26 Facts About Moral Majority

Moral Majority was an American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party.

Origins of the Moral Majority can be traced to 1976 when Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr.

Impetus for the Moral Majority was the struggle for control of an American conservative Christian advocacy group known as Christian Voice during 1978.

Moral Majority was predominately a Southern-oriented organization of the Christian Right, although its state chapters and political activity extended beyond the South.

Moral Majority's headquarters were in Lynchburg, Virginia, where Falwell was the presiding minister of the nation's largest independent Baptist church, Thomas Road Baptist Church.

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Falwell was at the head of the Moral Majority and maintained an advisory board, constituting the organization's primary leadership.

Falwell insisted the Moral Majority leadership include Catholics and Jews, although not all members of the leadership approved of this inclusion.

Moral Majority was an organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees which campaigned on issues its personnel believed were important to maintaining its Christian conception of moral law.

The Moral Majority was incorporated into the Liberty Federation in 1985, remaining a distinct entity but falling under the Liberty Federation's larger jurisdiction.

In 1987, Falwell retired as the formal head of the Moral Majority, and was succeeded by Jerry Nims, although he maintained an active and visible role within the organization.

Moral Majority sought to mobilize conservative Americans to become politically active on issues they thought were important.

Moral Majority portrayed issues such as abortion, divorce, feminism, gay and lesbian rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment as attacks on the traditional concept and values of American families and tapped into a sense of societal moral decay that resonated with many evangelicals.

The Moral Majority refrained from directly speaking out against gays, feminists, and pro-abortion parties and instead used “pro-family” rhetoric to articulate their point.

For example, instead of coming out directly against homosexuality and gay families, leaders of the Moral Majority defined a family as “two heterosexual parents” which appealed to many conservatives.

Various Moral Majority members expressed more extreme opinions, such as Moral Majority commentator Charlie Judd, who argued that “There are absolutes in this world.

State chapters of the Moral Majority were financially independent from the national organization and relied on local resources to conduct their activities.

Political activity of the Moral Majority divided accordingly, with the national Moral Majority office usually focused on addressing multiple issues through Congress while local branches tended to work on a single issue within their respective states.

Moral Majority engaged in political activity in a variety of ways, including national media campaigns and grassroots organization aimed at supporting particular candidates in elections and using mail and phone calls to reach office-holders.

Also, in 1981, the Moral Majority mobilized delegates to the Virginia Republican state nominating convention in order to support Guy Farley, an evangelical candidate for lieutenant governor.

Leaders within the Moral Majority asked ministers give their congregants political direction, reminding congregants when to vote, whom to vote for, and why the Moral Majority held particular positions on issues.

The Moral Majority is probably best known for its involvement in presidential elections, specifically those of Ronald Reagan.

Moral Majority was a relatively early supporter of Reagan, endorsing him before the Republican convention.

Moral Majority maintained their support for Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign and, alongside other Christian Right organizations, influenced the Republican platform for the election, shaping the party's campaign stances on school prayer and abortion.

For example, Bob Jones particularly sought to challenge the public position of the Moral Majority and was known to make public statements that the Moral Majority was an instrument of Satan.

In South Carolina, the Moral Majority had no presence because Bob Jones University's religious network had already organized the state's independent Baptists.

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The tension between Falwell and Pat Robertson affected the Moral Majority, as noted in the presidential elections section of this article.