What differentiated Falwell, Robertson, and Schlafly from other Christian The necessity of faith in Jesus Christ, and the relevance of biblical values in sexual relations and Sought to defend traditional Christian values such as the authority of the Bible in all areas of life, Ledīy charismatic, energetic figures like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Phyllis Schlafly, activists Wade, 1973), and regulated government involvement in private ChristianĪ conservative Christian response quickly emerged to counter these developments. Vitale, 1962), legalized first trimesterĪbortion ( Roe v. Prayer and Bible readings in the schools ( Engel v. To find a frightening echo in Supreme Court decisions that banned official (but not private) (which were mostly ancient religions emerging from obscurity). Vast cultural changes of the 1960scivil rights conflicts, Vietnam protests, the alternative youthĬulture, the women's liberation movement, the sexual revolution, and the rise of new religions (See the essay ' The Rise of Fundamentalism' in DiviningĪmerica: Twentieth Century.) The more immediate beginnings of the Christian Right lay in the Seminaries, the teaching of human evolution in public schools, and, after World War II, the real The long-range origins lay in the growth of The Christian Right emerged from both long-range and short-range developments inĪmerican life. The rest of this discussion pertains primarily to the inner core ofĬommitted partisans, secondarily to the millions of sympathizers who became involved as the

Influence at the grass roots, in state and local elections, in setting school board policies, etc., has Though the Christian Right's numerical strength leveled off in the early 1990s, its Mobilized over a specific issue such as abortion or gun control may have enlisted thirty-five People who explicitly identify themselves as partisans of the religious right (a slightly broaderĬategory than Christian Right), ranged from ten to fifteen million. How large was the Christian Right in recent elections? Hard figures are hard to come by,īut polls and other indicators such as book sales indicate that the inner corethe shadedĪreaclaimed no more than 200,000 adult Americans. The Christian Right to work with evangelicals. Pews and get out the vote and (2) non-evangelicals who cared enough about the political goals of The shaded area consists of (1)Įvangelicals who cared enough about the political goals of the Christian Right to leave their The large shaded area in the middle of two overlapping circles. It may be helpful, then, to think of the Christian Right as Evangelical outsiders also included millions of born-again Protestants who were generally sympathetic to the political aims of the Christian Rightīut, as a practical matter, remained more interested in the devotional aims or charitable work of Theologically and culturally evangelical. Generally apolitical peace churches like the Amish and Old Order Mennonites, ferventlyįundamentalist Protestants who were so conservative that they held no hope for America or anyĬivil society, and black and Latino Protestants who tended to be politically liberal though Those believers, who might be called evangelical outsiders, includedĬonfessional Protestants (especially of Dutch and German extraction), Protestants from the Support from politically conservative Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and occasionally secularists.Īt the same time, many evangelical Protestants showed little interest in the Christian Right's Many members of the Christian Right were not evangelical Protestants, and many evangelical Protestants were not members of the Christian Right. At the end of the 1980s, it wasĬommonly assumed that the Christian Right consisted entirely ofįrom that period suggested that evangelical Protestants comprised the majority of adherents, but NHC Home TeacherServe Divining America 20th Century Essay:ĭefining the Christian Right is the first task of this essay. The Christian Right, The Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center

Hard west four evangelists