Christian horror at Muslim divorce masked an unspoken fear of polyandry
Evidence
Having provided these key defensive arguments to parry the most common Muslim thrusts against Christianity, he goes on to try to discredit the Koran in the eyes of his Christian readers. He dwells on the Koranic laws involving polygamy and divorce and on the marriage between Muhammad and Zaynab. After a brief description of Muslim laws on circumcision and the prohibition on drinking, the De haeresibus ends abruptly; if John ever wrote a conclusion to the text, it has not survived. He makes no effort to synthesize at the end of his description of one hundred heresies. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 357 (
#expands, via linked claim)
For evangelicals, the problem of American manhood was at its heart a religious one, properly addressed within the Christian family. Fundamentalist megachurch pastor Jack Hyles made this case in his 1972 book How to Rear Children. The son of a distant, alcoholic father, Hyles had grown up in Texas, served in the 82nd Airborne Division in the Second World War, and later turned to ministry. In 1959, the “skinny, charismatic Bible thumper with a Southern-fried drawl and a couple of cheap suits” showed up in Hammond, Indiana, and took charge of its First Baptist Church. He quickly built the church into one of the largest Independent Fundamental Baptist churches in the nation, boasting an attendance of over 20,000 and housing “the world’s largest Sunday School.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 123 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Demonizing Islam grew from anxiety over its uncomfortable similarity to Christianity; Medieval polemic framed Muslim polygamy as a breeding strategy against Christendom — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2185; Early Christian anti-Islamic polemics focused on polygamy, divorce, and Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 357 (+5 more)
Related
- Early Christian anti-Islamic polemics focused on polygamy, divorce, and Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab (similarity 0.87)
- Medieval Christians used Islam’s marital norms to claim moral superiority (similarity 0.80)
- Manhood anxiety was framed as a religious problem solved within the family (similarity 0.80)
- Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity (similarity 0.79)
- Medieval Christian polemic mocked Muslim sexual mores to discredit the Koran (similarity 0.79)
- Twelfth-century Christian polemicists framed Islam as lust-ridden heresy. (similarity 0.79)
- Christian polemicists portrayed medieval Muslim sexuality as wholly unregulated (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Demonizing Islam grew from anxiety over its uncomfortable similarity to Christianity
#corroborates(0.82) - Early Christian anti-Islamic polemics focused on polygamy, divorce, and Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab
#expands(0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 357 - Manhood anxiety was framed as a religious problem solved within the family
#corroborates(0.78) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 123 - Medieval writers imagined polygamy as a Muslim demographic war weapon
#corroborates(0.77) - Medieval polemic framed Muslim polygamy as a breeding strategy against Christendom
#expands(0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2185 - Analyzing gendered Islamophobia through women alone leaves male-centered work undone
#expands(0.73) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 491 - Medieval Christian polemicists fixated on Muslim sexuality over graver legal issues
#expands(0.72) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 848 - Medieval polemic treated Muslim sexuality as a symptom of a deeper spiritual laxity
#exemplifies(0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 855