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Moral Majority

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The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying. It dissolved during 1989.

History

Moral Majority was initiated as a result of a struggle for control of an American conservative Christian advocacy group known as Christian Voice during 1978. During a news conference by Christian Voice's founder, Robert Grant, he claimed that the Religious Right was a "sham... controlled by three Catholics and a Jew." Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, Richard Viguerie and Howard Phillips left Christian Voice. During a 1979 meeting, they urged televangelist Jerry Falwell to found Moral Majority. This was also the beginning of the New Christian Right..

Moral Majority was an organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees, which campaigned on issues its personnel believed were important to maintaining its Christian conception of moral law, a conception they believed represented the opinions of the majority of Americans (hence the movement's name). With a membership of millions, the Moral Majority was one of the largest conservative lobby groups in the United States. Some issues for which it campaigned included:Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). but lives on in the Christian Coalition network initiated by Pat Robertson.

In 1981, a series of exposés (later nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) by Memphis reporter Mike Clark led to some condemning the interactions between the Moral Majority and the Republican Party.

The Moral Majority Coalition

In November 2004, Falwell revived the Moral Majority name for a new organization, the Moral Majority Coalition. The intent of the organization is to continue the "evangelical revolution" to help conservative politicians get elected. Referring to the Coalition as a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority," Falwell, a father of the modern "religious right" political movement, committed to leading the organization for four years, but died on May 15, 2007.

Notable people within the movement

References

  1. Martin, William (1996). With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. New York: Broadway Books.
  2. Sara, Diamond (1995). Roads to Dominion. New York: Guilford Press.
  3. http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/thirtyone.html
  4. Moral Majority Timeline
  5. Moral Majority founder Falwell dies. MSNBC, May 15, 2007.

See also

  • Moralism (Note that the Moral Majority was not 'moralist' in the humanist sense.)

External links

Categories: