Download or read book The Christian Right in the United States Origin Structure and Political Activism written by Nils Schnelle and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-03-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,50, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: This thesis will address the political movement of the Christian Right, one of the most controversial movements in the American political system. Its critics have accused it of trying to establish a theocracy in the United States, of trying to strip homosexuals of their civil rights, and called it fascist, to name but a few allegations. Leaders of the Christian Right, on the other hand, have harshly attacked those they made out as advocates of “secular humanism”, have accused them of anti-Christian bigotry, and have repeatedly employed extreme rhetoric when addressing their (political) adversaries. Within about twenty-five years, the movement developed from almost complete political abstinence into a highly organized political force. The subject is appealing for research for several reasons: firstly, it is a good example of how vivid and influential religion and religiously motivated political action still are, in spite of the secularization theory widely adhered to in the respective period of time. It is also still current, as there has been some fluctuation in terms of activity and degree of organization, but so far the Christian Right has not ceased to exist. The goal of the thesis is to explore the emergence of the movement, to portrait the developments that brought theologically conservative Protestants (Evangelicals) – from isolation and retreat into a subculture – to active and organized political involvement. The central questions to be answered are linked to the controversy surrounding the movement: (1) Has the Christian Right been trying to accomplish what its critics fear, a theocracy, and a Christian nation in which there would be no place for dissenters? (2) Is the Christian Right a legitimate movement operating within the frame of the political system, or is it set out to ultimately change that system? Resulting from those questions is the evaluation of the Christian Right’s performance so far (regardless of what can be concluded to answer the above questions): (3) Which of its goals have been achieved, what balance can be drawn?
Download or read book The Christian Right in American Politics written by John C. Green and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-06 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first rumblings of the Moral Majority over twenty years ago, the Christian Right has been marshalling its forces and maneuvering its troops in an effort to re-shape the landscape of American politics. It has fascinated social scientists and journalists as the first right-wing social movement in postwar America to achieve significant political and popular support, and it has repeatedly defied those who would step up to write its obituary. In 2000, while many touted the demise of the Christian Coalition, the broader undercurrents of the movement were instrumental in helping George W. Bush win the GOP nomination and the White House. Bush repaid that swell of support by choosing Senator John Ashcroft, once the movement's favored presidential candidate, as attorney general. The Christian Right in American Politics, under the direction of three of the nation's leading scholars in the field of religion and politics, recognizing the movement as a force still to be reckoned with, undertakes the important task of making an historical analysis of the Christian Right in state politics during its heyday, 1980 to the millennium. Its twelve chapters, written by outstanding scholars, review the impact and influence of the Christian Right in those states where it has had its most significant presence: South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Maine, and Oregon and Washington. Since 1980, scholars have learned a good deal about the social characteristics, religious doctrine, and political beliefs of activists in and supporters of the Christian Right in these states, and each contribution is based on rigorous, dispassionate scholarship. The writers explore the gains and losses of the movement as it attempts to re-shape political landscapes. More precisely, they provide in-depth descriptions of the resources, organizations, and the group ecologies in which the Christian Right operates-the distinct elements that drove the movement forward. As the editors state, "the Christian Right has been engaged in a long and torturous 'march toward the millennium,' from outsider status into the thick of American politics." Those formative years, 1980-2000, are essential for any understanding of this uniquely American social movement. This rigorous analysis over many states and many elections provides the clearest picture yet of the goals, tactics, and hopes of the Christian Right in America.
Download or read book The Christian Right in the United States Origin Structure and Political Activism written by Nils Schnelle and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-03 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,50, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: This thesis will address the political movement of the Christian Right, one of the most controversial movements in the American political system. Its critics have accused it of trying to establish a theocracy in the United States, of trying to strip homosexuals of their civil rights, and called it fascist, to name but a few allegations. Leaders of the Christian Right, on the other hand, have harshly attacked those they made out as advocates of "secular humanism", have accused them of anti-Christian bigotry, and have repeatedly employed extreme rhetoric when addressing their (political) adversaries. Within about twenty-five years, the movement developed from almost complete political abstinence into a highly organized political force. The subject is appealing for research for several reasons: firstly, it is a good example of how vivid and influential religion and religiously motivated political action still are, in spite of the secularization theory widely adhered to in the respective period of time. It is also still current, as there has been some fluctuation in terms of activity and degree of organization, but so far the Christian Right has not ceased to exist. The goal of the thesis is to explore the emergence of the movement, to portrait the developments that brought theologically conservative Protestants (Evangelicals) - from isolation and retreat into a subculture - to active and organized political involvement. The central questions to be answered are linked to the controversy surrounding the movement: (1) Has the Christian Right been trying to accomplish what its critics fear, a theocracy, and a Christian nation in which there would be no place for dissenters? (2) Is the Christian Right a legitimate movement operating within the frame of the political system, or is it set out to ultimately change
Download or read book With God on Our Side written by William Curtis Martin and published by Broadway. This book was released on 2005 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of the Religious Right is one of the most important political and cultural stories of our time. To many, this controversial movement threatens to upset the nation's delicate balance of religious and secular interests. To others, the Religious Right is valiantly struggling to preserve religious liberty and to prove itself as the last, best hope to save America's soul. In With God on Our Side --the first balanced account of conservative Christians' impact on post-war politics--William Martin paints a vivid and authoritative portrait of America's most powerful political interest group. Although its members now number between forty and sixty million people, the Religious Right has not always carried the tremendous--and growing--political clout it enjoys today. A hundred years ago, scattered groups of conservative Christians worked fervently to spread the Gospel, but their involvement in politics was marginal. Early in this century, however, a series of charismatic and ambitious leaders began transforming the movement; by the election of John F. Kennedy as our first Catholic president, the Religious Right had found its voice. Politics and religion began mixing as never before. From Richard Nixon's strategic manipulation of Graham's religious influence in the 1970s, to Ronald Reagan's association with Falwell's Moral Majority in the 1980s, to the Christian Coalition's emergence as a slick, sophisticated political machine, the line separating the pulpit from the presidency became increasingly blurred. Now, preachers such as Graham, Falwell, and Pat Robertson preside over ministries so vast and well organized that most politicians can ill afford to ignore their views--or lose their votes. In recent years, the Religious Right's political influence has propelled it into spheres beyond pure politics. Race relations, abortion and reproductive rights, school curricula, the nature and role of the family--conservative Christians have embraced all of these socially charged issues, and their activism has irrevocably altered the way America confronts its thorniest problems. How does a free society draw the line between Church and State without removing religious conviction from public life? What motivates individual Americans to do battle in the culture wars? Most importantly, when politicians and religiously motivated activists join forces, who holds the reins? Drawing on over 100 new interviews with key figures in the movement, William Martin brilliantly captures the spirit of the age as he explores both sides of this dramatic debate. Written in conjunction with the producers of the public television series of the same name, this landmark book is essential reading for all Americans--conservative and liberal, fundamentalist and atheist--who care about the spiritual health and political future of our country. From the Hardcover edition.
Download or read book Grassroots Activism and Party Politics written by Kimberly H. Conger and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: One of the most important phenomena in contemporary American politics has been the development of the political Christian Right. Many scholars have made significant contributions to our understanding of both the origin and development of the national movement and the unique situations in individual states and their Republican parties. However, few have sought a theoretical explanation for the variation we see across states. My dissertation develops and tests, using quantitative and qualitative data, a theory of the varying influence of the Christian Right in state level Republican parties that focuses on the most important ingredients for Christian Right influence. Building on an elite 3political observer4 survey conducted after the 2000 election, I create a useful measure of the Christian Right2s influence in all fifty states and find that the characteristics of the Christian Right in the state, primarily the quality of movement leadership, have the most impact on the potency of that influence. Then, utilizing a rigorous case study methodology, I combine publicly available state-level data with face-to-face in-depth interviews of party and movement elites from several states to gain a comprehensive and contextual understanding on the relationship between the Christian Right and the Republican party in that state. Complementing scholars2 understanding of the interplay between social movements and political parties, two major conclusions are presented. First, the structures of the Republican party and state politics have a significant impact on the Christian Right's ability to gain access to the party organization. Second, the character of the Christian Right movement in a state, based upon extensive Evangelical and conservative social networks and grassroots political activity, greatly determines the effectiveness with which the movement can promote its policy goals.
Download or read book God s Own Party written by Daniel K. Williams and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-04 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Christian Right burst onto the scene in the late 1970s, many political observers were shocked. But, as God's Own Party demonstrates, they shouldn't have been. The Christian Right goes back much farther than most journalists, political scientists, and historians realize. Relying on extensive archival and primary source research, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation. A fascinating and much-needed account of a key force in American politics, God's Own Party is the only full-scale analysis of the electoral shifts, cultural changes, and political activists at the movement's core--showing how the Christian Right redefined politics as we know it.
Download or read book GOD S OWN PARTY written by DANIEL K. WILLIAMS and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bad Faith written by Randall Balmer and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising and disturbing origin story There is a commonly accepted story about the rise of the Religious Right in the United States. It goes like this: with righteous fury, American evangelicals entered the political arena as a unified front to fight the legality of abortion after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The problem is this story simply isn’t true. Largely ambivalent about abortion until the late 1970s, evangelical leaders were first mobilized not by Roe v. Wade but by Green v. Connally, a lesser-known court decision in 1971 that threatened the tax-exempt status of racially discriminatory institutions—of which there were several in the world of Christian education at the time. When the most notorious of these schools, Bob Jones University, had its tax-exempt status revoked in 1976, evangelicalism was galvanized as a political force and brought into the fold of the Republican Party. Only later, when a more palatable issue was needed to cover for what was becoming an increasingly unpopular position following the civil rights era, was the moral crusade against abortion made the central issue of the movement now known as the Religious Right. In this greatly expanded argument from his 2014 Politico article “The Real Origins of the Religious Right,” Randall Balmer guides the reader along the convoluted historical trajectory that began with American evangelicalism as a progressive force opposed to slavery, then later an isolated apolitical movement in the mid-twentieth century, all the way through the 2016 election in which 81 percent of white evangelicals coalesced around Donald Trump for president. The pivotal point, Balmer shows, was the period in the late 1970s when American evangelicals turned against Jimmy Carter—despite his being one of their own, a professed “born-again” Christian—in favor of the Republican Party, which found it could win their loyalty through the espousal of a single issue. With the implications of this alliance still unfolding, Balmer’s account uncovers the roots of evangelical watchwords like “religious freedom” and “family values” while getting to the truth of how this movement began—explaining, in part, what it has become.
Download or read book White Evangelical Racism written by Anthea Butler and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals play a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures? In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power. Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership. Evangelicalism's racial history festers, splits America, and needs a reckoning now.
Download or read book God s Warriors written by Clyde Wilcox and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New Christian Right written by Robert C. Liebman and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book of original essays provides an objective and enlightening analysis of the emergence and changing forms of the New Christian Right. The subject is in itself important in contemporary American life, but in addition The New Christian Right reexamines standard theories of social movements and the relationship between religion and politics in America today. The book presents findings from original research, including surveys, personal interviews with elites, analysis of financial documents, reanalysis of existing data, and analysis of direct-mail solicitations and other primary literature. The New Christian Right is balanced and objective rather than partisan and evaluative. Using non-technical and non-jargonistic language, the authors raise questions concerning the nature of religion, the role of status groups, and contemporary directions in American culture.
Download or read book Not by Politics Alone written by Sara Diamond and published by Guilford Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this incisive work, Sara Diamond expands our understanding of the Christian Right beyond what is commonly known about its electoral clout, shedding light on the rarely seen boundaries and intersections where politics and culture converge. The book examines the web of grassroots cultural institutions, including publishing houses, law firms, broadcast stations, and church-centered community programs, that have helped conservative evangelical groups maintain their influence for over two decades. Highlighting the movement's complex alliance with the Republican Party, Diamond provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the formation, organizing strategies, and heated internal debates of such powerful national organizations as Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition. She offers a richly textured analysis of how the rubric of "family values" has been used to infuse evangelical beliefs into local and national discussions around such disparate issues as childrearing, gay rights, abortion, public education, and funding for the arts.
Download or read book Religious Right written by A.F. Alexander and published by A.F. Alexander. This book was released on 2012-04-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a deceptive movement to take over the government, courts, education system, media outlets, and American culture with stealth – and it's true. How is this possible? Find out in the pages of this expose, written by an insider who left the Religious Right fold, and now shares why they believe they are mandated to have dominion over every aspect of life in the United States. It reveals how their vision for America is not a democracy at all. – Understand the Religious Right network’s blueprint for America. – Meet the Christian Reconstructionists and Dominionists. – Understand the Seven Mountains Mandate, which provides the strategy for a successful takeover. – See why Quiverfull is the template for a proper, traditional family. – Finally, understand the attacks on public schools and teachers. – Find out who the leaders of the movement really are and their successful tactics. – This book explains the rewriting of our nation’s history. – Complete with interviews, research, and bibliography included. – Presentation is organized and systematic, while in plain English. – Shares how to get involved and make a difference in your community to protect your rights and preserve democracy.
Download or read book Onward Christian Soldiers written by Clyde Wilcox and published by Westview Press. This book was released on 1996-08-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study asks whether America's Christian Right are the greatest threat to liberty since Hitler or the last defenders of religious freedom and family values. It explains who they are, their history in 20th-century politics, and how they might organize themselves for political effectiveness.
Download or read book The Transformation of the Christian Right written by Matthew C. Moen and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book chronicles and analyzes the remarkable changes that occurred in the Christian Right from its emergence in the late 1970s through the 1980s.
Download or read book Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right written by Seth Dowland and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last three decades of the twentieth century, evangelical leaders and conservative politicians developed a political agenda that thrust "family values" onto the nation's consciousness. Ministers, legislators, and laypeople came together to fight abortion, gay rights, and major feminist objectives. They supported private Christian schools, home schooling, and a strong military. Family values leaders like Jerry Falwell, Phyllis Schlafly, Anita Bryant, and James Dobson became increasingly supportive of the Republican Party, which accommodated the language of family values in its platforms and campaigns. The family values agenda created a bond between evangelicalism and political conservatism. Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right chronicles how the family values agenda became so powerful in American political life and why it appealed to conservative evangelical Christians. Conservative evangelicals saw traditional gender norms as crucial in cultivating morality. They thought these gender norms would reaffirm the importance of clear lines of authority that the social revolutions of the 1960s had undermined. In the 1970s and 1980s, then, evangelicals founded Christian academies and developed homeschooling curricula that put conservative ideas about gender and authority front and center. Campaigns against abortion and feminism coalesced around a belief that God created women as wives and mothers—a belief that conservative evangelicals thought feminists and pro-choice advocates threatened. Likewise, Christian right leaders championed a particular vision of masculinity in their campaigns against gay rights and nuclear disarmament. Movements like the Promise Keepers called men to take responsibility for leading their families. Christian right political campaigns and pro-family organizations drew on conservative evangelical beliefs about men, women, children, and authority. These beliefs—known collectively as family values—became the most important religious agenda in late twentieth-century American politics.
Download or read book The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics written by Andrew R. Lewis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains how abortion politics influenced a fundamental shift in conservative Christian politics, teaching conservatives to embrace rights arguments.
