In Birth Control We Trust

Long before Hobby Lobby's stance on birth control filled the news earlier this year, beliefs about sex and religion have intertwined with American politics. R. Marie Griffith, a feminist historian of American religion and director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, takes us back to the 1920s, when a dramatic episode involving Margaret Sanger and the Catholic Church brought the morality of birth control into the public eye. As Griffith reveals, these historical debates are surprisingly relevant to today's political context. In particular, Griffith believes that Sanger's strong convictions about women's rights and sexuality are just as vitally important in 2014 as they were in the 1920s. The author of many articles and books, she is currently writing Christians, Sex, and Politics: An American History.