How did evangelical
Christianity contribute to the
rise of sunbelt conservatism?
UC Irvine
May 2009
Eileen Luhr (eluhr@csulb.edu)
Standards covered
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11.3 Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social,
and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.
1.
Describe the contributions of various religious groups to American civic principles and social reform movements (e.g.,
civil and human rights, individual responsibility and the work ethic, antimonarchy and self-rule, worker protection, familycentered communities).
2.
Analyze the great religious revivals and the leaders involved in them, including the First Great Awakening, the Second
Great Awakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social Gospel Movement, the rise of Christian liberal theology in the
nineteenth century, the impact of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism in current times.
11.8 Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II America.
1.
Trace the growth of service sector, white collar, and professional sector jobs in business and government.
8.
Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of
popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).
11.11 Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary
American society.
9.
Explain how the federal, state, and local governments have responded to demographic and social changes such as
population shifts to the suburbs, racial concentrations in the cities, Frostbelt-to-Sunbelt migration, international migration,
decline of family farms, increases in out-of-wedlock births, and drug abuse.
A. interpretive framework for presentation
The Late Cold War: post-liberal America, 1968 – 1990
A. American Limitations, American Victory: US Foreign Policy
Two Goals:
1. “Contain” communism
2. Stabilize and expand into “free” markets abroad
Case studies in US Cold War policy, 1968-1990:
1. International institutions
2. Treaties: SALT II, China, disarmament
3. Rebuilding Latin America: Org. of American States
4. Overthrow and intervention: Vietnam, Iran, Iraq
B. An End to Economic Consensus: Deindustrialization and the rise of the Sunbelt
Three aspects:
1. Toward globalization: deindustrialization and the rise of the service economy
2. The end of government reform: welfare reform
3. (im)migrations: the Sunbelt as the new center of gravity in American life
C. Reform movements of the late 20th century
1. Political reform
a. Feminist rights/ERA
b. Environmental movement
2. Moral reform movements
a. the rise of the Christian Right
B. Why study religious history?
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ideas about equality and power, community and hierarchy,
inclusion and exclusion; experience, beliefs, practices rather
than on leadership or institutional history
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power: historically, religious history encompasses groups who
were marginalized from the political process or perceived
themselves to be marginalized
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revivalism: redrawing boundaries of community
The best explorations of American religious history place
beliefs, practices, and institutions into the broader historical
context. Therefore, this presentation will show how the “rise of
Christian fundamentalism in current times” fits within the
broader context of post-1945 United States history.
C. Two theories about the rise of conservatism:
Backlash
Suburbanization
Topic sentence:
The rise of the American conservative movement
in the late twentieth century rested in the
excesses of the Civil Rights and Student
Movements and in the proliferation of “southern”
attitudes about liberal government reform
measures.
Topic sentence:
The rise of the America conservative movement
rested in the post-WWII sunbelt migrations that
made middle-class homeownership the central
focus and emotional core of American culture and
society.
Key location: rural “black belt” of the Deep South
Key location: “sunbelt” suburbs in California
Key process:“southernization” of American culture &
African American migration to the North
Key processes: Suburbanization & “white flight” to
suburbs
Key figure(s): George Wallace
Key event(s):1968 election (“Southern strategy”);
Vietnam protests; Civil Rights Movement
Key figure(s): Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan
Key event(s): tax revolt, 1980 election
Key activists: Fundamentalist Christians, workingclass whites (“hard hats”)
Key activists: Middle-class homeowners, parents of
school-aged children
Key issues: Anti-government, anti-busing, opposition
to civil rights & student movements, “law & order,”
racism
Key issues: “meritocratic individualism” & “family
values” (“home values and values in the home”),
“class, not caste”
D. suburbanization & the growth of the Sunbelt
1. suburban migrations
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1920 census: urban Americans outnumbered rural for the first time
1960: Americans evenly split among rural, urban, suburban areas
1990: 31% of Americans in urban areas; almost half in the suburbs
2. sunbelt migrations--growth between 1940 and 1980:
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California (48%)
Texas (24%)
Florida (78%)
Arizona (73%)
Nevada (78%)
Continued…
E. Conservative Christians: rural backlashers or sunbelt
suburbanites?
Rural backlashers
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Origins in the “Bible Belt” in the Deep
South
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Continuation of “anti-modern” beliefs,
especially in regard to evolution; populist
opposition to “elite” values
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Leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Pat
Robertson, and Oral Roberts
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1920s-era work by Mencken, Sinclair,
Russell
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Problem with this interpretation:
“backlash” puts conservative Christians
in a reactive position—there beliefs tend
to be viewed as negative
Sunbelt suburbanites
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Post-war suburban migrations made
former “Bible Belt” capitals like Charlotte
and Atlanta into huge metropolitan areas
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Rise of megachurches
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Spread of “southern” denominations like
the Southern Baptist Convention and the
Assemblies of God
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Adaptability of evangelicalism: focus on
“private dimensions of life” through
voluntarism; emphasis on moral free
agency and “choice” in open economic
markets.
F. Conservative Christianity in the 20th century
1. historical origins and definition of the terms
“evangelical” and “fundamentalist”
2. creation of the concept of modernity
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association with rural America: Billy Sunday,
Aimee Semple MacPherson
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evolution: Scopes Trial
3. religion and the postwar
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fundamentalists’ institution building: Bible
Institute of Los Angeles
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Billy Graham & the postwar crusades:
4. migrations and church growth in the suburbs
G. How did evangelical and conservative interests
converge?
1. “Old
Right” understanding of
music
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Fred Schwarz,
Christian AntiCommunist Crusade
Janet Greene, the
Christian Joan Baez
Continued..
2. Mobilization in the 1960s
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Calvary Chapel and the Jesus Movement
3. key beliefs:
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personal piety
“family values”
“personal responsibility,” not government intervention
4. political culture or cultural politics?
a.
Political culture: grassroots politics as the common
description of evangelical activism
“stealth” campaigns: school boards, hospital boards, library
boards
voter guides distributed to likely GOP voters
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b.
Cultural politics: consumerism & ability to sacralize
suburban space
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Churches
Calvary Chapel
Saddleback Community Church
Christian youth culture
music with a “rebellious” edge
Harvest Crusade in Anaheim
Schools: youth groups
Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Roads:
“the traffic in souls”
example: churches
Christian youth culture
Harvest Crusade, Anaheim
H. Religion & the 2008 election (source: http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=367)
** White evangelical/born-again Christians were 23% of the electorate in 2008 compared to 20% in 2004
selected bibliography
The Rise of the New Right (suburbanization)
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Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
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Harding, Susan Friend. The Book of Jerry Falwell. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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Kruse, Kevin M. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2005.
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Luhr, Eileen. Witnessing Suburbia: Christian Conservatives, “Family Values,” and the Cultural Politics of
Youth. Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming.
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McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2001.
The Rise of the New Right (backlash)
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Carter, Dan T. The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the
Transformation of American Politics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
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Edsall, Thomas Byrne and Mary Edsall. Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on
American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1992.
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Frank, Thomas. What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New
York: Metropolitan Books, 2004.
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Phillips, Kevin. The Emerging Republican Majority. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969.