The Moral Majority

The Moral Majority was an action group made up of far-right, fundamentalist christian voters. It was formed by a Baptist minister named Jerry Falwell and his associates to promote a Christian agenda in the United States. The group was successful in mobilizing Christian voters in support of the republican party and had a significant impact on elections in the 1980s.

In order to mobilize voters, the group began by running direct-mail campaigns, telephone hotlines, rallies, and religious television programming. The Moral Majority was clear in its support for a “traditional” family setting, opposition to equal rights legislation, opposition to rights for homosexuals, and prohibiting abortion. The group also promoted the idea of conversion to conservative Christianity to other religious groups, most notably Jews. With intense campaign work and their Christian agenda, the group’s constituent base grew rapidly.

Prior to the 1980 presidential election, the Moral Majority endorsed Ronald Reagan as their candidate of choice. According to Jimmy Carter, Jerry Falwell “purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian”. The group worked to encourage Christians who had not been previously politically active to register and vote for Reagan. One fifth of Moral Majority supporters who supported Carter in 1976 voted for Reagan in 1980 as well. Raegan subsequently won the election. In the following election in 1984, support for Reagan was continued. The republican platform in this election had been shaped to match the Moral Majority’s and other christian issue group’s agendas, however evidence suggests that the Moral Majority actually hurt Reagan’s campaign, as most anti-Majority voters voted for Walter Mondale.

In 1988, the group endorsed George H.W. Bush, but the had already been in decline. Donations were decreasing, and the “moral peril” platform was losing

...