Prohibition in the United States

==Christian views==
{{Further|Christian views on alcohol}}
Prohibition in the early to mid-20th century was mostly fueled by the Protestant denominations in the [[Southern United States]], a region dominated by socially conservative [[evangelical Protestantism]] with a very high Christian church attendance.<ref>{{cite book | author =Howard Clark Kee | title =Christianity: A Social and Cultural History | publisher =Prentice Hall | edition =second | year =1998 | page =486 }}</ref> Generally, [[evangelical Protestant]] denominations encouraged prohibition, while the [[Mainline Protestant]] denominations disapproved of its introduction. However, there were exceptions to this, such as the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]] (German Confessional Lutherans), which is typically considered to be in scope of evangelical Protestantism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/social-affairs/20140115/professing-faith-some-religious-groups-supported-prohibition-others-did-not|title=Professing Faith: Some religious groups supported Prohibition, others did not|access-date=July 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919165439/http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/social-affairs/20140115/professing-faith-some-religious-groups-supported-prohibition-others-did-not|archive-date=September 19, 2016}}</ref> [[Pietism|Pietistic]] churches in the United States (especially Baptist churches, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and others in the evangelical tradition) sought to end drinking and the saloon culture during the [[Third Party System]]. [[Christian liturgy|Liturgical]] ("high") churches ([[Catholic Church|Catholic]], [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]], German [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] and others in the mainline tradition) opposed prohibition laws because they did not want the government to reduce the definition of morality to a narrow standard or to criminalize the common liturgical practice of using wine.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard J. Jensen|author-link=Richard J. Jensen|title=The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC&pg=PA67|year=1971|publisher=U. of Chicago Press|page=67|isbn=978-0-226-39825-9|access-date=October 17, 2015|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200732/https://books.google.com/books?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC&pg=PA67|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Christian revival|Revivalism]] during the [[Second Great Awakening]] and the [[Third Great Awakening]] in the mid-to-late 19th century set the stage for the bond between Pietistic Protestantism and prohibition in the United States: "The greater prevalence of revival religion within a population, the greater support for the Prohibition parties within that population."<ref>{{cite book | author=George M. Thomas | title =Revivalism and Cultural Change: Christianity, Nation Building, and the Market in the Nineteenth-Century United States | publisher =University of Chicago Press | year =1989 | location =Chicago | page =65 }}</ref> Historian Nancy Koester argued that Prohibition was a "victory for progressives and social gospel activists battling poverty".<ref>{{cite book | author =Nancy Koester | title =Introduction to the History of Christianity in the United States | publisher =Fortress Press | year =2007 | location =Minneapolis, MN | page =154 }}</ref> Prohibition also united progressives and revivalists.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Francis Martin|title=Hero of the Heartland: Billy Sunday and the Transformation of American Society, 1862–1935|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxIH-kJrANwC&pg=PA111|year=2002|publisher=Indiana U.P.|page=111|isbn=978-0-253-10952-1}}</ref>

The [[temperance movement]] had popularized the belief that alcohol was the major cause of most personal and social problems and [[prohibition]] was seen as the solution to the nation's poverty, crime, violence, and other ills.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aaron |first1=Paul |last2=Musto |first2=David |chapter=Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview |editor1-last=Moore |editor1-first=Mark H. |editor2-last=Gerstein |editor2-first=Dean R. |title=Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition |url=https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor |url-access=registration |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Academy Press |year=1981 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor/page/157 157]|isbn=978-0-585-11982-3 }}</ref>
Upon ratification of the amendment, the [[Evangelism|evangelist]] [[Billy Sunday]] said that "The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs." Since alcohol was to be banned and since it was seen as the cause of most, if not all, crimes, some communities sold their [[jails]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Anti-Saloon League of America |title=Anti-Saloon League of America Yearbook |location=Westerville, Ohio |publisher=American Issue Press |year=1920 |page=28}}</ref>