Rarely in American politics is there a confluence of events that creates a dramatic clash of issues. The Texas textbook controversy and two recent federal court cases pitted opposing interest groups against each other—with illuminating results.

The Religious Right and Censorship

Protestant evangelicals and other fundamentalist Christians share a common belief in the inerrancy of the Bible and a constellation of attitudes based on localism, conventional moral standards, traditionalist family values, and vocal “Americanism” (Guth, 1983, p. 64). Traditionally, evangelical and fundamentalist church members and their leaders have been among the least politically active groups in America. These sects are dominated by adherents who are more rural and less wealthy than other nonfundamentalists, and are led by conservative, nonpolitical pastors. The many fundamentalist denominations are congregationally based, and historically have remained quite separate as a result of infighting and rivalry over interpretation of scripture.

By the mid-1970s, however, government policies on affirmative action, Supreme Court decisions on abortion, civil rights and school prayer, and social movements among women, gays and anti-war protestors threatened fundamentalists' traditional beliefs and values. Fundamentalist leaders began to speak out, reflecting their followers' fears. Groups began to appear that translated fundamentalist values into rhetoric and then into political action. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, James Robison, Rex Humbard and others took their message to vast audiences as their church services and religious talk shows began appearing on hundreds of television stations. As the evangelists' audiences grew, the content of the shows grew more political, as the preachers urged their viewers to act on their beliefs.