Editing Moral Majority (section)

==Political involvement==
The Moral Majority engaged in political activity in a variety of ways, including national media campaigns and [[grassroots]] organization aimed at supporting particular candidates in elections and using mail and phone calls to reach office-holders.{{sfn|Wilcox|1996|p=86}} The Moral Majority's initial political actions were aimed at supporting [[Jesse Helms]]' proposed legislation on [[school prayer]].{{Sfn|Liebman|Wuthnow|1983|p=34}} Before long, the Moral Majority became heavily invested in presidential elections and national politics; although at the state level branches of the Moral Majority continued to pursue specific issues at lower levels of government. As far as elections, state Moral Majority chapters tended to deliberately focus their efforts towards particular candidates. For example, state chapters participated in campaigns to oust liberal members of Congress during the 1980 election. Also, in 1981, the Moral Majority mobilized delegates to the Virginia Republican state nominating convention in order to support Guy Farley, an evangelical candidate for lieutenant governor.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rozell |first1=Mark J. |title=The Christian Right in American Politics |last2=Wilcox |first2=Clyde |date=2003 |publisher=[[Georgetown University Press]] |isbn=978-0-87840-393-6 |editor-last=Green |editor-first=John C. |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=43 |chapter=Virginia: Birthplace of the Christian Right}}</ref>

Nationally, the Moral Majority encouraged electoral participation among its members and used [[Voter registration drives|registration drives]] to register church-goers to vote, with the logic that Moral Majority members would be likely to vote for Moral Majority-endorsed candidates, thus strengthening the organization's electoral efficacy and strengthening its endorsements. Leaders within the Moral Majority asked ministers give their congregants political direction, reminding congregants when to vote, whom to vote for, and why the Moral Majority held particular positions on issues.{{Sfn|Liebman|Wuthnow|1983|p=37}} The Moral Majority, however, is probably best known for its involvement in presidential elections, specifically those of Ronald Reagan.

==={{anchor|Presidential elections}}Presidential elections===
The 1976 election of [[Jimmy Carter]] as President of the United States marked a milestone for evangelical Christians. For the first time, a self-professed evangelical Christian had been elected to the nation's highest office, bringing the national awareness of evangelical Christianity to a new level. Despite commonality in religious identification, however, evangelical Christians in general and eventually the newly formed Moral Majority in particular came to be disappointed with Carter's policies. Carter did not share the Moral Majority's political imperative to unify personal and political positions and would instead support the positions of his own party, the Democratic Party. In particular, Carter did not actively oppose his party's general pro-choice platform on abortion, nor did Carter work to bridge the church–state divide, both factors in the Moral Majority's decision to support Ronald Reagan's candidacy in 1980.{{sfn|Allitt|2003|p=152}}

====1980====
The Moral Majority was a relatively early supporter of Reagan, endorsing him before the Republican convention.{{Sfn|Liebman|Wuthnow|1983|p=36}} According to Jimmy Carter, "that autumn [1980] a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10&nbsp;million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian."<ref>{{cite book |last=Carter |first=Jimmy |url=https://archive.org/details/whitehousediary00jimm |title=White House Diary |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2010 |isbn=9780374280994 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/whitehousediary00jimm/page/469 469] |url-access=registration |via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> Naturally, the Moral Majority continued working on behalf of Reagan after he gained the Republican nomination. Following the organization's lead, more than one-fifth of Moral Majority supporters that had supported Carter in 1976 voted for Reagan in 1980.{{Sfn|Wilcox|1992|p=117}} After Reagan's victory, Falwell attributed Reagan's success directly to the Moral Majority and others registering and encouraging church-goers to vote who had never before been politically active.{{Sfn|Wilcox|1992|p=96}} Empirical evidence suggests that Falwell's claim about the role of Christian Right organizations in Reagan's victory has some truth, though difficult to determine definitively.{{Sfn|Wilcox|1992|pp=115–117}}

Reagan sought input from the Moral Majority leadership during his campaign and appointed the Rev. Robert Billings, the Moral Majority's first executive director, to be a religious advisor to the campaign.{{Sfn|Liebman|Wuthnow|1983|p=60}} Later, Reagan appointed Billings to a position in the [[United States Department of Education|Department of Education]]. This appointment was particularly significant for the Moral Majority, which had lobbied on education policy issues, especially those regarding private schools.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wald |first=Kenneth |title=Religion and Politics in the United States |date=1997 |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Press |isbn=978-1-56802-157-7 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=137}}</ref>

====1984====
The Moral Majority maintained their support for Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign and, alongside other Christian Right organizations, influenced the Republican platform for the election, shaping the party's campaign stances on school prayer and abortion.<ref name="Election">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Stephen D. |last2=Tamney |first2=Joseph B. |year=1985 |title=The Christian Right and the 1984 Presidential Election |journal=[[Review of Religious Research]] |publisher=Religious Research Association, Inc., Springer |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=124–33 |doi=10.2307/3511667 |jstor=3511667}}</ref> The nation's political climate, however, had changed since Reagan's first campaign. Although Reagan won reelection, the role of the Moral Majority in the victory had changed since 1980. A study of voters in the 1984 election showed that more anti-Moral Majority voters voted for [[Walter Mondale]] than pro-Moral Majority voters voted for Reagan, suggesting the Moral Majority may have actually had a negative effect on Reagan's campaign.<ref name="Election" />

====1988====
1988 was the last presidential election for which the Moral Majority was an active organization. With Reagan having reached his two-term limit, the Republican nomination was open to a variety of primary contenders. The evangelical minister and televangelist [[Pat Robertson]] sought the Republican nomination and would have been, at first glance, a natural choice for the Moral Majority's support. Although Robertson's political platforms were extremely similar to the ones the Moral Majority supported, Falwell gave his organization's endorsement to contender [[George H. W. Bush]] instead. Falwell's decision highlighted the rivalry between Falwell and Robertson as televangelists but also revealed the deep-seated tension that still persisted between competing evangelical traditions – Falwell's [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist]] tradition was at odds with Robertson's [[Charismatic Christianity|charismatic]] tradition.{{Sfn|Wilcox|1992|p=xv}}