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Changing Sexual and Family Behaviors Challenge Religious Values

 

    How did social and moral values and public legislation change so quickly from support for stable family relationships to sexual license and family dissolution?  What influences encouraged or resisted these changes?  What were the consequences for individuals, society, and religious practices? 

 

     Wrestling With Angels – The Sexual Revolution  Confronts the Church, due to be released in May, 2003 , written by Marjorie L. Coppock,  documents the sexual revolution  that swept across the United States in the last half of the twentieth century.  This revolution brought profound changes in sexual behaviors and family relationships that jeopardized the ability of the family to act as a reproductive support group for religious values and ideas.


     Religious groups encountered political struggles internally and within the larger society in support for traditional moral values.  The debates relating to sexuality, sex education, abortion, radical feminism, sexual child abuse, reproductive technology, divorce and homosexuality focused on the meaning of human life, the family, and sacred values.  Consequently, the disputes were accompanied by ferocious denunciations and accusations.


     Highly disciplined and vocal groups formed to promote perspectives on all sides of these debates.  Wrestling With Angels – The Sexual Revolution Confronts the Church   identifies the perspectives, actors, and organizations involved in the debates over differing definitions of appropriate sexual and family patterns, particularly as they responded to changing legislation.


     Denominational literature, newspaper and magazine reports, journal articles and other literature are summarized and integrated  to analyze the ongoing contests within and between religious organizations as well as within the larger society.


         Interest in the  book grew out of Coppock’s life experiences.  She taught sociology in the Texas A&M University  and University of Texas Systems.   Over her lifetime she was a member of churches of several denominations, including Baptist, Church of the Brethren, United Methodist, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian.   Actively involved in the churches in which she and  her family  were members,   Coppock was  sensitized  to the varied perspectives, both within denominations and between denominations in  regard to support for  sexual  and family patterns.  She and her husband,  Dr. Carl E. Coppock,  currently reside in San Antonio, Texas. They have three  grown children , two sons and a daughter.


About the Author.   Marjorie L. Coppock holds a BA degree in Psychology from Bridgewater College, an MS degree in Organizational Behavior from Cornell University, and a Ph.D.  in sociology from Texas A&M University.  She has taught sociology within the Texas A&M and the University of Texas systems with a focus on  social organization,  social problems, social movements, marriage and family, juvenile delinquency,  sociology of religion, and research methods.

 

Book Statistics

Title: Wrestling With Angels

Subtitle: The Sexual Revolution Confronts the Church

Author: Marjorie L. Coppock, Ph.D.

ISBN: 1-932124-01-2

Category: Christian Living/Social Issues

Length: 267 pages

Retail price: $15.95

Binding: 5 ˝ X 8 3/8

Additions: Table of Contents, Preface, Introduction, Endnotes, Index

Distributed by: The FaithWorks Division of

                                          National Book Network, Inc.    Tel:  (877) 323 4550

Publisher: ACW Press

                                 85443 Lorane Hwy

                                 Eugene, OR 97405     Tel: (800) 931-BOOK