The Death of Christianity’s Influence on Politics in America (Part 8)

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

The Roe vs. Wade decision by the Supreme Court (January 22, 1973) woke up the American Church’s leadership. But what to do, they wondered. How can we bring change to our nation?

As for the abortion supporters, they used the same tactics as the 1960’s Vietnam War activists. They knew the Constitution and the people’s will were against abortion on demand so they implemented a strategy of political maneuvering, marketing and a sympathetic media to push their agenda on Americans.

The radical activist woman’s organization, National Organization for Women (NOW), headed at first by Betty Friedan, and later, other zealous leaders, stood at the forefront of activist women to ratify ERA and abortion rights. The well-organized group had the ear of liberal politicians and a media savvy to push forward their agendas.

Then, into the political fray came Francis Schaeffer, author, Evangelical theologian and supporter of political activism. He held joint meetings with Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1973 where Schaeffer encouraged Falwell to confront American culture with the Gospel, especially abortion.

And Schaeffer’s book, A Christian Manifesto, inspired Tim Lahaye and Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, to become politically active.

Rev. Falwell eventually held some “I Love America” rallies across America in 1976. The rallies established Falwell as a national leader and stirred the fires for Christian support of a formal Christian organization.

In 1979, Rev. Jerry Falwell teamed with Drs. Tim and Berverly LaHaye, Dr. Charles Stanley and Dr. D. James Kennedy to form the Moral Majority. The organization’s platform was pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-national defense and pro-Israel.

Within a year, 100,000 Evangelical pastors, conservative Catholic priests and orthodox Jewish rabbis came on board along with 7 million families. This base enrolled 8.5 new voters through church-based voter drives and raised $70 million to continue Moral Majority’s efforts in the future.

Moral Majority’s backing of Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan, in the 1980 presidential election helped sweep Reagan into office. Thus, the launching of political activism in the Evangelical community had a successful beginning.

In this same time period, Dr. James Dobson founded the Family Research Council, a lobbying force for conservative Christian legislation in our nation’s capitol. Dobson’s radio program reached over 220 million listeners daily on a world wide network.

Today, many politicians consider Dobson as the most influential Evangelical in America.

Rev. Pat Robertson took the next step in 1988 when he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign was unsuccessful, but out of his efforts, Robertson started up the Christian Coalition which today has 2.5 million supporters and distributes conservative voter guides to concerned Christians.

It is fair to say that the three organizations – Moral Majority, Family Research Council and Christian Coalition – have had an impact on America.

But what has Christian political activism really accomplished in America?

(Continued in Part 9)