Although it would be tempting to dismiss the religious right as a reactionary response to the larger forces shaping American society--one ultimately doomed to fade away with the passing of time--such is not apt to be the case. With the pyrrhic victory of Fundamentalism in the Scopes Trial, religious conservatism withdrew from mainstream American culture, taking refuge in Bible colleges, independent congregations, and Bible conferences. As a result, during the forties, fifties, and sixties, the mainline denominations reigned supreme in American religious life. But in the past 20 years, that has begun to change. Not only have these denominations suffered from an inability to renew themselves by attracting a new generation of worshippers, they have also come under increasing attack from such para-church groups as the Christian Coalition which mark the return of an increasingly assertive Evangelicalism.

One of the principal centers of this more aggressive evangelicalism was California. There under the leadership of a radio evangelist by the name of Charles E. Fuller, Fuller Seminary was created in 1947 to provide a core of leadership for this new evangelicalism. The faculty of this new school--men like Harold Ockenga, Carl F.H. Henry, and Harold Lindsell provided the intellectual force for this resurgent fundamentalism.

Yet, another force feeding the new movement was the formation of Youth for Christ. This movement arrived on the scene on Memorial Day, 1945, when 70,000 young people packed Chicago's Soldier Field for a rally, featuring preaching, music, and testimonials. This group--along with other campus groups that have come into being in the years since--groups like Campus Crusade For Christ (which took its name from Billy Graham's successful "Crusade For Christ" in Los Angeles in 1949) and Intervarsity--have helped introduce a new generation to Evangelical Protestantism, and to train them for leadership in an effort to restore a sense of a Christian America.

The most significant movement feeding the new evangelicalism, however, was the crusades of Billy Graham. A native born North Carolinian, Graham was schooled at Bob Jones University, Florida Bible Institute, and Wheaton College. Under his leadership, the new evangelicalism began to cross denominational lines, and take strength from its para-church nature.

It was in organizations like the Billy Graham Association that the new evangelicals developed their organizational skills, and the ideas that would allow them to reassert themselves in American society. These groups labored hard to avoid the old stereotypes that had done in fundamentalism--the rural country bumpkin or hayseed--and replace them with a carefully cultivated image of moderation. One way they did this was to show a willingness to find common ground with the mainline denominations, and to seek a more constructive approach to the problems facing people of faith in a society growing less Christian.

Where the older fundamentalism viewed the world as hopelessly corrupt, and the mainline denominations as centers of apostasy, the newer evangelicals tended to assume that apostasy was limited to denominational leaders and to professors at "liberal seminaries." They choose instead to appeal to the rank and file laity in an effort to gain support for their agenda. This was one of the strengths--for instance--of Billy Graham. His crusades made a deliberate effort to reach out to rank and file members of each denomination in a community, and find common cause. And in the fifties, Graham strategy paid off handsomely as people of all denominations flocked to his crusades.

The Growth of the Religious Right

The first strong evidence of a radical right appeared during the Cold War. At time when most establishment religious leaders were advocated a "third way" between Capitalism and Communism, a rabid anti-communism more in keeping with the spirit of the times than the mainline message took root among the advocates of a resurgent fundamentalism. Carl McIntire, head of the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, was a chief leader in this effort. Equally popular was Billy James Hargis's Christian Crusade. (Hargis remained that way until he was arrested for seducing a man and his wife who were students in his Bible College. Needless to say, the resulting publicity was less than favorable.)

This period also saw the beginnings of strong growth in conservative denominations like the Assemblies of God. Robert Wuthnow reports that during the decade of the 1950's, this denomination added 2,000 congregations, and grew in membership 18%. The Church of the Nazarene experienced 37% growth, while Southern Baptists during this period added 4,000 new congregations and grew 28% in membership. But the Pentecostal Holiness church grew the most in percentage terms, gaining a stunning 50% in membership.

But the greatest force feeding the growth of the religious right was television. A local faith healer by the name of Oral Roberts started broadcasting his services on television in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and by 1955, Wuthnow reports, he was on 95 stations, and had a staff of 180. Rex Humbard and Billy Graham quickly adopted the new medium.

By 1960, religious conservatism had established a firm base for itself. But it was largely invisible except for Graham's crusades. It had not become involved in politics, and the leadership of the major denominations had still not recognized the threat it posed to their hegemony in the society. This new evangelicalism could claim to be the legitimate successor to "the mainstream of evangelical thought American religious life throughout much of American history," and it did not take it long to make that very claim.

As mainline denominations began to show signs of decline in membership in the 1960's, conservatives groups like the Southern Baptists were moving in the opposite direction. In 1967, it passed the Methodist Church as the largest denomination. Para-church groups like Wycliff Bible Translators also saw exponential growth. New evangelical denominations began to form (the Presbyterian Church in America or PCA is one such group). In addition, conservative groups began to appear in the mainline denominations. Congregations began to demand that their funds be withheld from ecumenical groups like the National Council of Churches.

The Fork in the Road

Just as religious conservatism was exploding, however, it came to a fork in the road. As the absolute numbers of religious conservatives were growing, there was a growing number who--while remaining very evangelical, were willing to take liberal positions on some of the social issues facing the country. The Vietnam War was particularly divisive to religious conservatives just as it was to the rest of the country. Indeed, "a slight majority" disapproved of the war. A similar difference of opinion existed on the growing struggle for Civil Rights.

One of those evangelicals who were conservative religiously and liberal politically was Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon. Hatfield attacked the war, and voted for progressive legislation where Civil Rights were concerned. His positions were echoed in the journal Sojourners, and they led many to question the appropriateness of the link that seemed to exist between the radical political right and the religious right.

Unfortunately, many of these "socially liberal" evangelicals tended to be college educated. But the majority of evangelicals tended to have "lower levels of education" and "remained solidly conservative." The "socially liberal" evangelicals tended to populate seminaries and universities, but they were not as Wuthnow notes: "the dominant voice in American Evangelicalism." As more conservative fundamentalist evangelicals listened to calls for an end to the War, and end to desegregation, they were moved to attack their co-religionists. McIntire and Hargis attacked Billy Graham for his views on the Vietnam war and Civil Rights. They also began to embrace political causes more educated evangelicals tended to dismiss like the teaching of Creationism.

The Seventies

During the Seventies, the civil war within evangelicalism showed little adverse effect. Campus Crusade grew from one man to have a staff of 12,000. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship had 800 college campuses, and Navigators had a staff of 2,200. (Wuthnow, p.192) Southern Baptists during this period grew by 2 million members while United Methodists declined by a similar number. Individual congregations also showed similar growth. Calvary Chapel in California claimed 9,000 members, and First Baptist, Van Nuys claimed 7,000.

Evangelicals also proved to be better contributors than the parishioners of mainline churches. 37 percent of Southern Baptists claimed to contribute 10% of their income compared to 12 % for United Methodists and 8% for Roman Catholics.

But if evangelicals grew faster, and gave more than their co-religionists, there were signs that the more educated in the movement were becoming increasingly liberal on social and moral issues. Studies of evangelicals during this period documented that 1 in 3 used alcohol. 1 in 5 accepted pre-marital sex and homosexuality. Fewer than half were willing to say "heavy petting" was wrong. Three out of four expressed tolerance for homosexuals.

The less educated--but more conservative--evangelicals were developing in a different direction. Jimmy Swaggart developed a network of 1,000 television stations which produced enough revenue to support the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, and Robert Schuller all became major tel-evangelists bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars each. In 1984, it was estimated that 13 million persons watched these programs, more according to Wuthnow, than the membership of the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches combined.

Like their constituents, few of these tel-evangelists were well educated. Bakker dropped out of Bible College. Rex Humbard took a few correspondence courses. Jerry Falwell was a college drop out. In addition, most were located in the South. Most no longer called themselves evangelicals, embracing instead the term "fundamentalist." They also tended to take very traditional views of dress, sex, and the use of alcohol.

Television was not the only area where the more conservative evangelicals made their mark. They also helped fashion the mega-church made up of thousands of parishioners. Large mega-churches like Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, Saddleback Community Church in California, or Calvary Baptist here in Winston-Salem have provided much of the leadership for the movement, and are helping train the next generation of evangelicals through their support of Christian private schools. In 1978, there were 6,000 such schools with 1 million pupils. Since then growth has been exponential.

Politics and Religion

At first, conservative evangelicals decried the political involvement of their more socially liberal co-religionists. But since the seventies, there has been a growing movement into the political realm. Since 1980, evangelicals now vote in greater percentages than other segments of the population.

Part of that is the result of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. It began in 1979 to fight for school prayer and to attack the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion, homosexuality. Falwell also lamented the decline he saw in American morality, attacks picked up by such media outlets as the Wall Street Journal which attacked the "proposition that it makes no difference to the well-being of the polity whether, for example, the populace is hetero-sexual or homosexual, the traditional family is preserved or not, some 'lifestyles' are considered exemplary or not."

Evangelicals had long believed that there was a connection between private morality and the public good, and now said so in increasingly forceful terms. Attacks on homosexuality, pornography, extra-marital sex, and pre-marital sex became more common. To insure public morality, and put an end to these "evils," evangelicals became increasingly involved with the political process. They became skilled at direct mail campaigns, telephone hot-lines, rallies, and using television to get out their interpretation of events.

One of the most successful evangelical efforts in this regard has been the Christian Coalition. Founded by Pat Robertson, a Yale Law School Graduate (who failed the New York Bar), it was led to national prominence by executive director Ralph Reed. (Reed has stayed in my home on a number of occasions, and has now moved on to become a leading Republican stategist) Using sophisticated technology, and a well-developed network of churches and volunteers, the Christian Coalition has elevated evangelicals to a new level of influence in America.

That influence may be on the verge of a decline, however. While evangelical Christians stil view themselves as the king-makers in the Republican Party, and exercise a veto over much of the legislation considered by Congress, a counter-reaction may be building within the American public and within certain quarters of the Republican Party. It remains to be seen whether the religious right overplays its hand.

End of Part I