The March Goes On
The Christian Right and the 2004 Values
Campaign
JOHN C. GREEN MARK J. ROZELL, AND CLYDE WILCOX
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT NEVER CEASES TO SURPRISE PROFESSIONAL observers of American politics. Since its inception in the late 1970s, this social movement among conservative Christians has been the subject of numerous obituaries and revivals. The “values campaign” is a good example: After the 2000 election the Christian Right was widely perceived to be moribund—only to be declared a major factor in the 2004 election results. Behind these volatile assessments lies a deeper reality. The Christian Right has been engaged in a long and torturous march from outsider status into the mainstream of regular politics. The “values campaign” reveals that the march goes on.
This volume is the fifth in a series of research reports on the statelevel activities of the Christian Right, beginning with God at the Grassroots(Rozell and Wilcox 1995) and followed by God at the Grassroots, 1996 (Rozell and Wilcox 1997); Prayers in the Precincts (Green, Rozell, and Wilcox 2000); and The Christian Right in American Politics: Marching to the Millennium(Green, Rozell, and Wilcox 2003). We have served as conveners of a community of scholars who have followed Christian Right activities at the state level; this volume includes contributions by several scholars who have been involved since 1994, as well as insights from several new colleagues.
These state-level studies have focused on the electoral and organizational activities of the Christian Right, adding an important dimension to
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