The current political environment is one marked by a highly intensified culture war. Public backlash over the paragons of modern cultural Marxism — transgenderism, abortion, the sexualization of children — has reinvigorated the Right, giving it new purpose and energy.
There are many takeaways from these modern developments, but one of the most significant lessons is that America desperately needs a new Christian coalition akin to Moral Majority, which played a transformational role in U.S. politics in the 1980s.
For decades in America, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, biblical morality became something that, while paid lip service to by most politicians, lacked the organization and militance of the ’80s and thus gradually waned in influence as the achievements of previous decades faded.
This could be seen in the way that radical leftist Democrats such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton professed to be God-fearing Christians during their presidential bids — for at that point the culture still had a remnant of biblical-centeredness. But by 2015, nearing the conclusion of Obama’s presidency, Democrats in America had the confidence to shed the facade, openly advocating for gay marriage, getting prayer out of schools, and forcing Christian business owners to service gay weddings.
The nationwide striking down of state prohibitions on gay marriage by the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision was like the breaking of a dam, unleashing a wave of degeneracy across the country: pro-LGBT teachings in schools, transgender procedures for minors, men and boys playing in female sports, drag queen presentations for children. In a matter of a few years, society descended to a depth never before seen in all Christendom.
In reaction to all this, the Right has once more begun to coalesce around biblical morality — but it wouldn’t have had to get to this point if the Christian Right had not relaxed its activism in the first place.
Just as the contemporary assault on children has served as the catalyst for the resurgence of America’s religious Right, the movement of organized religious activism that saw dividends in the ’80s began as an answer to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
It was Roe that served as a wake-up call to Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell, who, like many other evangelical pastors at the time, had believed in refraining from political involvement.
Falwell, already a popular televangelist, author, and pastor, with a church whose membership totaled 15,000, was in an apt position to spearhead the organization Moral Majority, which at its zenith came to have four million members and two million donors dedicated to activism and lobbying.
In his article “Falwell and the Political Awakening of American Christians,” TNA author Steve Byas notes that Moral Majority was instrumental in the Republican presidential victories of the 1980s and in important legislative fights:
MM altered not only elections, but also public opinion. Falwell and MM joined the fight against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), along with Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum and the constitutionalist John Birch Society. Millions of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who had often not even bothered to vote shook off decades of political lethargy and entered the political battlefield. But the Moral Majority was larger than just evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. Through Falwell’s leadership, Roman Catholics (almost one-third of the membership of MM), conservative Jews, Mormons, and even non-religious persons concerned about the decline of morality joined MM as well.
For Falwell, Moral Majority was a way of rectifying the inaction in the public square that he felt had characterized the Christian community for too long. “We have been irresponsible as Christian citizens. For too many years we sat back, as if waiting for apostasy to take over at any moment, and nearly let our country destroy itself because of inward decay,” he opined.
But the successes of the 1980s had an unfortunate consequence: As many of Moral Majority’s members believed the cause had been won, enthusiasm, donations, and activity tapered off late in the decade, leading to the group’s dissolution.
While other organizations, such as Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, stepped up to continue the crusade, the Christian Right no longer had the same organization or clout without the organizational drive Moral Majority had provided. Many Christians believed they had won the culture war and let their guard down.
However, we can now see that the fight is never over. Neither defeat nor victory is ever definitive — a gain made today can be lost tomorrow and vice versa. By withdrawing from the public square, rather than maintaining a guarding presence, conservative Christians left the door open for the Left to slowly undo all of Moral Majority’s work through the processes of incrementalism and gradualism.
American Christians’ renewed interest in political affairs is a promising sign. But to score real results, organization is needed. Christians, especially churches and the pastors that lead them, must develop real networks to cooperatively lobby and educate the public.
It is one of the unfortunate realities of politics that elected officials rarely listen to citizens unless they have the clout that numbers and money provide. This is the voice that Moral Majority gave to conservative Christians — and the voice they must find again in order to win the culture war.
