One by one, conservatives gained control of the denomination’s seminaries, purging faculties of moderate voices. Moderates denounced this “power-crazed authoritarianism, a win-atany-cost ethic and a total disregard for personal values and religious freedom,” but to little avail.

Having devoted less energy to delineating doctrinal boundaries, Southern Baptists allowed for a relatively wide range of views on theological and social issues. Thus the SBC was home to Billy Graham, W. A. Criswell, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, among others.

By the 1980s, then, the Democratic Party had become the party of liberals, African Americans, and feminists, and the Republican Party the party of conservatives, traditionalists, and segregationists.

In 1980, the election widely hailed as the moment the Christian Right came into its own, evangelical voters bypassed the candidate who shared their faith tradition in favor of the one whose image and rhetoric more closely aligned with their values and aspirations. Guided by preachers like Robison, Falwell, and LaHaye, 67 percent of white

True, Reagan’s religious credentials left something to be desired. Although raised Presbyterian, his church attendance was sporadic. There was also the matter of his divorce. “Reagan was not the best Christian who ever walked the face of the earth,” acknowledged one leader of the Christian Right, “but we really didn’t have a choice.” His record as

When it came to marshaling grassroots forces, conservatives had the upper hand. They’d been building networks and refining policy positions for over a decade, and they knew what they were up against.

Thinking that conservatives and liberals might come together in a common cause, President Carter organized a White House Conference on Families. Things didn’t go as planned.

Military metaphors structured Falwell’s understanding of Christianity. The church was an “army equipped for battle,” Sunday school an “attacking squad,” Christian radio “the artillery.” Christians, “like slaves and soldiers,” ask no questions. As an occupation force, they needed to advance “with bayonet in hand” to bring the enemy under submission

this apolitical rhetoric seems odd coming from the founder of the Moral Majority, consider that Falwell addressed his earlier denouncement of Christian political activism to “Ministers and Marchers”—in other words, to Christian pastors active in the civil rights movement. A child of the South, Falwell was a segregationist. Rather than fearing that