Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was an American political organization and movement associated with the Christian right and the Republican Party in the United States.
Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other The origins of the Moral Majority can be traced to 1976 when Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. embarked on a series of "I Love America" rallies across the country to raise awareness of social issues important to him.
[6] Falwell also brought in Tim LaHaye, leader of a clergy group opposed to gay rights and John Birch Society figure, as an organizer.
[9] The Moral Majority was predominately a Southern-oriented organization of the Christian Right, although its state chapters and political activity extended beyond the South.
[10][11] The variety of resources available to the Moral Majority at its founding facilitated this rapid expansion, and included Falwell's mailing list from his program, Old Time Gospel Hour.
In addition, the Moral Majority took control of the Old Time Gospel Hour's publication, Journal Champion, which had been distributed to the show's donors.
In 1987, Falwell retired as the formal head of the Moral Majority, and was succeeded by Jerry Nims,[15][16] although he maintained an active and visible role within the organization.
The same year, a major effort which Falwell made to bring scandal-ridden Jim Bakker's PTL ministries out of financial trouble proved unsuccessful.
According to Robert Liebman and Robert Wuthnow, common explanations for this success include:[22] Scholar Carmen Celestini argues that the culture war issues, conspiratorialism, apocalypticism, and fear emphasized in the John Birch Society were key aspects in the successful mobilization of the Moral Majority, particularly through Tim LaHaye, a Moral Majority figure and John Birch Society member and speaker.
[28] The Moral Majority refrained from directly speaking out against gays, feminists, and pro-abortion parties and instead used "pro-family" rhetoric to articulate their point.
[27] Later, as the organization gained more influence in the 1980s, their rhetoric became more explicit in their stance on gay rights as they characterized the movement as an attack on the American family.
[31] The Moral Majority engaged in political activity in a variety of ways, including national media campaigns and grassroots organization aimed at supporting particular candidates in elections and using mail and phone calls to reach office-holders.
[32] The Moral Majority's initial political actions were aimed at supporting Jesse Helms' proposed legislation on school prayer.
Also, in 1981, the Moral Majority mobilized delegates to the Virginia Republican state nominating convention in order to support Guy Farley, an evangelical candidate for lieutenant governor.
Despite commonality in religious identification, however, evangelical Christians in general and eventually the newly formed Moral Majority in particular came to be disappointed with Carter's policies.
[36] According to Jimmy Carter, "that autumn [1980] a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian.
[39] Empirical evidence suggests that Falwell's claim about the role of Christian Right organizations in Reagan's victory has some truth, though difficult to determine definitively.
The evangelical minister and televangelist Pat Robertson sought the Republican nomination and would have been, at first glance, a natural choice for the Moral Majority's support.
Although Robertson's political platforms were extremely similar to the ones the Moral Majority supported, Falwell gave his organization's endorsement to contender George H. W. Bush instead.
In South Carolina, the Moral Majority had no presence because Bob Jones University's religious network had already organized the state's independent Baptists.
Referring to the Coalition as a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority," Falwell, a father of the modern "religious right" political movement, committed to leading the organization for four years.
