Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a significant political organization founded in 1979 by Reverend Jerry Falwell, aimed at promoting Christian conservative values in the United States. The organization played a crucial role in mobilizing support for conservative candidates, notably contributing to the elections of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. The Moral Majority advocated for a "pro-family" agenda, opposing abortion, promoting traditional family structures, and criticizing the federal welfare system. It also sought to influence public education, pushing for the inclusion of religious teachings and opposing certain social policies, such as the Equal Rights Amendment and the recognition of same-sex unions.
The organization garnered support from a diverse coalition of religious groups, including Catholics, Jews, and Evangelicals, making it ecumenical in nature despite some perceptions of it being fundamentally Protestant. At its height, the Moral Majority became the largest conservative lobby in the U.S., with significant participation from clergy and laypeople. It encountered notable opposition, particularly from advocates of free speech and media representation, culminating in high-profile legal disputes. The Moral Majority eventually dissolved in 1989 but laid the groundwork for subsequent organizations like the Christian Coalition, which continued to promote conservative political causes into the 1990s.
Moral Majority
Identification Christian conservative political organization
Date 1979-1989
The Moral Majority was one of the first political organizations formed for the purpose of campaigning for the election of political candidates who espoused Christian conservatives’ social values.
Founded in 1979 by the Reverend Jerry Falwell , the Moral Majority was dedicated to promoting Christian conservative concepts of morality and social responsibility. The Moral Majority served as a national headquarters, providing direct mailing lists and other information services to conservative organizations and individuals throughout the United States. In 1980, it distributed the Family Issues Voting Index, rating candidates on their support for what it called “family values.” The organization was credited with helping ensure the election of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980 and 1984.
Falwell, founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, served as public spokesman for the Moral Majority. He used his nationally syndicated weekly television program, The Old-Time Gospel Hour, to solicit support for conservative candidates from its twenty-five million viewers. By 1981, Thomas Road Baptist Church’s weekly services were broadcast on 392 television stations and 600 radio stations. Another strong voice for the Moral Majority was the Reverend Pat Robertson , founder of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and the American Center for Law and Justice. Robertson and fellow televangelist James Robinson joined in the efforts to get Christian conservatives elected to office. Robertson mounted a campaign for the presidency himself in 1988, in which he won five states’ electoral votes.
Other Moral Majority supporters included brewery magnate Joseph Coors; Ed McAteer and Bob Billings of the Religious Roundtable; Reed Larson of the Right to Work lobby; Connie Marschner, leader of the National Pro-Family Coalition; Phyllis Schafly, president of Eagle Forum and STOP-ERA; and Congressman Larry MacDonald of the John Birch Society. The Council for National Policy, founded in 1980 by Baptist minister Tim LaHaye, cooperated with the Moral Majority. Contrary to some critics who characterized the Moral Majority as a fundamentalist organization, the movement was ecumenical in scope. Among its adherents were Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Evangelicals, and mainline Protestants.
Issues
The Moral Majority campaigned primarily in support of a “pro-family,” pro-life, anti-big government, and anticommunist agenda. Members lobbied to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) and to outlaw abortion. The organization promoted its vision of the proper American family, advocating two-parent homes for children and deploring the frequency of divorce and the increasing rate of cohabitation without marriage. Members criticized the federal welfare system, claiming that it encouraged promiscuity and the parental abandonment of family responsibilities. They blamed the high rate of taxation for forcing women out of the home and into the workplace. They lobbied against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution, and the failure of the states to ratify the amendment was attributed directly to the Moral Majority’s opposition.
Moral Majority adherents accused the federal government of using welfare programs to convert public schools from educational into socialization institutions and blamed big government for the decline in the quality of public education. However, they advocated the teaching of creationism along with the theory of evolution in public schools. They opposed the involvement of homosexuals in teaching children and the recognition of homosexual unions as marriage. They campaigned for the inclusion of abstinence and moral values in all sex education classes taught in public schools.
The Moral Majority attacked court decisions that limited prayer in public schools and ordered the removal of Christian religious symbols from public facilities. It lobbied for the appointment of more conservative judges to all federal courts, especially the Supreme Court. In foreign affairs, the organization adopted pro-Israel and anticommunist positions and favored a strong national defense policy. In 1980, it lobbied against the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT), aimed at limiting nuclear weapons and partial disarmament.
The Moral Majority encountered strong opposition when it proposed censorship of print and electronic media that purveyed pornography and what it labeled an “anti-family” agenda. Purveyors of pornography reacted against the Christian movement by filing lawsuits and attacking the character of Christian leaders. For example, Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine, attacked Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority with ads in his magazines and filed a lawsuit against Falwell. In turn, Falwell sued Flynt for defamation of character. The case, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, where Flynt was victorious, as the Court declared that parodies of public figures were protected by the First Amendment.
Impact
Before its dissolution in 1989, the Moral Majority became the largest conservative lobby in the United States. At its peak, it was supported by more than 100,000 clergy and had unified 7 million laypeople in political action for conservative candidates and issues. Upon its demise, it was succeeded by the Christian Coalition, which built upon the Moral Majority base to further conservative causes and candidates in national politics during the 1990’s.
Bibliography
Bromley, David G., and Anson Shupe, eds. New Christian Politics. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1984. Contains essays on the Moral Majority and the sources of its social and political support.
Bruce, Steve. The Rise and Fall of the New Christian Right: Conservative Protestant Politics in America, 1978-1988. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1988. Links the rise of the Moral Majority with the New Christian Right political movement and the Christian Coalition.
Smolla, Rodney A. Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt: The First Amendment on Trial. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990. Defines the issues of the trial and presents Flynt’s testimony in his deposition and in the trial.
Wilcox, Clyde. Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics. 2d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000. Discusses the founding of the Moral Majority, its major political issues, and its impact on the national elections of 1980 and 1984.
Wilcox, Clyde, Matthew DeBell, and Lee Sigelman. “The Second Coming of the New Christian Right: Patterns of Popular Support in 1984 and 1996.” Social Science Quarterly 80, no. 1 (March, 1999): 181-192. Presents comparative analyses of public support for the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition.