43 The Religious New Right – Payton Pike
Payton Pike is a sophomore History major from Liberty, Indiana. This paper is a journal reflection he wrote for his History 325 class about the New Right. Professor Justina Licata would like to celebrate this piece and said, “This reflection essay perfectly articulates the nuances surrounding the rise of the religious New Right. Payton succinctly describes televangelist Jerry Falwell’s strategy of linking political participation to evangelical family values. It is always a pleasure to read Payton’s work, and this short essay demonstrates his tremendous writing skills.”
The Religious New Right
The religious New Right began to emerge as a political faction in the 1960s and 1970s following the left-wing countercultural movements of the era. It is thus appropriate to describe the former as ‘reactionary’. However, there is more to this term than meets the eye. The New Right movement wasn’t simply reasserting ‘traditional values’ in a time when they were perceived as being under threat. Rather, they were redefining what so-called traditional values were in the first place. Just a few decades prior, it may have been inconceivable to associate ‘family values’, for instance, with a specific political ideology and party. It would have been similarly unthinkable to assert that the U.S. is morally “approaching the point of no return… and the brink of national disaster”, as Jerry Falwell averred in his 1980 book Listen, America! Nevertheless, charismatic leaders like Jerry Falwell were able to do so by playing into the anxieties of white, suburban, culturally Christian Americans that had come about as a result of the clamorous left-wing movements of this time period. Falwell’s unique significance thus lies in the fact that he was able to motivate Christian Americans to direct political action, while simultaneously convincing conservative Americans that the nation was undergoing moral (i.e. religious) catastrophe.
The consequence of this amalgamation of previously distinct groups was a new socially and economically conservative political constituency, which has defined the Republican party since the election of Ronald Reagan. The rhetoric and political agenda of the New Right were likewise shaped by the left-wing counterculture. The five “major problems” Jerry Falwell addresses in Listen, America!, including abortion and homosexuality, were issues that the New Left itself was concerned with, as countercultural protestors had pushed for equal rights for the relevant groups. The sentiment of Falwell’s message, ironically still prominent in American conservatism today, is that America has recently strayed from the path and as a result faces destruction, but that our prospects can be ameliorated if we would only return to what’s right. This entire ideology necessarily couldn’t have existed in the absence of the 1960s and 70s counterculture.
While the religious New Right was clearly adopting positions diametrically opposed to those of the left-wing counterculture, New Right leaders like Falwell were perceptive enough to recognize the efficacy of their opponent’s tactics. Thus, in his aforementioned book, Falwell advocates for “moral Americans” to follow a three-step process of registration, information, and mobilization. His emphasis on the current dire state of affairs and use of militant language (calling for a “moral crusade for righteousness”) make this chapter resemble a call to arms. The import of Falwell’s message is clear: the nation is under threat, and quick, decisive action is all that can save it. Those who have the ability to do so are the ordinary Christian American families who compose a silent, moral majority in this country.
Works Cited
Falwell, Jerry. Listen, America! Doubleday, 1980.