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Biblical Religion and American Politics: Some Historical and Theological Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr.
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Extract

In 1980, campaigns for political office from town councils to the White House were enlivened, if not always enlightened, by the vocal and sometimes strident participation of members of the clergy. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, emerged as a significant figure in the 1980 campaign, not only as the spokesman of the Moral Majority, but as the symbolic leader of the conservative forces dubbed by Martin E. Marty as the “Religious New Right.” Falwell took more credit than was perhaps his due for the election of Ronald Reagan. He also took credit for the defeat of several United States Senators, such as Birch Bayh, Frank Church, John Culver, and George McGovern, who seemed to Falwell unworthy of continued public service because their voting record was not sufficiently “pro-family.”

Type
Selected Speeches from the Harvard Symposium on “Religion, Law, and the Political Process Today”
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , Summer 1983 , pp. 171 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1983

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References

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