IRS regulations topped evangelicals’ 1979 grievances against Carter while abortion went unmentioned

Evidence

When Conservative Digest catalogued evangelical discontent with Jimmy Carter in August 1979, the Internal Revenue Service regulations headed the list. Abortion, on the other hand, was not mentioned. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 117

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete historical evidence that generalizes Balmer’s own claim in The Rise of the Religious Right about IRS actions being the true catalyst. — connects to: Evangelical conspiracy against Carter began well before his reelection campaign. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 86; Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 106; Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 131 (+6 more)

Related

• Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill (similarity 0.88)
• Reagan’s 1980 appeal to evangelicals centered on school-tax-exemption segregation, not abortion (similarity 0.86)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.85)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.85)
• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion (similarity 0.84)
• Evangelical conspiracy against Carter began well before his reelection campaign. (similarity 0.82)
• Evangelicals conspired against Carter’s reelection secretly (similarity 0.82)
• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. (similarity 0.82)
• The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right (similarity 0.81)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.80)
• Progressive evangelicalism peaked in the mid-1970s with Carter’s election (similarity 0.80)
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation (similarity 0.80)
• The Religious Right includes more than fundamentalists (similarity 0.78)
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s (similarity 0.78)
• A tax law ruling on segregation, not Roe, catalyzed the Religious Right (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion #corroborates (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 138
• Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill #contradicts (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 131
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. #corroborates (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 246
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (0.85) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s #corroborates (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122
• The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right #corroborates (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 23
• White evangelicals in 1980 chose image over co-religionist Carter and backed Reagan #expands (0.72) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 244