Evangelicals conspired against Carter’s reelection secretly

Evidence

Given Carter’s political troubles, the defection of evangelicals may or may not have been decisive. But it is certainly true that evangelicals, having helped propel Carter to the White House four years earlier, turned dramatically against him, their fellow evangelical, during the course of his presidency. And the catalyst for their political activism was not, as often claimed, opposition to abortion. Although abortion had begun to emerge as a rallying cry late in the 1980 campaign, the real roots of the Religious Right lay not in the defense of a fetus but in the defense of racial segregation. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 138 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Progressive evangelicalism peaked in the mid-1970s with Carter’s election — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 72; Mid-century evangelicals boycotted voting as politics belonged to Satan — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 70; Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 138 (+3 more)

Related

• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion (similarity 0.92)
• Evangelical conspiracy against Carter began well before his reelection campaign. (similarity 0.91)
• Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill (similarity 0.87)
• Progressive evangelicalism peaked in the mid-1970s with Carter’s election (similarity 0.86)
• Unorganized evangelicals voted for Carter before the Religious Right existed (similarity 0.86)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.85)
• White evangelicals in 1980 chose image over co-religionist Carter and backed Reagan (similarity 0.84)
• Mid-century evangelicals boycotted voting as politics belonged to Satan (similarity 0.84)
• IRS regulations topped evangelicals’ 1979 grievances against Carter while abortion went unmentioned (similarity 0.82)
• Reagan’s 1980 appeal to evangelicals centered on school-tax-exemption segregation, not abortion (similarity 0.82)
• The Religious Right includes more than fundamentalists (similarity 0.80)
• Institutions built for withdrawal later enabled evangelical political reentry (similarity 0.79)
• Three 1980 presidential candidates openly claimed evangelical Christian identity (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The Religious Right assembled through counter-conferences timed to unseat Carter #exemplifies (0.88)
• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion #complicates (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 138
• Threatening conditions at home and abroad drove Carter’s 1980 loss to Reagan #qualifies (0.75)