Kristy Slominski

Interests

Teaching

Religion and health; religion and science; American religious diversity; modern Christianity; new religious movements

Research

American religious history; religion and sex education; religion and public health

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Slominski, K. (2021). Teaching Moral Sex: An American Religious History of Sex Education. Oxford University Press.

Chapters

• Slominski, K. (2018). Teaching Religion with Clickers. In Teaching Religion Using Technology in Higher Education(pp 44-56). Routledge Research in Religion and Education Series.

Journals/Publications

• Slominski, K. (2020). How Religion Made Modern Sex Ed. Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere, Religion and Reproductive Science Series.
• Slominski, K. (2019). Doctor, Reverend, Sex Educator: Medicine and Religion in Early Sex Education. Journal of the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science, 1(1).
  More info

  From its beginning in the early twentieth century, the American movement for public sex education was characterized by alliances between physicians and Christian reformers. These unlikely partners came together to forge the movement because each group believed that breaking the conspiracy of silence around sexuality would support its goals. For the religious leaders, who were predominantly Protestant, sex education provided a way to spread the message of sexual purity to American youth, with the ultimate goal of preserving Christian morals. For medical professionals, instruction about sexual health offered a method for curbing rampant venereal diseases, especially syphilis and gonorrhea. Within national sex education organizations like the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA), these groups worked together to develop conceptions of sex educators as moral guardians and protectors of public health within schools, the military, and the community at large. This paper traces the early development of this partnership, which I argue was made possible by the vision of Prince Albert Morrow, whose leadership of the early sex education movement led to the creation of ASHA. The cooperation between religious leaders and physicians within mainstream organizations for public sex education shaped and legitimated the moral claims of American sex education, helping this controversial movement gain a wider acceptance and evade censorship.

Presentations

• Slominski, K. (2021, July). Panelist on “Superhumanists! HSP Faculty Train You for the Tokyo Olympics". Humanities Seminar Program. Virtual: College of Humanities, University of Arizona.
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  I presented my research on "Basketball and Christian Sex Education" for this panel on “Superhumanists! HSP Faculty Train You for the Tokyo Olympics." Because this was to support the public outreach of the COH Humanities Seminar, I have also listed this as college service.
• Slominski, K. (2019, March). Early Christian Sex Educators as Countercultural Agents. American Academy of Religion Western Regional Conference. Tempe, AZ.
  More info

  In this paper, I explore the countercultural actions of Christians who took part in the early twentieth-century movement for public sex education in America. For their faith-based views of sexual reform through education, these liberal Protestant and Catholic sex educators faced resistance from all sides. From within national organizations for sex education, they had to push their scientific partners to take religion seriously and to emphasize the moral dimensions of sexuality. From their own churches as well as from conservative Christian opponents of the movement, they faced criticism from those who equated sex education with peddling smut and destroying the innocence of children. Against the larger culture of the early twentieth century, the religious sex educators saw themselves as fighting the tides of sexual promiscuity that some associated with the “flapper culture” and urban anonymity. Despite their many critics and challenges, Christian sex educators drew upon religious as well as scientific resources to create some of the first successful sex education campaigns of the American Social Hygiene Association, which included programs within the military, churches, and colleges. This paper is part of a larger book project on the history of religious contributions to public sex education in America. It utilizes research primarily from the papers of the American Social Hygiene Association at the Social Welfare History Archives.
• Slominski, K. (2018, February 27). Teaching Moral Sex: Religion and Health in Early Sex Education. Campus Visit to the University of Arizona. Tucson, AZ: Department of Religious Studies and Classics.
  More info

  Dr. Kristy Slominski will present her study of religious contributions to the early movement for sex education in America, especially in relation to public health issues of venereal diseases. Her work brings a new cast of characters into sex education history, including Quaker and Unitarian purity reformers, physical directors of the Young Men’s Christian Association, military chaplains, and ministers from the Federal Council of Churches. As important players within national organizations for public sex education, religious leaders—primarily liberal Protestants—influenced major shifts in sex education through their strategic partnerships with health professionals and their combination of religious and scientific approaches to sexuality. Slominski argues that these liberal religious sex educators laid historical foundations for both sides of contemporary controversies over abstinence-only and comprehensive sexuality education. Alliances between religious reformers and physicians characterized the national movement for sex education since its beginning in the early twentieth century. These strange bedfellows originally came together to forge the movement because each group believed that breaking the “conspiracy of silence” around sexuality would support its goals. For ministers, sex education provided a way to spread the message of sexual purity to American youth, with the ultimate goal of preserving Christian morals. For doctors and public health officials, sex education promised to curb rampant venereal diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea. These groups worked together within organizations like the American Social Hygiene Association to develop conceptions of sex educators as moral guardians within public schools and the military. While liberal religious sex educators helped to gain public acceptance for the scientific instruction on sexuality that later developed into comprehensive sexuality education, their moral approach opened the door to the restricted lessons of abstinence-only education.
• Slominski, K. (2018, November 17). The Impact of R. Marie Griffith’s Moral Combat on the Subfield of Religion and Sexuality. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Denver, CO: Co-sponsored by Religion and Politics Unit and Religion and Sexuality Unit.

Others

• Slominski, K. (2020, July). Interview for “Sexless Ed" Episode. Straight White American Jesus podcast, Orange Wave Series: A History of the Religious Right Since 1960. https://podcastaddict.com/episode/109979660