Moral Majority

The persuasive strategies employed by the Moral Majority in the early 1980s reassured and calmed a segment of the American population left confused and uncertain by recent national events. David Snowball's analysis of this powerful movement reveals that, while the fundamental message of the Moral Majority remained constant, its subsequent changing popular image and maturing rhetoric, which initially added momentum to its rapid rise, may have been at the root of its swift decline by the end of the decade. Although the study's primary focus is on the organization itself, the analysis also provides valuable insight into the nature of the American political system's response to counter-elite movements in general.

This timely new study examines the place and nature of religion in industrial societies through a comparative analysis of conservative Protestant politics in a variety of 'first world' societies. Rejecting the popular, but misleading, grouping of diverse movements under the heading of 'fundamentalism', Bruce presents a series of detailed case studies of the Christian Right in the United States, Protestant unionism in Northen Ireland, anti-Catholicism in Scotland, Afrikaner politics in South Africa, and Empire Loyalism in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. He proceeds to examine the constraints that culturally diverse societies place on those who wish to promote political agendas based on religious ideas or on religiously informed ethnic identities.

Religious organizations often help communicate the core ideas of social movements; this collection of essays analyzes how social movements have been impacted by religious support in the United States. The contributors draw from cultural pluralism and communications theory to examine religious involvement in movements for political sanctuary, gay and lesbian rights, peace, and moral majority themes. Among their findings: religious organizations become significant communication vehicles for certain movements whose ideologies are consistent with their religious tenets.