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The Men (and Women) of the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice The Men (and Women) of the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice
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Obscene Literature and Liberal Protestant Theology Obscene Literature and Liberal Protestant Theology
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Conservative Protestants and the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice Conservative Protestants and the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice
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Postbellum Moral Philosophy Postbellum Moral Philosophy
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The Whig-Republican Political Tradition The Whig-Republican Political Tradition
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The Victorian View of Literature The Victorian View of Literature
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3 Who They Were and Why They Wanted to Suppress Obscene Literature
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Published:December 2017
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Abstract
After examining who supported the Society for the Suppression of Vice, this chapter explores why so many social leaders and prominent liberal ministers, usually recognized as leading social and cultural progressive voices in their particular fields, wholeheartedly supported the censorship activities of the Watch and Ward Society. Four key sources shaped the anti-vice reformers’ rationale for the censorship of obscene literature: liberal Protestant theology, nineteenth-century moral philosophy, the Whig-Republican view of the public role of religion in society, and their Victorian view of literature. To the anti-vice activists, licentious literature fostered an animalism that hindered the gradual Christianization of society, ruined individuals moral character, encouraged other antisocial behaviors, and contradicted the basic canons of what constituted good literature. For these reasons, the moral reformers argued, voluntary organizations and the state had a moral obligation to suppress obscene works that threatened the well-being of society.
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