Christian right
However, the issue of segregation academies carried over into Carter's presidency, and in 1978, the IRS proposed a new rule which would have revoked the tax exemption of private schools based on their racial demographic composition relative to that of their respective communities.
While this rule never went into effect, it provoked fierce backlash and protests from evangelical leaders and church congregants alike, with many believing it to be an attack on non-discriminatory institutions and religious freedom.
[49] Weyrich later stated that what got evangelicals involved in politics was "Jimmy Carter's intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation",[50] and Richard Viguerie said that the 1978 IRS action "kicked a sleeping dog.
The unexpected success of mostly Catholic anti-abortion activists in the 1978 midterms convinced Weyrich that opposition to abortion might work as a wedge issue to keep evangelicals politically mobilized.
[55] Schaeffer's films were also reportedly met with tepid reception during a tour in which they were shown at numerous churches around the United States, and leaders like Jerry Falwell were initially hesitant to utilize abortion, believing that its stereotype amongst evangelicals as a "Catholic issue" would hinder its ability to politically mobilize them.
[67] In the 2016 Presidential election, the religious right staunchly supported President Donald Trump, who promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
[103][104] Members of and organizations associated with the Christian right, such as the Discovery Institute, created and popularized the modern concept of intelligent design, which became widely known only with the publication of the book Of Pandas and People in 1989.
[139] Some of them have linked Israel to Biblical prophesies; for example, Ed McAteer, founder of the Moral Majority, said "I believe that we are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and, without exaggerating, makes me breathless.
The Christian right also opposes euthanasia, and, in one highly publicized case, took an active role in seeking governmental intervention to prevent Terri Schiavo from being deprived of nutrition and hydration.
[21]: 30 Beginning in the 1970s, conservative Christian protests against promiscuity began to surface, largely as a reaction to the "permissive Sixties" and changes in sexual behavior confirmed by Roe v. Wade and the LGBT rights movement.
[21]: 28 Anita Bryant organized Save Our Children, a widespread campaign to oppose legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
"[153] The Bryant campaign achieved success in repealing some city anti-discrimination laws, and proposed other citizen initiatives such as a failed California ballot question designed to ban gay people or those who supported LGBT rights from holding public teaching jobs.
[21]: 15–16 An important stratagem in Christian right anti-gay politics is in its rejection of "the edicts of a Big Brother" state, allowing it to profit from "a general feeling of discontent and demoralization with government".
A number of organizations, including the New Christian Right, "have in various ways rejected liberal America in favor of the regulation of pornography, anti-abortion legislation, the criminalization of homosexuality, and the virtues of faithfulness and loyalty in sexual partnerships", according to sociologist Bryan S.
It also threatens to generate a revulsion against God and religion by identifying them with militarism, ecological irresponsibility, fundamentalist antagonism to science and rational thought, and insensitivity to the needs of the poor and the powerless.
[158][159] In a 2023 interview with NPR, Russell D. Moore stated that he had come to believe that Christianity was "in a crisis" after hearing multiple pastors speak of congregation members rejecting quotes from the Sermon on the Mount as "liberal talking points" and not backing down upon being informed of their source.
[172] Other Christian African-Americans who identify with conservatism are Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas,[173] rapper Kanye West,[174] Alveda King, and pastor Tony Evans.
Stanley Kurtz labeled it "conspiratorial nonsense", "political paranoia", and "guilt by association",[206] and decried Hedges' "vague characterizations" that allow him to "paint a highly questionable picture of a virtually faceless and nameless 'Dominionist' Christian mass.
'"[208] Ross Douthat of The New York Times noted that "many of the people that writers like Diamond and others describe as 'dominionists' would disavow the label, many definitions of dominionism conflate several very different Christian political theologies, and there's a lively debate about whether the term is even useful at all.
No reputable scholars use the term for it is a meaningless neologism that Diamond concocted for her dissertation",[210] while Jeremy Pierce of First Things coined the word "dominionismist" to describe those who promote the idea that there is a dominionist conspiracy.
Berlet wrote that "some critics of the Christian Right have stretched the term dominionism past its breaking point",[212] and argued that, rather than labeling conservatives as extremists, it would be better to "talk to these people" and "engage them".
[213] Sara Diamond wrote that "[l]iberals' writing about the Christian Right's take-over plans has generally taken the form of conspiracy theory", and argued that instead one should "analyze the subtle ways" that ideas like Dominionism "take hold within movements and why.
"[214] Dan Olinger, a professor at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, said, "We want to be good citizens and participants, but we're not really interested in using the iron fist of the law to compel people to do everything Christians should do.
"[215] Bob Marcaurelle, interim pastor at Mountain Springs Baptist Church in Piedmont, said the Middle Ages were proof enough that Christian ruling groups are almost always corrupted by power.
The bloc promotes strong socially conservative positions, like opposition to abortion, LGBT rights, marijuana legalization, sexual and gender education at schools and support to decrease of age of defense of infancy.
In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected president with massive support of conservative Catholics, Charismatics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals; Another candidate, Cabo Daciolo, from Patriota, attracted much attention from media and public in general, despite a lower votation.
Aberhart mixed his own interpretation of scripture and prophecy with the monetary reform theories of social credit to create a movement that swept across Alberta, winning the provincial election of 1935 in a landslide.
The Christian right has been critical of all these judicial decisions and have generally been the greatest advocates for the stringent laws against abortion, same-sex marriage, prostitution, and euthanasia, though in differing degrees.
[238] Christian right politics in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa is strongly connected with the growing propagation of the Evangelical-Pentecostal movement in the Global South and Third World countries.
Other organisations and associations adhering to the ideals of the Christian right include the Frente Nacional por la Familia, the Organización del Bien Común, colloquially known as El Yunque and with close ties to the PAN, and the Legionaries of Christ, a Roman Catholic clerical religious order of priests and candidates for the priesthood established in Mexico.
