How did evangelical Christianity contribute to the rise of sunbelt conservatism?UC Irvine

May 2009

Eileen Luhr (eluhr@csulb.edu)

Standards covered 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, family-centered 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 – 1990A. American Limitations, American Victory: US Foreign Policy Two Goals:

1. “Contain” communism2. Stabilize and expand into “free” markets abroadCase studies in US Cold War policy, 1968-1990: 1. International institutions2. Treaties: SALT II, China, disarmament3. 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 economy2. 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 century1. Political reform

a. Feminist rights/ERAb. Environmental movement

2. Moral reform movementsa. the rise of the Christian Right

B. Why study religious history?

ideas about equality and power, community and hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion; experience, beliefs, practices rather than on leadership or institutional history

power: historically, religious history encompasses groups who were marginalized from the political process or perceived themselves to be marginalized

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 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.

Key location: rural “black belt” of the Deep South

Key process:“southernization” of American culture & African American migration to the North

Key figure(s): George Wallace

Key event(s):1968 election (“Southern strategy”); Vietnam protests; Civil Rights Movement

Key activists: Fundamentalist Christians, working-class whites (“hard hats”)

Key issues: Anti-government, anti-busing, opposition to civil rights & student movements, “law & order,” racism

Suburbanization 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: “sunbelt” suburbs in California

Key processes: Suburbanization & “white flight” to suburbs

Key figure(s): Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan

Key event(s): tax revolt, 1980 election

Key activists: Middle-class homeowners, parents of school-aged children

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

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: California (48%) Texas (24%) Florida (78%) Arizona (73%) Nevada (78%)

Continued…

E. Conservative Christians: rural backlashers or sunbelt suburbanites?

Rural backlashers

Origins in the “Bible Belt” in the Deep South

Continuation of “anti-modern” beliefs, especially in regard to evolution; populist opposition to “elite” values

Leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Oral Roberts

1920s-era work by Mencken, Sinclair, Russell

Problem with this interpretation: “backlash” puts conservative Christians in a reactive position—there beliefs tend to be viewed as negative

Sunbelt suburbanites

Post-war suburban migrations made former “Bible Belt” capitals like Charlotte and Atlanta into huge metropolitan areas

Rise of megachurches

Spread of “southern” denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God

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 association with rural America: Billy Sunday,

Aimee Semple MacPherson evolution: Scopes Trial

3. religion and the postwar fundamentalists’ institution building: Bible

Institute of Los Angeles 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 Fred Schwarz,

Christian Anti-Communist Crusade

Janet Greene, the Christian Joan Baez

Continued..

2. Mobilization in the 1960s Calvary Chapel and the Jesus Movement

3. key beliefs: 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

b. Cultural politics: consumerism & ability to sacralize suburban space

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) Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Harding, Susan Friend. The Book of Jerry Falwell. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. Kruse, Kevin M. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton

University Press, 2005. Luhr, Eileen. Witnessing Suburbia: Christian Conservatives, “Family Values,” and the Cultural Politics of

Youth. Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming. McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton

University Press, 2001.

The Rise of the New Right (backlash) 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. 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. Frank, Thomas. What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New

York: Metropolitan Books, 2004. Phillips, Kevin. The Emerging Republican Majority. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969.