Conservatism is a designation of the position of life, characterized by adherence to tradition – social, moral, or religious. Conservatism exists mainly latently and receives a specific ideological formulation to respond to a particular society’s challenges. The Americans of the 1970s had an abundance of such challenges because they were at the Cold War center and experienced several crises. This is why conservatism gained popularity in these years. Unlike liberalism and socialism, conservatism advocates protecting public social institutions. This kind of advocacy of traditional values is the primary source called “Reverend Jerry Falwell Summons America Back to the Bible, 1980”.
This 1980 address was written by Jerry Falwell, a Mexican religious leader, evangelist, and founder of Moral Majority, a political organization promoting conservative social values. Falwell advocated a conservative Christian faith and condemned what he saw as the sinfulness and godlessness of modern society. He wrote this appeal because he opposed abortion, feminism, gay rights, and other causes related to the social changes of the 1960s and 1970s. In the address, Falwell singled out homosexuality as one of the threats to American society. Apart from homosexuality, the article also blames pornography, divorce, and abortion for destroying society (Falwell, 416). The whole text is steeped in conservatism and reflects well the ideas of Christian conservatives in the 1980s when it was written.
Paul Boyer also appealed to Christian conservative values in his essay “Evangelical conservatism: a new phenomenon”. This work details the reasons for the conservatism and evangelization of American attitudes in the second half of the 20th century. Boyer points to “a larger reaction against the social upheavals, radical politics, and counterculture of the 1960s” as the main reason for this change (435). One can conclude that conservative religious views were formed as a response to post-crisis liberalization. It means that after going through several severe crises, American society was not ready for a drastic shift in values towards liberalism, and evangelical conservatism offered them stability. With a political bias, this religion preached conservative family values and the protection of social institutions.
In addition, proponents of this doctrine actively infused their morality into politics and popular culture, which helped to spread it even more strongly. One such politician was Jerry Falwell. Paul Boyer’s work details the development and spread of evangelical conservatism, which helps to understand better Jerry Falwell’s motivation for writing his address. Paul Boyer also discusses the historical context of the formation of such views and the impact of this ideology on popular culture. After reading this essay, it is clear why Falwell singled out homosexuality as a threat since, at the time, there were indeed ideas of segregation not only on racial grounds but also on sexual grounds.
Both of these works are very important for understanding the ideological and historical context of the time and forming a correct view. It is as if these two works present two perspectives on the situation – from the inside and the outside. This is because Falwell’s work has the emotional connotation of events zealously believing in a conservative postulate. At the same time, Boyer’s essay describes the situation from the outside. After reading these words, one can get a sense of the religious and political culture of the 1970s from the perspective of conservatism and its followers and popularizers.
Works Cited
Cobbs, Elizabeth, and Edward J. Blum, editors. Major problems in American history volume II: since 1865 documents and essays. Cengage, 2017.