Evangelical Politics and Status Issues

Abstract

The affinities between the New Christian Right and earlier mass-based moral reform movements have prompted scholars to revive the model of right-wing protest. This model asserts that moral reform movements attract groups who resent their cultural, political and moral devaluation by the dominant society. The model has rarely been tested empirically and then only with very rough proxies for status discontent. In a survey of churchgoers in a Southern community, a direct measure of dissatisfaction with the social respect accorded traditionalist groups and institutions proved to be a significant factor in promoting support for the Christian The contribution of status measures persisted even with controls for variables associated with rival explanatory frameworks. The findings suggest a future for the status politics model, provided its adherents heed several admonitions about conceptualization and measurement. In one form or another, the concept of remains at the heart of scholarly efforts to account for mass-based moral reform movements. According to the status politics perspective, moral crusades represent attempts by cultural groups to preserve, defend or enhance their social standing by securing public affirmation of a set of values and beliefs and their support by institutions of the state (Walis, 1979: 95). Though challenged by competing theories of social movements, the status politics model has been invoked by observers of the most recent moral reform movement in American politics, the socalled New Christian Right. Based on information gathered from a sample of churchgoers in one community, this paper offers an empirical assessment of the status politics interpretation of that movement. The study differs from previous research by: 1) its direct measurement of status discontent; 2) the inclusion of predictor variables associated with rival theories of social movements; and 3) the use of behavioral measures to assess mobilization.