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Revision as of 01:08, 1 March 2006 by Gracenotes (talk | contribs) (Added Jerry Falwell link)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The term Moral Majority refers to the concept that there are often informal subgroups within many larger nations that pursue a strict moral agenda, usually based upon a deep belief in a religion, such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. Such people often perceive themselves to be, or act as, the custodians or representatives of the culture's values, although they may in fact be a small minority of the people, and their views may therefore be given disproportionate emphasis in the news and other media, and in politics and other social decisions made by the government.
Moral Majority also refers to a political movement within the United States of this kind, which pursued an agenda of religiously-oriented political lobbying.
The rest of this article is about the latter meaning of the term.
The Moral Majority movement got its start out of a bitter battle for control of Christian Voice in 1979. After a news conference by Christian Voice's Robert Grant exposing the Religious Right as a "sham... controlled by three Catholics and a Jew," Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, and Richard Viguerie (the Catholics) and Howard Phillips (the Jew) left Christian Voice and recruited televangelist Jerry Falwell to found the Moral Majority which, by 1982, surpassed Christian Voice in size and influence. Started in 1979, the Moral Majority movement was an 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:
- outlawing abortion
- suppression of homosexuality
- enforcement its vision of family life
- censorship of media outlets that promote what it labeled 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.
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 majority."
- The punk-pop 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"
- The hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys had a song called "Moral Majority" on their EP In God We Trust, Inc.
- In the movie "Airplane!" a large breasted woman wears a very revealing T-shirt with the words "Moral Majority" printed upon it.
- 80's/90's band Pop Will Eat Itself use a sample of a Jerry Falwell speech in a track, opening their Cure for Sanity album, called "The Incredible PWEI vs. the Moral Majority".
- The Welsh band, The Manic Street Preachers, sing "Number one - the best - no excuse from me I am here to serve the moral majority" (sarcastically) in their song "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart".
Notable people within the movement
- Jerry Falwell
- Robert Grant
- Pat Robertson
- Tim LaHaye
- Beverly LaHaye
- Charles Stanley (radio evangelist)
- James Kennedy (televangelist)
The Moral Majority Coalition
In November 2004, Jerry Falwell unveiled The Moral Majority Coalition, an organization designed to continue the “evangelical revolution” that helped to bring President Bush back into the White House and saw the election of many pro-life leaders to national office. Referring to the Coalition 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.)
- Moral panic