Lexington'96
New member
The claim that Evangelical Christians got involved in politics in the 1970s because of race and not abortion.
Can anyone help debunk a myth about Evangelical Christianity and politics?
- Thread starter Lexington'96
- Start date
Are you speaking of the 'election race?'
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Lexington'96
New member
I'm talking about the idea that Evangelical Christians got involved in politics not because of abortion but because the federal government was trying to integrate Bob Jones University. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Evangelicals in Iowa would rally around a school in South Carolina with racist policies.
Mocking You
New member
Yes, that is so far-fetched the idea that the Moral Majority came about because of race doesn't even need to be debunked. Kind of like a flat-earth. I mean it's so far out there that...
OOOPS. I forgot I was on this forum.
musterion
Well-known member
Never heard that before. Abortion seems to have been, and remains, a galvanizing influence. Not the only one, but the big one. Catholics, Mormons, fundamentalists, evangelicals...pretty much all of them align on it. Race? Not sure it was very relevant for many back in the '70s and it isn't particularly relevant to many now. At least it doesn't seem so.
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Yes. Late 60's/early 70's was when the "religious right" really moved into politics and it was race related. Specifically, it was related to school segregation and tax policy regarding segregated schools. Anti-abortion wasn't a big religious issue then. Consider that the Southern Baptist Convention supported Roe V Wade. It was in the late 70's that the evangelical anti-abortion movement got underway.
But remember, things change. That the religious right's entry into politics was anti-segregation doesn't mean that it continues to be the prime motivator. It was the foundation though.
A lot of things radically changed in those years between left and right/Democrats and Republicans, many of those changes were centered around race and the south.
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It wasn't only Bob Jones University, but Bob Jones University was sort of at the front of it. It was private all-white schools that didn't want to integrate, but also wanted to keep tax empt status. They were literally known as "Segregation Schools". Except they were called "Freedom of Choice Schools" by supporters. Most all of them were religious schools, and they stood to lose a lot in tax exemption $$ if they remained segregated. Falwell's school, Liberty Christian Academy, was one of the all-white segregation schools that was at the center of the evangelical right getting deep into politics. Falwell wanted the school to stay all white but he also wanted the tax exemption $$. He fought hard against school integration and against MLK & the civil rights movement.
This is all really basic stuff. It's not a matter of opinion whether it's what happened or not, or what the timeline was, it's history:
The evangelical right got into politics because of race. Abortion didn't become an issue for the evangelical right til almost a decade later, in the late 70's. Falwell was one of the figures at the center of both. He fought hard against segregation and against the civil rights movement, and then later he became a leader in the anti-abortion moment.
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Whatever the reason, I believe Conservative Christians owe it to themselves and our nation to vote for the right kind of leader. Conservative Christians need to vote for Conservative Republicans, especially now. The far-left Democratic Party is the worst possible party to be in office at this time in history.
I consider myself to be an 'Independent Christian Conservative.' The Republican Party is the only party that comes close to my ideals. Since there's no other Conservative Party to speak of, I've always voted Republican and always will.