Reformation on the Religious Right: Faith-Based Politics and Democratic Norms

Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of Political Science
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Haverford users only
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
Strong religious convictions are often assumed to lie at the very ground of identity, serving as the basis for belief in certain basic principles – belief that is then mediated through specific social and political contexts. For much of the 20th century, this dynamic appeared to manifest itself within the American population of conservative evangelical Christians – many of whom withdrew from the political arena in accordance with a pre-millennialist theology that linked society’s inexorable decline to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Given this historical background, the emergence of the Christian Right in recent decades as a political expression of American evangelicalism and fundamentalism is particularly noteworthy. This newfound level of political involvement is remarkable given the previously apolitical nature of American evangelicalism, and raises new questions regarding the relationship between the religious and the political. One question looms especially large, and served as the focus of my research: How, and to what extent, do the political strategies of Christian Right groups affect the presence and strength of democratic norms among conservative evangelicals? Such norms were long absent or muted within the conservative evangelical community, but evidence suggests that Christian Right political tactics may influence their presence and strength in meaningful ways. The conservative evangelicals that once eschewed political involvement now constitute a powerful voting bloc, and their aversion to social concern has been abandoned in favor of commitment to conservative political causes. The Christian Right seems to have guided this shift, and the implications of its involvement for the practice of democracy therefore demand consideration. By distributing an online survey to conservative evangelicals, conducting follow‐up interviews of respondents as well as interviews of group activists, and monitoring group updates and initiatives, I uncovered further evidence for the veracity of past scholarship suggesting mixed effects of Christian Right political strategies on the democratic norms of conservative evangelicals. It seems difficult to dispute that the movement, in the aggregate, has had – and continues to have – a positive effect on norms of participatory democracy within the conservative evangelical community. With respect to norms of deliberative democracy, effects seem to vary both between organizations – based upon goal orientation – and within the organizations themselves – based upon individual levels of engagement and involvement.
Description
Citation