Reagan’s 1980 appeal to evangelicals centered on school-tax-exemption segregation, not abortion

Evidence

On August 22, 1980, Reagan, the Republican nominee for president, strode to the podium before a packed crowd of fifteen thousand to twenty thousand evangelicals (estimates vary) at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Having been coached beforehand, Reagan flawlessly delivered his line. “Now, I know this is a non-partisan gathering, and so I know that you can’t endorse me,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect, “but I only brought that up because I want you to know that I endorse you and what you are doing.” The line brought down the house and arguably sealed the evangelical vote for Reagan. The candidate went on to declare his support for creationism and said that if he were stranded on a desert island, the one book he would want with him was the Bible. Reflecting the fury of evangelical leaders with the attempts to rescind the tax exemption of racially segregated institutions, Reagan excoriated the “unconstitutional regulatory agenda” directed by the Internal Revenue Service “against independent schools.” His speech before a packed house of evangelicals made no mention whatsoever of abortion. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 135

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the author’s central thesis across earlier chapters that school-desegregation tax exemptions, not abortion, first mobilized religious conservatives. — connects to: Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 246; The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 23; Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 138 (+1 more)

Related

• IRS regulations topped evangelicals’ 1979 grievances against Carter while abortion went unmentioned (similarity 0.86)
• Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill (similarity 0.86)
• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion (similarity 0.85)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.83)
• Evangelicals conspired against Carter’s reelection secretly (similarity 0.82)
• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. (similarity 0.81)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.81)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.80)
• White evangelicals in 1980 chose image over co-religionist Carter and backed Reagan (similarity 0.80)
• The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right (similarity 0.80)
• Politics, abortion, and school prayer failed for two decades to rouse evangelicals (similarity 0.79)
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation (similarity 0.78)
• Confronting the abortion myth could reorient the whole evangelical agenda (similarity 0.78)
• Evangelicals embraced Reagan despite his thin religious credentials because he embraced their politics. (similarity 0.78)
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion #corroborates (0.92) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 138
• The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right #corroborates (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 23
• 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
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling #corroborates (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 106