moral majority movement

In the USA, a right-wing evangelical Christian pressure group, which promotes traditional family values and is opposed to abortion, gay rights, single parenthood, feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment, ‘welfare dependency’, and pornography.

The movement, which claims to represent majority opinion in the USA, was led from the 1970s by the Rev Jerry Falwell of Virginia and has drawn its strongest support from the states of the south and west. In association with such grassroots lobbying organizations as Conservative Caucus and the national Conservative Political Action Committee, it formed the cutting edge for what became known as the New Right. This attained political power in the USA with the election of the Republican, Ronald Reagan, as president in 1980.

The Rev Pat Robertson, a Baptist television preacher who challenged for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, has been the most vocal proponent of the values of the moral majority during recent years and the Robertson-aligned Christian Coalition now dominates the Republican party in nearly 20 states. However, at the highest levels of government, with the election of the Democrat, Bill Clinton, as president in 1992, the movement's influence has been weakened.