Moral Majority

Home > ... > History > United States and Canada > U.S. History > ...

Essential
reading

Compare
side-by-side

The Oxford Companion to ...

The Concise Oxford Dictionary ...

The Columbia Encyclopedia, ...

Moral Majority

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Moral Majority U.S. political action group composed of conservative, fundamentalist Christians. Founded (1979) and led (1979-87) by evangelist Rev. Jerry Falwell , the group played a significant role in the 1980 elections through its strong support of conservative candidates. It lobbied for prayer and the teaching of creationism in public schools, while opposing the Equal Rights Amendment (see feminism ), homosexual rights, abortion, and the U.S.-Soviet SALT treaties (see disarmament, nuclear ). The Moral Majority was dissolved in 1989.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-E-MoralMajo" title="Facts and informations about Moral Majority">Moral Majority</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Moral Majority." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Moral Majority." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (July 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-E-MoralMajo.html

"Moral Majority." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved July 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-E-MoralMajo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Moral Majority

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions | 1997 | | © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Moral Majority. Organization in the USA which aims to exert political pressure in favour of traditional ‘moral’ values (family life, free enterprise, strong national defence) and against such causes as homosexual rights and freer abortion. Moral Majority, Inc. was founded in 1979 by the Baptist pastor and television evangelist Jerry Falwell (b. 1933), and rose to prominence in the presidential election campaign of 1980. Although it is ‘pluralistic’ and ‘not based on theological considerations’, the organization's support comes mainly from conservative Protestant Christians.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O101-MoralMajority" title="Facts and informations about Moral Majority">Moral Majority</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

JOHN BOWKER. "Moral Majority." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN BOWKER. "Moral Majority." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (July 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MoralMajority.html

JOHN BOWKER. "Moral Majority." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved July 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MoralMajority.html

Learn more about citation styles

Moral Majority

The Oxford Companion to United States History | 2001 | | © The Oxford Companion to United States History 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Moral Majority. The televangelist Jerry Falwell (1933– ) established the Moral Majority, the first prominent manifestation of a resurgent Religious Right, in 1979.A “pro‐life, pro‐family, pro‐moral, and pro‐America” political organization, the Moral Majority mobilized grassroots Americans to oppose pornography, abortion, the gay and lesbian rights movement, and the welfare state; to support increased defense spending, the death penalty, and the free‐enterprise system; and to elect candidates who shared these goals. Targeting Protestant fundamentalists, who traditionally had been politically inactive, Falwell's organization used direct mailings to fundamentalist churches and an estimated four million individuals to spread the word on candidates and issues.

While interested in electing conservatives at all levels of government, Falwell and the Moral Majority especially focused on electing Ronald Reagan as president. The organization played a visibly active role in the 1980 campaign, and Reagan's stunning victory ensured that it would enjoy a high public profile in the early 1980s.

Despite the publicity, the Moral Majority was in reality an amateurish organization. Lacking both long‐term plans and a grassroots organizational base, it had little success at putting substantive political pressure on the Reagan administration. By the mid‐1980s the Moral Majority was in serious decline, and it officially disbanded in 1989. Numerous pundits saw the collapse of the Moral Majority as an indication of the Religious Right's imminent demise, but in reality it opened the way for much more sophisticated forms of fundamentalist politics.
See also Christian Coalition; Conservatism; Fundamentalist Movement; Protestantism; Religion; Televangelism.

Bibliography

Frances Fitzgerald , Cities on a Hill, 1981.
William Martin , With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, 1996.

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O119-MoralMajority" title="Facts and informations about Moral Majority">Moral Majority</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

Paul S. Boyer. "Moral Majority." The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford University Press. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Paul S. Boyer. "Moral Majority." The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford University Press. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (July 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-MoralMajority.html

Paul S. Boyer. "Moral Majority." The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford University Press. 2001. Retrieved July 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-MoralMajority.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Falwell's farewell. (Jerry Falwell disbands Moral Majority)
Magazine article from: National Review; 7/14/1989
Free Article Moral Majority founder Falwell dies at 73.(AROUND THE STATES)(Jerry Falwell)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Church & State; 6/1/2007
Free Article Moral Majority was 'Regrettable Aberration,' says Evangelical leader.(People & Events)
Magazine article from: Church & State; 3/1/2005

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Falwell's farewell. (Jerry Falwell disbands Moral Majority)
Magazine article from: National Review; 7/14/1989; 318 words ; ...Falwell announced the disbanding of Moral Majority-in Las Vegas, of all places-he...look much better than it did when Moral Majority was founded in 1979. Pornography...chlamydia. Falwell contends that Moral Majority helped get Ronald Reagan elected... Read more
Moral Majority founder Falwell dies at 73.(AROUND THE STATES)(Jerry Falwell)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Church & State; 6/1/2007; 342 words ; Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and one of the key architects...His Religious Right group, the Moral Majority, took credit for helping elect...In 1989, Falwell disbanded the Moral Majority, saying he wanted to devote more... Read more
Moral Majority was 'Regrettable Aberration,' says Evangelical leader.(People & Events)
Magazine article from: Church & State; 3/1/2005; 700+ words ; ...evangelical leader has criticized the Moral Majority, asserting that the Jerry Falwell-l...Association of Evangelicals, said the Moral Majority was an aberration and a regrettable...the Boston Globe, Wenz said, The Moral Majority lacked a servant heart of Christ... Read more
Jerry Falwell sculpted religious right; Moral Majority voice dies at 73.(NEWS)(Obituary)
Newspaper article from: Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA); 5/16/2007; 700+ words ; ...He was 73. The founder of the Moral Majority was discovered without a pulse...abortion, Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979. One of the conservative...president. Falwell credited the Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative... Read more
Falwell resurrects '21st century' version of moral majority.(People & Events)
Magazine article from: Church & State; 12/1/2004; 700+ words ; ...21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority. Encouraged by President George...keeps threatening to reanimate the Moral Majority, said Barry W. Lynn, executive...said David Gushee, a professor of moral philosophy at Union University... Read more
Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, cofounder of the defunct Moral Majority, has formed the Faith and Values Coalition, which he said will "maintain an evangelical revolution of voters" with Christian values in mind.(People)
Magazine article from: The Christian Century; 11/30/2004; 130 words ; Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, cofounder of the defunct Moral Majority, has formed the Faith and Values Coalition, which...Essentially, TFVC is a 21st-century resurrection of the Moral Majority, he said November 9. Falwell, 71, intends to serve... Read more
In 1979 the conservative political operative Paul Weyrich used the phrase "moral majority" in a conversation with a Southern Baptist minister in Lynchburg, Va.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Magazine article from: National Review; 6/11/2007; 156 words ; ...operative Paul Weyrich used the phrase moral majority in a conversation with a Southern...to mobilize (vociferously) the majority. He had already built a megachurch...His target audience was never a majority, but it was a force, and he changed... Read more
From The Moral Majority To Tinky Winky.
Magazine article from: Church & State; 5/1/2000; 700+ words ; ...McAteer and Paul Weyrich to form the Moral Majority, a vehicle for bringing fundamentalist...election of Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority begins advocating for constitutional...he is changing the name of the Moral Majority to the Liberty Foundation. The... Read more
From Moral Majority to organized minority: tactics of the Religious Right.
Magazine article from: The Christian Century; 8/11/1993; ; 700+ words ; ...Many believed that Jerry Falwell's disbanding of the Moral Majority following the televangelist scandals of 1987 and Pat...1992). The High visibility and national focus of the Moral Majority has thus been cast aside in favor of a dual-track... Read more
If this be immorality.(Century marks)(what Moral Majority thought of Senator Paul Simon)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: The Christian Century; 10/18/2003; 47 words ; IF THIS BE IMMORALITY: When Paul Simon was a U.S. senator, Jerry Falwell's now defunct Moral Majority organization gave Simon a zero for his voting record on moral issues. One of Simon's immoral acts' was voting for foreign aid to prevent starvation and malnutrition (Simon, Healing America... Read more

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

For students and teachers!

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including: