[[File:Culture war.jpg|right|200px]]
The '''Culture War''' is the name given to conflict over moral or religious values typically between mainstream American political thought and [[liberals]].
Troops can be involved, as the conflict between [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]] in early 2022 may reflect the culture war between pro-[[homosexual agenda]] regimes in the West and the [[social conservatism|socially conservative]] [[Putin]].
==Europe==
European culture wars historically pitted Catholics against Protestants, from the extraordinarily violent [[Thirty Years War]] of the 17th century to the nonviolent [[Kulturkampf]] in Germany in the late 19th century when [[Bismarck]]'s German Protestant government sought and failed to suppress Catholicism. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the great battles were over cultural and ethnic nationalism, as well as political contests between clerical and secular forces, especially in France from 1789 to the early 20th century.
Just as violent were the occasional conflicts between Christianity and Islam that led to dramatic battles such as those at Tours (732), Kosovo (1389), Constantinople (1453), and [[Battle of Lepanto|Lepanto]] (1571). Terroristic Similar outbursts occurred in [[Chechnya]] since the 1990s, and in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Bali and elsewhere after 2001.
==Canada==
In Canada, mostly nonviolent cultural tension between English and French ethnic groups has simmered from 1760 onward. Finally in the 1990s Canadians opted for a multicultural compromise that downgraded British heritage and Canadian nationalism in general. The There remain, nonetheless, active Quebec separatists, hovering just short of a majority, groups continue to that seek independence and reject multiculturalism. among Francophones and some native peoples.
==Modernity==
Since 1789 there has been a persistent global cultural war between the forces of modernization, secularization, and globalization on the one hand, and traditionalists on the other. The latter expressed itself among Roman Catholics in the 19th century, and Islamists, Hindu nationalists, and Christian evangelicals in the 20th and 21st centuries. In class terms, the upper middle class has typically been the proactive modernizing force, with the peasants and working classes (often joined by the aristocracy) acting in reaction.
''See also:'' [[Atheism and culture]] Since 1789 there has been a persistent global cultural war between the forces of modernization, secularization ([[secularism]] is especially advocated by [[atheism|atheists]] in a strict fashion), and globalization on the one hand, and traditionalists on the other. The latter expressed itself among Roman Catholics in the 19th century, and Islamists, Hindu nationalists, and Christian evangelicals in the 20th and 21st centuries. In class terms, the upper middle class has typically been the proactive modernizing force, with the peasants and working classes (often joined by the aristocracy) acting in reaction. Massive great violence accompanied culture wars in Mexico from 1810 to the 1930s that saw clerical/conservative alliances battle anticlerical modernizing forces.
==United States==
''See also:'' [[Growth of global desecularization#American secular leftism and Christian backlash|American secular leftism and Christian backlash]] In American history culture wars have seldom escalated into violence. In general the groups at sword’s sword's point in other lands coexist in America. The rare exceptions were tensions between Catholic and Protestant Irish in the 19th century that erupted in riots in New York (1871) and, Philadelphia (1844) and elsewhere, though these were quickly quelled. More violence and hatred has surrounded racial tensions between blacks and whites (and between whites and Chinese in the late 19th century, and blacks and Koreans in the late 20th century).
===Slavery===
The most important culture wars in America have involved questions of morality. The [[abolitionist]] movement was one such expression. Before the 1830s many national leaders, North and South, considered slavery a social evil that should be gradually abolished. During the [[Second Great Awakening]], religious evangelicals in the North began preaching that slavery was a personal sin which slaveowners must immediately repent. The novel and play by Harriet Beecher Stowe, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1851) became a best seller in America and Britain, driving home the horrors of slavery. Across the South those suspected of harboring abolitionist thoughts were driven out. More generally the South feared various Yankee "isms" (abolitionism, feminism, and reformism) that threatened to destroy the traditional lifestyle of both subsistence yeoman farmers and slave plantations. The North meanwhile was modernizing rapidly and building an educational system that provided the intellectual and interpersonal skills needed for an upwardly mobile middle class to flourish. The South was nearly as rich the North in 1860, but its wealth depended less on intellectual skills than on the luck of land speculation, gambling, European demand for cotton, and weather. After slavery ended in 1865 and cotton prices plunged, the South fell behind economically and intellectually until it finally broke with cotton and began urbanizing in the 1940s, and abandoned segregation in the 1960s.
The post-World War I South developed a culture based on fundamentalism and related anti-modernist tendencies. It rallied to its favorite political hero [[William Jennings Bryan]], already a leader in the prohibitionist cultural wars, when he declared war on ungodly [[Darwinism]] in the 1920s. The result was the national attention given the [[Scopes Trial]] in 1925.
Southern anti-modernism resurged in the 1980s, assisted by a new political mobilization behind the conservatism of [[Ronald Reagan]]. It was sponsored by the [[Christian Coalition]] and other ad-hoc alignments led by the ministers of [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] mega-churches. Northern Catholics had long opposed abortion and began mobilizing its own culture war against secularism in the 1970s. In the name of "family issues," Southern Baptists, [[Missouri Synod]] Lutherans, Mormons and fundamentalists joined in the new culture war, attacking [[evolution|evolutionism]]ism, [[abortion]], [[feminismhomosexuality]], [[homosexualityfeminism]], obscenity, and government support for the arts and humanities. African Americans joined the ad-hoc coalition to oppose gay homosexual rights. After 2000, stem cell research also became a culture war target. Southern Baptists, who expanded nationwide after 1945, reignited their crusade against Darwinism as taught in the public schools and lobbied for the teaching of various forms of Creationism as an alternative.
===Politics===
By the 1980s, educational levels more so than social class aligned culture war partisans and spilled over into presidential elections. Republicans increasingly attacked public schools, higher education, and the arts, as they became a party of college dropouts and lost its historic support among the better educated. The injection of immigration issues into politics after 2005 opened a new front in the culture wars by reinvigorating nativist themes that had been dormant since the 1920s. Attacking illegal iImmigration, however, has proved problematic for Republicans, as Republican nativists often denounce the Republican business interests that attracted illegal Latino immigrants in the first place with irresistible job opportunities.
=== American culture war, demographics and expected tipping point in after 2020 ===
''
See also:'' [[American atheism]] and [[liberal]] and [[Atheism and fertility rates]]
The Birkbeck College, University of London professor [[Eric Kaufman Kaufmann]] wrote in his 2010 book ''Shall the Righteous Religious Inherit the Earth?'' concerning America:{{cquote|High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will begin to tip the balance in the [[Culture War|culture wars]] towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as [[abortion]]. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/0305/questionwhy-evolutionis-campaignyear-is2020-reachingkey-year-for-christian.html Why are 2012 and is the year 2020 a key years year for Christian creationists and pro-lifers?]</ref>}}
==Current==
Some political scientists have suggested that America is ''not'' in the midst of a political war, but that a large majority of voters are moderates. "Both red and blue states are basically centrists," said Fiorina. "Red states are a little more conservative than blue states. But people by and large see themselves in the center." These scholars argue that, while America is generally evenly split on most issues, it is not divisively polarized. The media plays a part in promoting the appearance of a culture war, because showing the extreme side of issues is more interesting than showing the moderate view.<ref>Morris P. Fiorina, ''Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America.'' 2005; [http://www.apa.org/monitor/may05/myth.html "The culture war myth"; Monitor Online]</ref>
== Atheist fear of conservative Christians ==
[[File:Sam Harris-2010.jpg|thumbnail|200px|right|The atheist [[Sam Harris]] quipped about [[William Lane Craig]] that he was "The one [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpM0D-MHyzs William Lane Craig Puts the Fear of God in Atheists], video clip of the [[William Lane Craig vs. Sam Harris debate]]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqaHXKLRKzg The God Debate II: Harris vs. Craig], University of Notre Dame YouTube channel</ref>]]
''See also:'' [[Atheist fear of conservative Christians]]
According to a [[Baylor University]] study, when it comes to various individuals who hold various religions/worldviews, [[atheism|atheists]]/nonreligious have the greatest fear when it comes to a fear that conservative, [[Protestantism|Protestant]] Christians will limit their freedom or cause them physical harm.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/07/evangelicals-fear-muslims-atheists-fear-christians-how-americans-mistrust-each-other/?noredirect=on Evangelicals fear Muslims; atheists fear Christians: New poll show how Americans mistrust one another], Washington Post</ref> Atheists/nonreligious fear Muslims the second most when it comes to a fear they will limit their freedom or cause them physical harm.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/07/evangelicals-fear-muslims-atheists-fear-christians-how-americans-mistrust-each-other/?noredirect=on Evangelicals fear Muslims; atheists fear Christians: New poll show how Americans mistrust one another], Washington Post</ref> See also: [[Atheism vs. Christianity]] and [[Atheism vs. Islam]]
According to 2013 [[FBI]] statistics, 6/10 of a percent of [[hate crime]]s were against atheists/[[agnosticism|agnostics]].<ref>[http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2013/topic-pages/victims/victims_final 2013 FBI hate crime statistics]</ref><ref>[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/06/atheism-the-next-civil-rights-movement.html Atheism: The Next Civil Rights movement], Vlad Chituc, ''The Daily Beast'', 4-6-2015</ref>
=== Prominent atheists being afraid/reluctant to debate conservative Christians ===
*[[Atheist fear of conservative Christians#Prominent atheists being afraid/reluctant to debate conservative Christians|Prominent atheists being afraid/reluctant to debate conservative Christians]]
*[[Atheism and cowardice]]
==Further reading==
* Gerson, Mark. ''The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars'' (1997)
* Hales, E. E. Y. ''Pio Nono. A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century'' (1954), on Pope Pius IX
* Hunter, James D. ''Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America'' (1992) [httphttps://www.amazon.com/Culture-Wars-Struggle-Education-Politics/dp/0465015344/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237882637&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]*Jensen, Richard. "The Culture Wars, 1965-1995: A Historian's Map," ''Journal of Social History,'' Vol. 29, Oct 1995 pp 17-3717–37 [http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000398677 online edition]
* Webb, Adam K. ''Beyond the Global Culture War'' (2006)
* Zimmerman, Jonathan. ''Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools, 2002'' (2002)
==References==
<references {{reflist}} ==External links==*[https:/>/www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-fourteen-popular-culture-a-decadent-indulgence_2685394.html Chapter Fourteen: Popular Culture–A Decadent Indulgence], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
[[Category:Political Terms]]
[[Category: Culture War]]
[[Category:Fundamentalism]]
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