Political Structures and Evangelical Activism

Abstract

Chapter 5 demonstrated that group ideology was the catalyst which structured believers’ moral and political views around the issues of abortion, pornography, and religion in state-supported schools and legitimated the formation of social movement organizations to represent those values. The arguments used by American and British evangelicals against abortion and pornography and in support of religion in public schools were nearly identical regardless of the setting. In each nation, the issues became crystallized as a moral and religious debate about human life, the proper expression of sexuality and the place of God in human affairs. Political pressure groups became the vehicle for evangelicals who wanted to change public laws to conform with group values.