Jerry Falwell Jr.'s fall, Liberty University and the myth of the Moral Majority can be found in the APUSH Chapter 30 IDs flashcards.
The Christian right and the Republican Party were associated with the Moral Majority.It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell.It was a key factor in the Republican presidential victories of the 1980s.
The beginnings of the Moral Majority can be traced back to 1976, when Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Jr. began a series of "I Love America" rallies to raise awareness of social issues important to him.The rallies were an extension of Falwell's decision to go against the traditional Baptist principle of separation of religion and politics.Falwell was able to gauge national support for a formal organization and also raise his profile as a leader by hosting these rallies.Falwell was well positioned to launch the Moral Majority because he had already been a part of a well-established network of ministers and ministries.
The fight for control of Christian Voice, an American conservative Christian advocacy group, was the motivation for the Moral Majority.The religious right is controlled by three Catholics and a Jew according to Robert Grant, Christian Voice's acting president.Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, Richard Viguerie, and HowardPhillips left Christian Voice after this.
They urged Jerry Falwell to find Moral Majority.The New Christian Right came about during this period.Ed McAteer, who founded the Religious Roundtable in Memphis, Tennessee, joined Falwell in the Moral Majority.[7]
The Moral Majority was founded by Falwell and Weyrich.According to Huckabee, Robison's "Freedom Rally" at the Dallas Convention Center was the start of the Moral Majority.[9]
Although its state chapters and political activity extended beyond the South, the Moral Majority was mostly a Southern organization.The number of state chapters grew quickly.This rapid expansion was made possible by the variety of resources available to the Moral Majority at its founding.The Journal Champion, which was distributed to the show's donors, was taken over by the Moral Majority.Falwell was the organization's best-known spokesman.The Christian Voice was surpassed by the Moral Majority.
The headquarters of the Moral Majority were in Lynchburg, Virginia, where Falwell was the presiding minister of Thomas Road Baptist Church.The first headquarters of the Christian Coalition were established in Virginia.Falwell was the leader of the Moral Majority and had an advisory board.Falwell's fellow members of the Baptist Bible fellowship made up the majority of this leadership.Although not all members of the leadership approved of this inclusion, Falwell insisted the Moral Majority leadership also include Catholics and Jews.It was [13].
The Moral Majority was made up of conservative Christian political action committees that worked to maintain the Christian conception of moral law.The movement's name was inspired by the opinions of the majority of Americans.With a membership of millions, the Moral Majority became one of the largest conservative lobby groups in the United States and at its height it claimed more than four million members and over two million donors.Washington State's was the largest of the twenty state organizations.The Liberty Federation incorporated the Moral Majority in 1985 as a separate entity.Falwell retired as the formal head of the Moral Majority in 1987, but he remained active and visible within the organization.
Christian Right organizations were in a decline by the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency.After eight years of Christian Right-supported leadership, the nation was no longer in a state of moral peril as it was when Reagan first took office.The Moral Majority's financial difficulties were a major factor in the decision to dismantle the organization.Falwell was optimistic about the Moral Majority's dissolution.Falwell said that the religious right is in place and that religious conservatives are in for the duration.[19]
The Moral Majority wanted conservatives to become politically active on important issues.A variety of tactics were used.Direct-mail campaigns, telephone hotlines, rallies, and religious television broadcasts were some of the tactics used.Although the Moral Majority only operated for a decade, it quickly became a visible political force.Common explanations for this success include:
An integrated social platform that appealed to most conservative Christians by packaging a variety of previously disparate issues under the banner of "traditional family values" was created by Moral Majority.The issues of abortion, divorce, feminism, gay and lesbian rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment were portrayed by the Moral Majority as attacks on the traditional concept and values of American families and tapped into a sense of societal moral decay that resonated with many evangelicals.They advocated for the inclusion of prayer in schools and tax incentives for married couples to protect the traditional family structure.They were able to mobilize a large base of supporters with issue-centered dialogue because of their pro- family agenda.[ 24]
The anti-homosexual rhetoric that they publicized through fund-raising letters and Christian broadcasting had higher contribution rates than other topics.Sharing anti-gay sentiment aided in solidifying a collective set of grievances and ideologies, in establishing acollective identity of constituents, and in constructing a hostile enemy against which the conservative Christian activists were to fight.The Moral Majority didn't directly speak out against gays, feminists or pro- abortion parties, but they used "pro- family" rhetoric to articulate their point.The leaders of the Moral Majority defined a family as two heterosexual parents, which appealed to many conservatives.[28]
As the organization gained more influence in the 1980s, they became more explicit in their stance on gay rights as they characterized the movement as an attack on the American family.Jerry Falwell said that because gay people were rejected by most of society, they had no choice but to prey on the young.Charlie Judd, a commentator for the Moral Majority, argued that there are absolutes in this world.The demise of American culture will be brought about by the spread of homosexuality, just as jumping off a building will kill a person.[28]
The national organization of the Moral Majority was not financially independent from the state chapters.The national organization had little control over local chapters' activities.The national office of the Moral Majority focused on addressing multiple issues through Congress while local branches tended to work on a single issue within their respective states.[31]
In addition to national media campaigns and grassroots organization aimed at supporting particular candidates in elections, the Moral Majority also used mail and phone calls to reach office-holders.The Moral Majority wanted to support Jesse Helms' proposed legislation on school prayer.The Moral Majority became heavily invested in presidential elections and national politics, although at the state level branches continued to pursue specific issues at lower levels of government.State Moral Majority chapters tend to focus on particular candidates in elections.During the 1980 election, state chapters were involved in campaigns to oust liberal members of Congress.In 1981 the Moral Majority organized delegates to the Virginia Republican state nominating convention in order to support Guy Farley, an evangelical candidate for lieutenant governor.[34]
The Moral Majority encouraged electoral participation among its members and used registration drives to register church-goers to vote in order to strengthen its electoral efficacy.The Moral Majority asked ministers to give their congregants political direction, remind them when to vote, and why the group held particular positions on issues.Ronald Reagan is probably the best known of The Moral Majority's involvement in presidential elections.
The election of Jimmy Carter as President of the United States in 1976 was a milestone for evangelical Christians.For the first time, a self-professed evangelical Christian had been elected to the nation's highest office, bringing the national awareness of evangelical Christianity to a new level.evangelical Christians in general and the newly formed Moral Majority in particular were disappointed with Carter's policies.Carter would support the positions of his own party, the Democratic Party, even though he did not share the Moral Majority's political imperative to unify personal and political positions.Carter did not oppose his party's pro-choice platform, nor did he work to bridge the church-state divide, both of which were factors in the Moral Majority supporting Ronald Reagan.[4]
Before the Republican convention, the Moral Majority endorsed Reagan.A group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian, according to Jimmy Carter.After Reagan got the Republican nomination, the Moral Majority continued to work for him.More than one-fifth of Moral Majority supporters who supported Carter in 1976 voted for Reagan in 1980.Falwell attributed Reagan's success to the Moral Majority and others who had never before been politically active.There is some evidence that Falwell's claim about the role of Christian Right organizations in the victory of Reagan has some truth.40
Reagan sought input from the Moral Majority leadership during his campaign.The first executive director of the Moral Majority is going to be a religious advisor.Reagan appointed Billings to a position in the Department of Education.The appointment was significant for the Moral Majority, which lobbies on education policy issues.[42]
The Republican platform for the 1984 election was shaped by the influence of the Moral Majority and other Christian Right organizations.The political climate had changed since Reagan's first campaign.The role of the Moral Majority in Reagan's reelection victory had changed since 1980.A study of voters in the 1984 election showed that more anti-Moral Majority voters voted for Walter Mondale than for Reagan, suggesting that the Moral Majority may have had a negative effect on Reagan's campaign.[42]