Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Howard Stern. Opie & Anthony. Fox Television. Bono. These are just a few of the reasons that “decency” has become one of the hottest topics in American culture and politics over the past few years. But, as Vermont author and attorney Frederick Lane points out in his newest book, The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture (Prometheus Books), Americans have been arguing over “decency” since the country was founded.
Using the startling 2004 Super Bowl halftime show as his starting point, Lane explains how a half-second of televised nudity resulted in millions of dollars of Federal Communications Commission fines, tough new indecency legislation from Congress, and the introduction of a new term: “wardrobe malfunction.” Along the way, he explores the compelling history of decency in American popular culture, technology, religion, and politics.
At the core of the country’s recent battles over decency are religious conservatives and evangelical Christians, who have become a potent political force during the past 30 years. Lane traces the growth of the religious right and discusses its impact on today’s critical policy issues—including gays in the military, gay marriage, sex education, stem cell research, and the right to die.
“Faith and religious values have an important role to play in American society, but not in the formation of its laws or the administration of its government,” Lane writes. “The issue of decency in America is as much a political issue as it is a social one. Particularly over the past 30 years, religious conservatives have used the issue of ‘decency’ to turn Democrats into Republicans, and moderate Republicans into political pariahs.
“The most remarkable aspect of the rise of the Religious Right is how modest their political and social gains have been over the past thirty years,” Lane continues. “Consistently, their agenda has taken a back seat to the concerns of neoconservatives and economic conservatives.”
“This is a highly entertaining and also an important book,” writes Anthony Lewis, former New York Times columnist and author of Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment. “It tells the story of attempts to make America comply with ‘decency’ as defined by genuine religious conservatives and by assorted puritans, busybodies, and political hypocrites. The hero is freedom of speech. The struggle goes on, and Frederick Lane has given us an indispensable guide to it.”
Lane is an author, lecturer, and expert witness. He serves on the Burlington School Board as finance chair and clerk of the board and is the father of two boys, ages 13 and 11. Lane is also the author of The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy (Amacom 2003) and Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age (Routledge 2000). All three books can be purchased through his website.
