Phyllis Schlafly conceived the cross-denominational religious right decades before Falwell

Evidence

As the pro-life view came to dominate conservative Christian theology, an alliance between conservative Catholics and conservative evangelicals that could scarcely have been imagined in the America of earlier times began to take hold. Here, too, Schlafly took the lead. “Schlafly’s political genius owed to her prescient certitude that religious conservatives—Catholics, evangelicals, Mormons, and even Orthodox Jews—could abandon their longstanding separatist ways and unite on behalf of shared political goals,” writes Neil J. Young, author of We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics. “In the 1980s, Jerry Falwell would take (and receive) credit for being the mastermind of this ecumenical conservative movement,” says Young, but “Schlafly had imagined that unthinkable prospect as early as the 1950s, long before Falwell, and begun translating it into reality with her STOP ERA organization in the 1970s.” — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 276

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the standard Falwell-as-architect narrative of the religious right found in most movement histories. — connects to: Schlafly preceded Dobson and Falwell in forging the Religious Right. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 172; Schlafly made gender central to an emerging evangelical political identity. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 171

Broader Connections

• Schlafly preceded Dobson and Falwell in forging the Religious Right. #expands (0.92) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 172
• Schlafly made gender central to an emerging evangelical political identity. #exemplifies (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 171