Mobilizing the Moral Majority.

Abstract

The Moral Majority has been more successful in mobilizing conservative Christians than three other evangelical groups--Third Century Publishers, Christian Voice, and the Religious Roundtable. According to the literature on social movements, four Oossible explanations for the success of such groups are that they have access to financial resources, can maintain an exfensive network of communications between organizers and constituents, can draw upon the expertise and skills of social movement entrepreneurs, and can mobilize during a period in time in'which thers is a favorable conjunction of issues. None of these factors proves wholly satisfactory in accounting for differences among the four organizations in their mobilization of supporters. The Moral Majority was more successful because its leadership provided it with access to pre-existing networks which were unavailable to other Christian groups. For example, Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour provided a communications link via television to a large national audience. The Moral Majority's genius lay in linking with a national network of nservative clergymen and in championing issues of major concern to this group. While taking advantage of these pre-existing associations, the Moral Majority did have to accommodate their previously organized constituenciesk (RM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************

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