Historians have been eager to trace the roots of “family values” discourse as a political phenomenon linked to the rise of the Religious Right. But the sacralisation of the Christian family deserves attention in its own right as a cultural phenomenon. Southern California provides an obvious case study, as religious conservatism and a growing military‐industrial presence intersected there in the postwar era. A case study of this region also illumines larger trends, since the national experience and the Californian experience converged in this period. A popular set of 1950s advice booklets by Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola) Vice President William W. Orr provides crucial understanding of evangelical efforts to provide foolproof methods for enacting God’s design for family security. Evangelical visions of family order did occasionally represent real rifts with postwar mainstream culture. But more often, oppositional rhetoric served to symbolically preserve evangelicals’ distinctive identity even when cultural trends were largely consonant with their own. Their assumptions about gender, emphasis on sexual fulfilment within marriage, and guidelines on the roles of husbands and fathers, ostensibly grounded in timeless biblical principles, were deeply indebted to mainstream values of companionate marriage and affectionate parenting.

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often hailed as the "Father of India," was a key figure in the early internationalisation of religion who embraced Western critiques of Hinduism while holding fast to what he viewed as the Vedas' revelation of a single Supreme Spirit. The Precepts of Jesus was central to the theological and philosophical system he sought to create in dialogue with fellow Indians and Westerners alike. On one hand, Roy sought to present Jesus to the Indian public as a universal religious figure. On the other hand, his portrayal of a decidedly human Jesus strengthened ties with British and American unitarians while challenging the particularist foundation of trinitarian Christianity's claims to universality: the divinity of Christ and his unique atoning work. In response to Christian attacks on his booklet, Roy defended his views using careful exegesis of the biblical text, critiquing evangelical views using the very source of evangelical authority: the words of Jesus himself. Even as he undermined the evangelical identity of Jesus, Roy's decision to make Jesus Christ a significant person to educated Indians established a precedent for viewing Jesus as a universal religious figure unconstrained by the confines of Christianity.

In this chapter, Yogananda’s ministry is evaluated through the lens of modern consumer religion, mass marketing, and religious branding. The early portion investigates the religious products he touted, most centrally, his systematic, practical method for God-realization through yoga—in the innovative form of a correspondence course. Yogananda’s instruction inculcated a larger Hindu worldview, not just a set of meditative techniques. His East-West magazine was a promotional tool designed to highlight his brand’s distinctiveness. The chapter also explores the way the yogi, like evangelists of the time, promoted his message to a modern American audience saturated in savvy advertising and modern products. The final section considers the hazards of the religious market, including negative press attention and several lawsuits that threatened his brand image as well as his solvency just as the Depression arrived.