Randall Balmer - Bad Faith - Notes

The commonly accepted story by the Religious Right disingenuously promoted by these dishonest people is that their movement entered   the political area  in protest of the Roe v Wade abortion decision in January of 1973. This assertion os false.  So proves Randall Balmer, a leading religious historian at Dartmouth.

It was the elimination of the text-exempt status of segregated institutions like Bob Jones University that got the Religious Right to get involved politically. This galvanized evangelicalism as a political force.  Only later did the movement invent its cover story that they got involved politically because of moral fervor over Roe v. Wade and the abortion issue.  Initially Roe v was accepted in evangelical circles.  It took fighting for the right to segregate to make abortion a political issue.

A highlight of this book is how Balmer explains the progressive roots of evangelicalism in the 19th Century.  Things have changed.  we have gone backwards.