Citation

Hipsher PL. Sociol. Inq. 2007; 77(2): 241-263.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Alpha Kappa Delta, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1475-682X.2007.00189.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article is an exploratory study of heretical social movement organizations (HSMOs) and the challenges that they face in framing their issue positions. It examines how identity communities’ core issue positions serve to demarcate the boundaries of authentic group membership, making “heretics” out of community organizations that have contrary positions. It also analyzes how these organizations finesse their heretical status by utilizing specific framing strategies. It illustrates these processes using data on two social movement organizations involved in the American abortion controversy, Catholics for a Free Choice, a Catholic pro-choice organization, and Feminists for Life of America, a feminist pro-life organization, during the period between 1972 and 2000.