Internal Religious Right correspondence celebrated abortion as an effective organizing issue

Evidence

In the course of my research in Falwell’s archives at Liberty University and Weyrich’s papers at the University of Wyoming, it became very clear that the 1978 election represented a formative step toward galvanizing everyday evangelical voters. Correspondence between Weyrich and evangelical leaders fairly crackles with excitement. In a letter to fellow conservative Daniel B. Hales, Weyrich characterized the triumph of pro-life candidates as “true cause for celebration.” Billings, a cobelligerent who had urged opposition to gay rights as the “emotionally charged issue to stir up” evangelical voters, now predicted that opposition to abortion would “pull together many of our ‘fringe’ Christian friends.” By this time, Roe v. Wade had been law for more than five years. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 130

Categorization

• CANDY: Weyrich calling pro-life wins ‘true cause for celebration’ and Billings wanting to ‘pull together fringe Christian friends’ is vivid archival color showing the operative, instrumental mindset.
• XREF: connects to: The religious right’s founding coalition was initially indifferent to abortion. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 234; Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 258; The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 121 (+6 more)

Related

• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power (similarity 0.90)
• The religious right’s founding coalition was initially indifferent to abortion. (similarity 0.87)
• 1978 pro-life upsets convinced Weyrich abortion could mobilize evangelical voters (similarity 0.87)
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain (similarity 0.86)
• Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives (similarity 0.86)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.86)
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons (similarity 0.85)
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. (similarity 0.84)
• The Religious Right’s founding narrative claims Roe v. Wade roused evangelicals from political passivity (similarity 0.84)
• Weyrich himself asserted abortion was irrelevant to the Religious Right’s rise (similarity 0.84)
• Early Moral Majority insiders confirm abortion was not its founding issue (similarity 0.84)
• Proposed rallying issues for the Religious Right included gay rights before abortion (similarity 0.83)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.83)
• The Religious Right strategists first favored gay rights over abortion as a mobilizing issue (similarity 0.83)
• Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (0.93) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons #corroborates (0.92) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 222
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain #corroborates (0.90) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 255
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s #corroborates (0.88) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122
• The Religious Right’s founding narrative claims Roe v. Wade roused evangelicals from political passivity #qualifies (0.88) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 89