-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Kyle Welty, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. By Randall Balmer, Journal of Church and State, Volume 64, Issue 4, Autumn 2022, Pages 762–763, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csac059
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
In this slim (86 compact pages of text) volume, Randall Balmer seeks to expose a myth that has obscured the true origins of the so-called Religious Right. Given the central place of opposition to abortion among conservative American Christians today, many observers assume that this issue prompted the alliance to coalesce. The historical record, as exposed by Balmer, proves otherwise. While the abortion issue came to prominence among evangelicals in the 1980s, the initial rallying point was frustration with the federal government’s perceived interference with private religious schools.
Balmer, who grew up within the world of American evangelicalism (his father even makes it into the book’s narrative), reminds his readers that things have not always been this way. He begins with an examination of the Second Great Awakening. Recounting the work of figures like Charles Finney, Balmer documents how evangelicals were in the vanguard of progressive movements, such as abolition and the push for women’s rights. As Balmer explains it, things took a turn with the rise of dispensationalism and its attending eschatology, which convinced many evangelicals that seeking to improve society was futile. As a result of his concise narrative, Balmer quickly travels from the nineteenth century to the era of Jimmy Carter, documenting how evangelicals opted not to support one of their own just as they began to be more politically active.
