The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters

Evidence

How did abortion finally become part of the Religious Right’s agenda? After mobilizing in opposition to the Internal Revenue Service, Paul Weyrich and leaders of the nascent Religious Right were savvy enough to recognize that they needed another issue besides defense of racial segregation to rally rank-and-file evangelicals to the voting booth. Opposition to abortion, however, was by no means the logical alternative. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 121

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Balmer’s core thesis throughout this book that the Religious Right’s origins lie in defending segregated schools, not in abortion opposition — a claim that directly challenges the movement’s own origin story. — connects to: The religious right’s founding coalition was initially indifferent to abortion. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 234; Anti-abortion was chosen after other rallying issues were rejected — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 254; Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 258 (+14 more)
• QUESTION: If abortion was ‘by no means the logical alternative’ in 1978, what ethical or theological stance did most evangelicals actually hold on abortion before this mobilization?

Related

• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. (similarity 0.91)
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation (similarity 0.91)
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons (similarity 0.91)
• The religious right’s founding coalition was initially indifferent to abortion. (similarity 0.91)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.90)
• The Religious Right’s foundation is racial exclusion, not abortion opposition. (similarity 0.90)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.89)
• Proposed rallying issues for the Religious Right included gay rights before abortion (similarity 0.89)
• Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives (similarity 0.88)
• Anti-abortion was chosen after other rallying issues were rejected (similarity 0.88)
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. (similarity 0.87)
• Some evangelicals sincerely oppose abortion regardless of their movement’s origins (similarity 0.87)
• Confronting the abortion myth could reorient the whole evangelical agenda (similarity 0.87)
• The Religious Right strategists first favored gay rights over abortion as a mobilizing issue (similarity 0.87)
• Weyrich himself asserted abortion was irrelevant to the Religious Right’s rise (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion #corroborates (0.95) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 140
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation #expands (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 119
• The Religious Right’s foundation is racial exclusion, not abortion opposition. #corroborates (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 167
• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. #expands (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 166
• Forced desegregation of Christian schools, not abortion, sparked the Christian Right #corroborates (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 530
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #expands (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• Internal Religious Right correspondence celebrated abortion as an effective organizing issue #corroborates (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 130
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons #contradicts (0.80) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 222
• Proposed rallying issues for the Religious Right included gay rights before abortion #complicates (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 120
• Catholics entered whiteness by importing abortion politics into conservative Protestantism #expands (0.75) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 39