Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:09:35.115Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Evolving Politics of the Christian Right

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Matthew C. Moen
Matthew C. Moen*
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A recent essay by Ralph Reed (19%), Executive Director of the Christian Coalition, proves that religious conservatives are still divided over the propriety of political activism, nearly two decades after the rise of the Christian Right. Reed's principal message is that the Christian Right must be willing to compromise to retain its political relevance, but his admonition at the end is that “at heart, what America needs is not political revolution but spiritual renewal.” Which matters more, collective political goals or individual spiritual commitment? Which better serves religious conservatives, practicing or eschewing politics? Those questions have bedeviled religious conservatives throughout the 20th century, (Jelen 1991; Wilcox 1992) with the theological fault line running so deep that Christian-Right leaders still straddle the fissure.

Reed's essay also illuminates some of the political tensions within the Christian Right. He argues for a pragmatic approach to politics, criticizing “purists” for their exclusionary language, inflammatory rhetoric on the social issues, and immutable goals in the face of certain defeat. He suggests “the religious right must give ground or risk irrelevance,” calling for language in the 1996 Republican Party platform that stresses the moral dimension of abortion, but drops the long-standing plank calling for a constitutional amendment banning the procedure.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 461 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bruce, Steve. 1995. “The Inevitable Failure of the New Christian Right.” In The Rapture of Politics, ed. Bruce, Steve, Rivisto, Peter, and Swatos, William H. Jr., New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Bruce, Steve. 1988. The Rise and Fall of the New Christian Right. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
D'Antonio, Michael. 1992. Fall From Grace: The Failed Crusade of the Religious Right. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Fowler, Robert Booth. 1993. “The Failure of the Religious Right.” In No Longer Exiles: The Religious New Right in American Politics, ed. Cromartie, Michael. Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Christopher P., and Peterson, David A. 1995. “Minnesota: Christians and Quistians in the GOP.” In God in the Grassroots, ed. Rozell, Mark J. and Wilcox, Clyde. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Guth, James L., and Green, John C., eds. 1991. The Bible and the Ballot Box. San Francisco: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Green, John C. 1995. “The Christian Right and the 1994 Elections: An Overview.” In God at the Grassroots, ed. Rozell, Mark J. and Wilcox, Clyde. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hertzke, Allen D. 1993. Echoes of Discontent. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Jelen, Ted G. 1991. The Political Mobilization of Religious Beliefs. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Leslie. 1994. “Life Beyond God.” New York Times Magazine. October 16, p. 50.Google Scholar
Kellstedt, Lyman, Guth, James, and Wilcox, Clyde. 1995. “Religion and Politics Workshop.” Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September.Google Scholar
Lienesch, Michael. 1994. Redeeming America: Piety and Politics in the New Christian Right. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Moen, Matthew C. Forthcoming. “The U.S. Christian Right in the Twenty-First Century.” In Prophetic Religions, Mobilization, and Social Action in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Shupe, Anson and Misztal, Bronislaw. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Moen, Matthew C. 1995. “From Revolution to Evolution: The Changing Nature of the Christian Right.” In The Rapture of Politics, ed. Bruce, Steve, Kivisto, Peter, and Swatos, William H. Jr., New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Moen, Matthew C. 1995a. “The Fourth Wave of the Evangelical Tide: The Christian Right in the Aftermath of the 1994 Elections.” Contention (Fall): 19–38.Google Scholar
Moen, Matthew C. 1992. The Transformation of the Christian Right. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Moen, Matthew C. 1989. The Christian Right and Congress. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Morken, Hubert. 1990. “Religious Lobbying at the State Level.” Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, September.Google Scholar
Oldfield, Duane. 1990. “The Christian Right and State Republican Parties.” Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, September.Google Scholar
Persinos, John F. 1994. “Has the Christian Right Taken Over the Republican Party?” Campaigns & Elections (September): 23.Google Scholar
Reed, Ralph. 1996. “We Stand at a Crossroads.” Newsweek, May 13, pp. 28–29.Google Scholar
Reed, Ralph. 1993. “Casting a Wider Net.” Policy Review (Summer 1993): 31–35.Google Scholar
Reichley, A. James. 1993. “Comments: The Failure.” In No Longer Exiles: The Religious New Right in American Politics, ed. Cromartie, Michael. Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center.Google Scholar
Rozell, Mark J. and Wilcox, Clyde, eds. 1995. God at the Grassroots. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Rozell, Mark J. and Wilcox, Clyde. 1995a. “The Past As Prologue: The Christian Right in the 1996 Elections.” In God at the Grassroots, ed. Rozell, Mark J. and Wilcox, Clyde. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Sack, Kevin. 1996. “Why Dixie was Buchanan's Waterloo.” New York Times, March 19, p. B10.Google Scholar
Shribman, David. 1989. “Going Mainstream: Religious Right Drops High-Profile Tactics, Works on Local Level.” Wall Street Journal, September 26, p. 18.Google Scholar
Washington Times. 1996. “Statement on Pro-Life Platform Plank,” May 15, p. 5.Google Scholar
Wetzstein, Cheryl. 1996. “Same Sex ‘Marriage’ Under Fire on the Hill.” Washington Times, May 9, p. 1.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde. 1996. Onward Christian Soldiers? Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde. 1992. God's Warriors: The Christian Right in Twentieth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Zald, Mayer N. and Garner, Roberta Ash. 1987. “Social Movement Organizations: Growth, Decay, and Change.” In Social Movements In an Organizational Society, ed. Zald, Mayer N. and McCarthy, John D. New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar
Zald, Mayer N. and McCarthy, John D. 1987. “Religious Groups as Crucibles of Social Movements.” In Social Movements in an Organizational Society, ed. Zald, Mayer N. and McCarthy, John D. New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar