Inventing Eden: Anti-Suffrage Restoration Narratives in the Early Churches of Christ

Abstract

Scholars have long noted rhetorical recurrence within conservative gender movements across time, but few studies have attempted to explain this recurrence through the historical lens of Protestant gender theology. This study considers restorationism - a form of Christian primitivism that ascribes divine intention to beginnings or origins - as a recognizable category of rhetorical appeal underlying a diverse array of conservative gender arguments, from debates about suffrage and feminism to legislative restrictions on reproductive freedom, gay marriage, and transgender rights. The flexibility of restorationism and its co-evolution with other American habits of mind make it a particularly persuasive (and often underrecognized) form of rhetorical appeal. Through context-sensitive qualitative analysis of anti-suffrage restoration arguments within the early Churches of Christ, a denomination with a distinct and enduring restorationist tradition, this study contends that anti-suffrage restoration themes of 'place', civilization, and order provided an important vector through which white family preservation became embedded in modern evangelical gender theology. After exploring each theme using primary source material, the paper demonstrates that vestiges of anti-suffrage restoration appeals linger in religiously inflected gender discourses in U.S. politics, particularly in rhetoric that seeks to restrict civil liberties for female and LGBTQ+ bodies under the guise of benevolent protection.