Not all the social engagement of religion in the Progressive Era was focused on what we would today term “progressive” causes. The most important conservative example was the temperance movement, which reached its highwater mark with passage of the Prohibition amendment to the Constitution in 1919. This movement divided Americans along religious lines, especially “dry” Protestants from “wet” Catholics, and also illustrated how even conservative religion in this era pointed outward to community reform, not merely inward to individual salvation.
