Woman's Christian Temperance Union

[[File:Wctu logo.png|thumb|right|165px|Logo of the WCTU.]]{{uspolitics}}
The '''Woman's Christian Temperance Union''' ('''WCTU''') is ([[#Today|yep, ''is'' and not ''was'']]) an ironically-named<ref>There was, after all, nothing ''temperate'' about their goals</ref> Christian-based group founded in the 19th Century that became a mass movement ultimately responsible for the disaster that became known as [[Prohibition]] with its attendant crime wave, social ills, and lack of respect for law among the middle and working classes. Prior to the WCTU's attempts to Christianize America by banning [[alcohol]], only "women of easy morals" frequented night spots, bars, saloons, and taverns. With the taboos prohibition created, it became socially acceptable for women to consume alcohol publicly in illegal speakeasies...silver linings and all that.

The original purpose of the WCTU was to create a "sober and pure world" by [[abstinence]], purity and [[evangelical Christianity]].  Its most famous leader was {{wpl|Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard}}, its long-running second president.<ref>Joseph R. Gusfield,"Social Structure and Moral Reform: A Study of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union", ''The American Journal of Sociology'', 61, No.3 (1955):225.</ref>  The organization arose out of campaigns of harassment directed at the patrons of saloons in Minnesota, where women would attempt to block the entrances with noisy prayers and hymn singing.<ref name="Kerr"> ''How Did the Reform Agenda of the Minnesota Woman's Christian Temperance Union Change'', 1878-1917?, by Kathleen Kerr. (Binghamton, NY: State University of New York at Binghamton, 1998). Introduction</ref>  

Oddly enough there's more than one woman in the organization, even though "Woman's" is singular.  Perhaps, like the "Temperance" part, it's just a name.

==History==
[[File:Kansas Saloon Smashers.jpg|thumb|left|200px|...Which lips would ''those'' be, ladies?]]
The original writ of the WCTU was opposition to alcoholic beverages.  Under Willard's presidency, the outfit broadened the scope of the issues it addressed ([[MADD|sound familiar]]?) to encompass a mix of evangelical Christian and Progressive Era concerns. The WCTU "campaigned for local, state, and national prohibition, [[feminism|women's suffrage]], protective purity legislation, scientific temperance instruction in the schools, better working conditions for labor, anti-[[polygamy]] laws, [[Know Nothing|Americanization]], and a variety of other reforms.”<ref name="Kerr" />  They also campaigned against the use of actual fermented [[wine]] in Christian liturgy, with the result that most Protestant denominations in the United States observe the [[sacrament]] of the Eucharist with concord grape juice—even though the Bible specifically says that Christ drank wine with his disciples.  They also sought to prohibit the use of [[tobacco]].<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0CEFDF1738E13ABC4B53DFBE668382609EDE PLAN AMENDMENT TO OUTLAW TOBACCO; W.C.T.U. and Prohibition Workers Getting Ready for a Country-Wide Campaign. BUT KEEPING IT A SECRET Fear It Would Hinder Laws for Prohibition Enforcement, Says Report Offered in Congress.], ''[[New York Times]]'', August 03, 1919</ref>

[[File:Frances Willard.jpg|thumb|200px|left|{{wpl|Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard}}, an austere Victorian [[lesbian]]. You wonder what she daydreams about...]]Willard united the causes of women's suffrage and [[teetotalism]] by claiming that both votes for women and prohibition would provide what she called "Home Protection" against [[domestic violence]]: "the object of (the movement) is to secure for all women above the age of twenty-one years the ballot as one means for the protection of their homes from the devastation caused by the legalized traffic in strong drink."<ref>Frances Willard, ''[https://archive.org/details/homeprotectionma00will Home Protection Manual]'' (The Independent, 1879).</ref>  (Of course the 19th Amendment did even better than that, giving the vote to all women 21 ''or over''.)  Her prominence as an advocate for suffrage muddied the issue and led to public opposition to suffrage by brewers and distillers, and by German, Irish, and other immigrant communities.<ref>Scott, Anne Firor and Scott, Andrew MacKay (1982). ''One Half the People: The Fight for Woman Suffrage'' (Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01005-1), p. 25</ref>.  

The WTCU was also sharply criticized by civil rights campaigner {{wpl|Ida B. Wells}}. Its zeal for portraying alcoholic beverages as the cause of domestic violence also included blaming drinking for African-American aggression aimed at Caucasian women. As such, it encouraged the mindset that led to [[lynching]]s. (Heckofajob, ma'am.) Willard had written that "(t)he colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt, and the grog shop is its center of power... The safety of women, of childhood, of the home is menaced in a thousand localities."<ref>Paula J. Giddings (3 March 2008). ''Ida: A Sword Among Lions''. p. 91. ISBN 978-0060797362.</ref> Willard backpedalled when called out on this issue by Wells.

==Today==
Just like the [[Prohibition Party]] in the United States, which still runs a Presidential candidate every four years, the WCTU is still a thing. Besides their age-old opposition to alcohol, it is now opposed to [[abortion]]s, [[gambling]], the "[[gay agenda]]", [[gay marriage]], [[gays]] in the [[Boy Scouts of America]]<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-womans-christian-temperance-union-keeps-do-everything-approach-to-activism/2013/02/26/d03ca2e2-7f9b-11e2-8074-b26a871b165a_story.html Md. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union keeps ‘do everything’ approach to activism], [[The Washington Post]]</ref> and [[drugs]], especially marijuana.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/womans-christian-temperance-union_n_4408568.html Woman's Christian Temperance Union Targeting Marijuana], [[Huffington Post]]</ref>

==Anecdotes==
*Whittaker Chambers rented a room in the rear of the Baltimore WCTU headquarters. Chambers, a master KGB operative, testified his main contact, [[Alger Hiss]], thought it funny the underground headquarters of the world [[communist]] movement used the WCTU as a cover.  
*Many of the WCTU activists were middle-age women who [[hypocrisy|downed a pint]] of {{wpl|Lydia Pinkham}}'s herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" to relieve menopausal problems daily.
*There is now a distillery called F.E.W., named for none other than Frances herself. They even make navy-strength gin.
{{clear}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wctu.org/ Woman's Christian Temperance Union]
*[http://www.prohibitionparty.org/ Prohibition Party]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Abstinence]]
[[Category:Booze]]
[[Category:Drugs]]
[[Category:Feminists]]
[[Category:Homophobia]]
[[Category:Political action groups]]

Categories: Abstinence, Booze, Drugs, Feminists, Homophobia, Political action groups