Kansas versus the creationists : religious conflict and scientific controversy in America’s heartland

In the last two decades, Kansas has emerged as a primary battleground in the so-called “culture wars” between the Christian Right and secular America. Following the political mobilization of the pro-life movement in the 1990s, the state’s political culture was fundamentally and radically transformed from that of a complacent outpost of “progressive” Republicanism to one of the most stridently conservative states in the U.S. led by Governor Sam Brownback, a national figure in the Christian Right. During that period, the classroom and laboratory emerged as particularly evocative sites of conflict that focused on two “science” controversies: (1) the teaching of Creationism/Intelligent Design in the high school science curriculum; and (2) the role of state and Federal funding in supporting embryonic stem cell research. This chapter explores how these debates about the interface between politics, religion and science gained prominence and became controversies in Kansas by situating them in their social and historical context. In particular, attention is paid to the growing importance of biomedical research and the life sciences to the greater Kansas City economy and the rapid demographic transformation of affluent Johnson County, Kansas, through which the suburbs of Kansas City continue to sprawl as a result of increased rural-urban migration, that is accompanied by an expansion in the number of (conservative) evangelical churches

Global generations: Social change in the twentieth century

10.1111/j.1468-4446.2005.00083.xBritish Journal of Sociology564559-57