Moral Majority
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Started in 1979 by Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority movement was an American organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees, which campaigned on issues it believed central to upholding its Christian conception of the moral law, a perception it believed represented the majority of people's opinions (hence the movement's name). The organization officially dissolved in 1989 but lives on in the Christian Coalition network initiated by Pat Robertson. With a membership of millions the Moral Majority was one of the largest conservative lobby groups in the United States. Among issues it campaigned on were:
- against legal abortion
- against homosexuality
- supporting its vision of family life
- censorship of media outlets that promote what it sees as an 'anti-family' agenda
The Moral Majority had adherents in the two major United States political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, though it exercised far more influence on the former than the latter.
In 1981, a series of exposés (later nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) by Memphis reporter Mike Clark led to some condemning the interactions between the Moral Majority and the Republican Party. Despite the group's name, opinion polls as well as election and referendum outcomes suggest that it was less representative of public opinion than its name might have suggested.
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Pop culture references
- Echoing Voltaire's quip about the Holy Roman Empire, some of the organization stated that "The Moral Majority is neither moral nor a ajority."
- The pop/punk band Green Day makes a reference to the moral majority in their single "Minority" with the line "I wanna be the minority/I don't need no authority/Down with the moral majority/'cause I wanna be the minority"
- In the movie "Airplane" a large breasted woman wears a very revealing T-shirt with the words "Moral Majority" printed upon it.
Notable people within the movement
- Jerry Falwell
- Pat Robertson
- Tim LaHaye
- Beverly LaHaye
- Charles Stanley (radio evangelist)
- James Kennedy (televangelist)
The Moral Majority Coalition
In November of 2004, Falwell unveiled The Moral Majority Coalition, an organization designed to continue the “evangelical revolution” that helprd to bring President Bush back into the White House and saw the election of many pro-life leaders to national office. Referring to TMMC as a “21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” Falwell, the father of the modern “religious right” political movement, commits to leading the organization for four years.
See also
- Moralism (Note that the Moral Majority was not 'moralist' in the humanist sense.)