Sammendrag
This paper has tried to find out what impact the Christian Right has had on politics in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, and where it stands at the beginning of a new century. The main object is to increase the understanding of the Christian Right and its position in recent American politics. The Christian Right entered the political scene with much clamor in 1980 and received immidiate fame after having been credited with the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan to the presidency that same year. Religion and politics in the United States is a much debated subject to a large part owing to the country's thriving religious communities, and their increased engagement in the political sphere. This paper has concentrated on the Christian Right, because its arrival on the political stage was quite unexpected and created much controversy.
Two central organizations of the movement have provided the background for this study. The Moral Majority was the leading Christian Right organization of the 1980s while the Christian Coalition became the most prominent Christian Right organization of the 1990s and continues to retain a central position in the movement in 2002. Each organization was studied to find out what goals it wished to accomplish, how it pursued them, and in what way the organization's operation could be characterized as a success or a failure.
A secondary aim of this thesis was to find out whether there had been a development of the movement since its entrance onto the political stage in the late 1970s and early 80s, and if so, in what ways this could be manifested. A separate part of the thesis was therefore devoted to a comparison of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. The discussion of the relationship between church and state was intensified with the political involvement of the Christian Right and a look into part of that discussion was therefore considered highly relevant and included. Central to the discussion is whether there should be a wall of separation between religion and politics, and is so, how impregnable it should be.
The Moral Majority was credited with being an agenda setter in the 1980s. It influenced the congressional agenda and managed to obtain legislative action on several of its issues. It was also instrumental in mobilizing many conservative Christians into becomming politically active. However, it received very little success in the legislative arena, and may be characterized as a mixed success. The Christian Coalition has received substantial influence within the Republican Party reflecting the Christian Right strategy in the 1990s of using the Republican Party as a means to forward its issues. The Christian Coalition is also famous for its voter guides, educating voters on candidate positions. Voter registration is one of the main priorities of the organization and its constituency is attractive to many candidates in the GOP. Despite its influence in the GOP, the Christian Right did not see any major victories in the legislative arena in the 1990s as well. However, with a new president in 2001, more sympathetic to the Christian Right's issues, that of traditional values, its fortunes may change.
The Christian Right has developed in terms of sophistication and professionalism and has shown great innovativeness. Religion seems to be a force that will continue to play a significant role in American politics in the nearby future, which means that it is reason to believe that the Christian Right will persist in being a political factor to be reckoned with.