In the book, God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right, Daniel Williams describes the important role played by the Christians at the 1980 Republican convention. He discussed things such as Conservative Christians and their political activeness during this time; the fundamentalists and their little to no access to the political campaign; the two stages of the alliance between the Republican Party and the fundamentalist; the creation of the “New Christian Right”, along with many other things. Williams’ argument was that evangelicals were inactive during the middle of the twentieth century. He stated, “Conservative Christians had been politically active since the early twentieth century, and they never retreated from the public square” …show more content…
He continues to explain by saying “Republican leaders of the 1970s decided that adopting more conservative positions on abortion and other cultural issues would be a wise strategic move” (Williams, p.7). He later brings up the topic of abortion again when he speaks about the Roe v. wade decision by saying, “In a 7-2 decision, the Court declared that women’s “right to privacy” gave them a constitutional right to abortion during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, up to the point of fetal viability” (Williams, p. 116-117). The impact of the Roe decision created things such as the new pro-life organization that Billy James Hargis created, David Noebel and his publishing of Slaughter of the Innocent; which talked down on the Court’s decision. David Noebel also does many speeches, and Williams lists some of the memorable speeches Noebel did that spoke against abortion with titles like “Murder of Babies: It’s a Major Issue in New York”, “Does a Woman Have a Right to Murder?”, and “The Sacrifice of Human Life Goes …show more content…
Board of Education is brought up when he is making the point of how the Southern evangelicals were against it in the beginning but then said that the “end of the civil rights movement facilitated the formation of a new Christian political coalition, because it enabled fundamentalists and evangelicals who had disagreed over racial integration to come together” (Williams, p.6). The case of Green v. Connolly from 1971 was mentioned in the book as William’s tells the reader about how this related to the revocation of the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University on January 19, 1976. This is the same date that Former President Carter has won the Democratic nomination, so Paul Weyrich tried to blame the loss of the tax-exempt status on Carter. He also speaks about Ronald Reagan’s presidency by saying, “The election of Ronald Reagan, who allied himself with the Christian Right, gave conservative evangelicals the political influence that they needed to increase their control over the Republican party, especially in the South” (Williams, p.7). Then later on discredited Reagan by saying “While Reagan presided over a nearly 300 percent increase in the national debt” (Williams, p. 216) Lastly, the author briefly mentions George W. Bush’s 1988 presidential election when Bush said that Jesus Christ was his favorite philosopher when it came to
Milton Galamison, a local black leader, was an educated reverend that believed integration was the key to equality. He successfully convinced the Board of Education to institute the “Open Enrollment” plan in 1960. Under this policy, black students in over crowded institutions would have an opportunity to attend under utilized white schools. Three years later, because of the plans ineffectiveness, the “Free Choice Transfer” plan was initiated, allowing for an increased amount of school choices and the remapping of districts. Again, these attempts were futile, causing the black community to explore alternate options. The white groups’ resistance to integration was the reason for subsequent political action to ensure its demise. All across the country, the words of Martin Luther King and the successful integrations of southern colleges were the examples that guided the actions of local civil rights movements. During King’s “I have a dream” speech, he said, “the Negro dream is rooted in the American dream.
I like that Moore is not hesitant to express thoughtful criticisms about the pretensions of the church and the undemocratic ways that Protestants have sometimes attempted to dominate American society. His commentary stimulates constructive discussions about what should and should not be the proper role of Christianity, especially Protestantism, in a religiously pluralistic culture that has constitutional guarantees for religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
Religion of the protestant church was an important factor in the pre-war timeline culture. The Second great awakening, which occurred in the 19th century, greatly impacted American society. This new point of view in terms and matters of faith led northerners to cherish the theory of Christian perfection, a theory that in fact was applied to society in an attempt to eliminate social imperfection. On the other hand, southerners reacted by cherishing a faith of personal piety, which focused mainly on a reading of the Bible; however, it expressed very little concern in addressing society’s problems.1
One of the biggest misconceptions of today’s society is that politics is run by pure fact and argument, with no spiritual aspect. However, Amanda Porterfield verifies in her novel Conceived in Doubt that this statement is pretentious and false. Amanda Porterfield takes us back to the time of early government structure and development. This era in the United States is in a stage of constant change and reformation. The United States could even be argued as blind by their religious views, affecting their morals and well-being for the future of the nation. In her novel, Porterfield stresses that the government is in no way free of the church’s principles and deserts the attempt to break the bond.
"Histories, like ancient ruins, are the fictions of empires. While everything forgotten hands in dark dreams of the past, ever threatening to return...”, a quote from the movie Velvet Goldmine, expresses the thoughts that many supporters of integration may have felt because no one truly knew the effects that one major verdict could create. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a very important watershed during the Civil Rights Movement. However, like most progressive decisions, it did not create an effective solution because no time limit was ever given. James Baldwin realized that this major oversight would lead to a “broken promise.”
Towards the middle of the nineteenth century a “Catholic” candidate, Paul Blanshard, ran for presidency. Blanshard was a burden to the Republicans due to his religion. The view of Catholicism was an institutional and political problem. Even if the candidate was not Catholic, he was married by a Catholic priest and apparently that was a connected him to Catholic problems. A political problem because Catholicism was a world power that of Pr...
Patterson, James. “Brown v Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (Pivotal Moments in American History).” Oxford University Press., 2001.
Charles Caldwell, Ryrie. Dispensationalism. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007. Charles, J. Daryl. The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism. Downers Grove:
No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.
In 1973, in what has become a landmark ruling for women’s rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a woman’s right to an abortion. Ever since, individual states have adopted, altered, and/or mutilated the edict to fit their agendas – Texas included. However, the decision made by the justices in Roe v. Wade didn’t set clear cut, inarguable demarcation lines, which has allowed the fiery debate to consume the nation. Rather than establishing a legal ruling of what life is, or is not, the Supreme Court has remained silent on the issue.
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
The nature and authority of scripture in reference to the Liberals continued into influence Christianity into the contemporary world (Lane, 2006). According to Lane (2006), " Liberals are prepared to sacrifice many elements of traditional Christian orthodoxy in their search for contemporary relevance" (p. 237). Liberals wanted to surpass the old traditional rituals in order to gain more of a modern twist to religion and nature. Bingham (2002) claims, "Reason, culture, experience, and science would all be employed in challenge to the classical authority of revelation" (p. 150).
Barker, Dan. Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists. Berkeley: Ulysses Press, 2008.
" Political Theology 10.2 (2009): 287-303. Academic Search Complete. Web. The Web. The Web.