1.0Love, Joy, Feminismhttps://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminismLibby Annehttps://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/author/libbyPuncturing Declension Narrativesrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="l1969c3Lao"><a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2016/02/puncturing-declension-narratives.html">Puncturing Declension Narratives</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2016/02/puncturing-declension-narratives.html/embed#?secret=l1969c3Lao" width="600" height="338" title="“Puncturing Declension Narratives” — Love, Joy, Feminism" data-secret="l1969c3Lao" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
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https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/166/2016/02/castle-972776_1920.jpg768514History is complicated, and fascinating, and profoundly messy. The narrative Reb Bradley tells in his graph above could hardly be more ahistorical. The same is true about just about every declension narrative I hear today. Did you know that one study of marriage and birth records in the colonial Americans found that one in three women who married was pregnant at the altar? Listening to conservatives, you'd think having sex before marriage was just invented yesterday. For their part, narratives about increasing crime rates after removing prayer from school ignore the reality that crime rates today are at a historical low. I am extremely skeptical of declension narratives as a genre, because history isn't this simple, one-dimensional story just waiting to be plugged into your talking point. This shit's complicated.