 28, 1991, 40–43; Marilyn Balamaci, Gayle Verner, Gail Wescott, Nina Burleigh, and Linda Marx, “The Price of Saying No,” People, October 28, 1991, 44–48 (interviews with Catharine A. MacKinnon, Deborah Tannen, and neurosurgeon Dr. Frances Conley follow). Virginia Lamp Thomas, “Breaking Silence,” People, November 11, 1991, 108–116; “Mail,” People, November 18, 1991, 13–14; “Mail,” People, December 2, 1991, 5–6. For another discussion of these contrasting People profiles, see Wahneema Lubiano, “Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means,” in Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality, ed. Toni Morrison (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), 359–361.

  55. Details of Jones’s early life, including remembrances from family members, are recounted in David Ellis, “The Perils of Paula,” People, May 23, 1994, 33ff.

  56. Cathy Young, “Groping Toward Sanity: Why the Clinton Sex Scandals Are Changing the Way We Talk About Sexual Harassment,” Reason 30, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1998): 24, 26, 27, 30, 27.

  57. Katie Mahoney and Patrick Mahoney, “Paula Jones Legal Defense Fund,” from a Christian Defense Coalition press conference televised by C-Span on May 12, 1994, https://www.c-span.org/video/?56763-1/paula-jones-legal-defense-fund.

  58. Ibid. See also Michael Isikoff, “Christian Coalition Forms Legal Expenses Fund for Clinton Accuser,” Washington Post, May 13, 1994, A11. (A correction was issued by the Post the next day noting that the Christian Defense Coalition “has no connection with the Christian Coalition.”)

  59. Howard Kurtz, “The Plunge into Paulagate: The Media See Two Sides, Two Spins,” Washington Post, May 14, 1994, D1.

  60. Brock, Blinded by the Right, 199; Christian Action Network, “Christian Action Network: About,” http://www.christianaction.org/can, accessed August 13, 2015.

  61. Reed, Active Faith, 261.

  62. See Peter Baker, “Paula Jones Lawyers Ask to Quit Case,” Washington Post, September 9, 1997, A1; Jay Branegan, “In Paula We Trust,” Time, November 24, 1997, 54; James Bennett, “Pasts Are Prologue as Jones v. Clinton Moves Closer to Trial,” New York Times, November 9, 1997, 24.

  63. Lorraine Adams, “For Paula Jones, a Bolder but Riskier Tack: Her New Lawyers Changed Course of Sex Harassment Suit Against President,” Washington Post, February 8, 1998, 1.

  64. Ceci Connolly, “Radio Show Dropped for Paula Jones Link,” Washington Post March 15, 1998, A20. Spokespersons for the Rutherford Institute insisted to the reporter that the boycott had rather to do with Whitehead’s renunciation of his own earlier anti-gay statements.

  65. R. Jonathan Moore, Suing For America’s Soul: John Whitehead, the Rutherford Institute, and Conservative Christians in the Courts (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 2.

  66. John W. Whitehead, Slaying Dragons: The Truth Behind the Man Who Defended Paula Jones (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 4.

  67. Ibid., 9.

  68. Ibid., 208, 209.

  69. “Independent Women’s Forum Condemns Intimidation of Paula Jones,” PR Newswire, June 3, 1998, http://ww
w.prnewswire.com/news-releases/independent-womens-forum-condemns-intimidation-of-paula-jones-75777562.html.

  70. “Books in Brief,” New American, October 26, 1998, 34.

  71. Ann Coulter, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1998); Howard Kurtz, “The Blonde Flinging Bombshells at Bill Clinton,” Washington Post, October 16, 1998, D1.

  72. Mike Pence, “Why Clinton Must Resign or Be Impeached,” republished in Patrick Hogan, “Here Are Some of the Weirdest Columns Mike Pence Wrote in the ’90s,” http://fusion.kinja.com/here-are-some-of-the-weirdest-columns-mike-pence-wrote-1793860259, July 14, 2016.

  73. Andrew Kaczynski, “Mike Pence Railed Against Adultery, Otters, and Paula Jones in Old Blog Posts,” BuzzFeed, July 18, 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mike-pence-railed-against-adultery-otters-and-paula-jones-in?utm_term=.cmJLoNJX4#.njBYwDAv0.

  74. Peter Baker, “Clinton Settles Paula Jones Lawsuit for $850,000,” Washington Post, November 14, 1998, A1.

  75. Joel Achenbach, “On the Hill, They Still Swear It’s Not About Sex,” Washington Post, December 19, 1998, C6. Kenneth Starr’s religious background and church affiliations are well chronicled in Bobby Ross Jr., “Kenneth Starr Plans to Join Baptist Church,” Christian Chronicle, April 2010, http://www.christianchronicle.org/article/kenneth-starr-plans-to-join-baptist-church.

  76. Michael Powell, “One Nation, Torn Apart: The ’60s Culture Clash Underlies a New Crisis,” Washington Post, December 19, 1998, C1, C2.

  77. “Starr’s Hour,” Wall Street Journal, September 11, 1998, A14.

  CHAPTER 8

  1. After Moral Combat went into initial production at Basic Books, a new and very thorough history of same-sex marriage appeared, one that would have greatly benefited my own work on this chapter if it had come out sooner. The book traces the marriage equality movement from the 1950s through Obergefell; see Nathaniel Frank, Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017).

  2. Judith Esmay, quoted in Elizabeth Adams, Going to Heaven: The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson (Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull, 2006), 101 (emphasis in original).

  3. Interview with Gene Robinson, Washington, DC, July 15, 2016.

  4. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Canon III.16.3, Constitutions & Canons 2003, 90, https://www.episcoplachurch.org/files/documents/2003_candc.pdf.

  5. Gene Robinson, God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage (New York: Random House, 2012), 4.

  6. Ibid., 4, 5.

  7. Ibid., 5.

  8. Ibid., 7.

  9. Interview with Robinson.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Robinson, God Believes in Love, 11.

  12. Interview with Robinson.

  13. William Cullen Bryant, letter, New York Evening Post, July 13, 1843, cited in Rachel Hope Cleves, “‘What, Another Female Husband?’: The Prehistory of Same-Sex Marriage in America,” Journal of American History 101, no. 4 (March 2015): 1059.

  14. All examples are from Cleves, “‘What, Another Female Husband?’” The policing of homosexuality in US history is critical context, of course, as is the pervasive regulation of it by the federal government; see e.g. Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

  15. Joan Nestle, “Excerpts from the Oral History of Mabel Hampton,” Signs 18 (Summer 1993): 934, in Cleves, “‘What, Another Female Husband?,’” 1078.

  16. E. B. Saunders, “Reformer’s Choice: Marriage License or Just License?,” One Magazine 1, no. 8 (August 1953): 11, 12.

  17. R. H. Karcher, letter to the editor, One Magazine 1, no. 10 (October 1953): 14.

  18. Randy Lloyd, “Let’s Push Homophile Marriage,” One Magazine 11, no. 6 (June 1963): 5; “Letters,” One Magazine 11, no. 7 (July 1963): 29; “Letters,” One Magazine 11, no. 8 (August 1963): 29.

  19. Howard Moody, A Voice in the Village: A Journey of a Pastor and a People (Xlibris, 2009), 111.

  20. Gay Liberation Front members quoted in William N. Eskridge Jr. and Darren R. Spedale, Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse?—What We’ve Learned from the Evidence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 17. The sexual politics of the Gay Liberation Front and radical lesbians during that period are well examined in Robert O. Self, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012), 222–235 and passim.

  21. “Gay Marriage Bureau Takeover 1971,” YouTube video, 9:59, posted by “Randolfe Wicker,” March 15, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7NU8B1EGnU, in Garance Franke-Ruta, “The Prehistory of Gay Marriage: Watch a 1971 Protest at NYC’s Marriage License Bureau,” Atlantic, March 26, 2013.

  22. Quoted in Eskridge and Spedale, Gay Marriage, 22.

  23. Sarah Barringer Gordon narrates the religious history of legal battles over same-sex marriage between 1970 and 2007 in her book The Spirit of the Law: Religious Voices and the Constitution in Modern America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 169–207.

  24. Erik Eckholm, “Same-Sex Marriage? Done That, Back in 1971,” New York Times, May 17, 2015, A1, A15.

  25. Jones v. Hallahan, in Eskridge and Spedale, Gay Marriage, 22.

  26. Robert Barnes, “40 years later, Story of a Same-Sex Marriage in Colo. Remains Remarkable,” Washington Post, April 18, 2015; court opinion quoted in Eskridge and Spedale, Gay Marriage, 23.

  27. John E. Fortunato, Embracing the Exile: Healing Journeys of Gay Christians (New York: Seabury, 1982), 14. Reporters in DC covered this story; see Marjorie Hyer, “Homosexual Marriage Plans Cause Episcopal Problems,” Washington Post, November 12, 1976, C2; Marjorie Hyer, “Bishop’s Threat Halts Homosexual Union,” Washington Post, November 15, 1976, B6; Jeannette Smyth, “‘To Love, to Share, to Help’: Taking the Vows, Making a Statement,” Washington Post, December 12, 1976, K1.

  28. Moody, Voice in the Village, 130.

  29. Eckholm, “Same-Sex Marriage?,” A15.

  30. Evan Wolfson, “Samesex Marriage and Morality: The Human Rights Vision of the Constitution” (thesis, Harvard Law School, 1983), 3, 31–32, http://freemarry.3cdn.net/73aab4141a80237ddf_kxm62r3er.pdf.

  31. Andrew Sullivan, “Here Comes the Groom: A (Conservative) Case for Gay Marriage,” New Republic, August 28, 1989.

  32. Philip S. Gutis, “Small Steps Toward Acceptance Renew Debate on Gay Marriage,” New York Times, November 5, 1989, E24.

  33. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics,” December 29, 1975, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19751229_persona-humana_en.html.

  34. Kenneth A. Briggs, “Baptists, in Shift, Ask Members to Seek Antiabortion ‘Climate,’” New York Times, June 18, 1976, A11. On Protestant clergy and the LGBT rights movement, see Heather R. White, Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015); and Anthony M. Petro, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).

  35. Tim LaHaye and Beverly LaHaye, The Act of Marriage (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1976), 11, 182, 279, 278, 279. For an excellent analysis of this and other evangelical marriage manuals, see Amy DeRogatis, Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).

  36. Didi Herman, The Antigay Agenda (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 67.

  37. Beverly LaHaye, The Spirit-Controlled Woman (Irvine, CA: Harvest House, 1976), 73.

  38. Falwell quoted in Hans Johnson and William Eskridge, “The Legacy of Falwell’s Bully Pulpit,” Washington Post, May 19, 2007, A17.

  39. Jean O’Leary and Bruce Voeller, “Anita Bryant’s Crusade,” New York Times, June 7, 1977, 35.

  40. “3,000 in Houston Protest Anita Bryant Appearance,” New York
Times, June 17, 1977, A12.

  41. Tim LaHaye, The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know About Homosexuality (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1978), 76, 150, 157.

  42. Beverly LaHaye, Who But a Woman? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 45.

  43. Falwell quoted in Johnson and Eskridge, “The Legacy of Falwell’s Bully Pulpit,” A17.

  44. See Anthony Petro, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).

  45. Sutton went on to be a leader in the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white-supremacist group. Southern Poverty Law Center, “A Dozen Major Groups Help Drive the Religious Right’s Anti-Gay Crusade,” Southern Poverty Law Center, April 28, 2005, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2005/dozen-major-groups-help-drive-religious-right’s-anti-gay-crusade. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Family Research Institute as an extremist group.

  46. David A. Noebel, Wayne C. Lutton, and Paul Cameron, AIDS: A Special Report, 2nd rev. ed. (Manitou Springs, CO: Summit Research Institute, 1987), back cover, 3, 5, 6.

  47. Ibid., 15, 79, 116, 139.

  48. Robertson responded, “Why, I totally concur.” “Falwell and Robertson on The 700 Club After 9/11,” YouTube video, 1:22, from an episode of The 700 Club televised by the Fox Family Channel [now Freeform] on September 13, 2001, posted by “Veracifier,” November 7, 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CAcdta_8I.

  49. See Heather R. White, Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

  50. Robinson, God Believes in Love, 12–13.

  51. Interview with Robinson.

  52. General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of… The Episcopal Church, Minneapolis 1976 (New York: General Convention, 1977), C-109, http://www.episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/acts/acts_resolution.pl?resolution=1976-A069.

  53. Nathaniel Sheppard Jr., “Episcopal Group Limits Homosexuals’ Ordination,” New York Times, September 19, 1979, A16.

  54. Interview with Robinson.

  55. Jan Nunley, “Advocates Gather to Claim Blessing Rite for Same-Sex Couples,” Episcopal News Service, November 11, 2002, http://arc.episcopalchurch.org/ens/archives/2002-258.html.