Evangelicals Within Contemporary American Politics: Differentiating Between Fundamentalist and Non-Fundamentalist Evangelicals

Abstract

VER the past decade, political analysts have given renewed attention to the role of religion in American politics. One facet of this renewed attention has been an increased focus upon the political nature and electoral importance of American evangelical Christians. In fact, over the past several years, a great number of studies have emerged on the role of evangelicals in American politics (e.g., Lipset and Raab 1981; Fairbanks 1981; Guth 1981; Patel at al. 1982; Lienesch 1982, Johnson and Tawney 1982; Smidt 1983a, 1986, 1987; Kellstedt 1984, 1986; Woodard 1986). However, while the evangelical movement has captured both public and scholarly attention, analysts have frequently been insensitive to important differences within that movement. While knowledgeable observers have recognized the tremendous diversity within evangelicalism (e.g., Quebedeaux 1974; Webber 1978; Fowler 1982), evangelicals have usually been treated as an undifferentiated mass. Such a lack of differentiation may well lead to imprecise, misleading, or erroneous assessments of both the political characteristics and importance of the evangelical movement and the way in which evangelicals may be tied to political changes occurring within American politics today. One of the most important distinctions within the ranks of evangelicals today is that between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist evangelicals. Because certain differences between the two groups are more a matter of degree and emphasis than absolute in nature, the exact lines separating fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist evangelicals are not always totally precise. Nevertheless, broadly speaking, fundamentalism tends to represent a distinct, more extreme, form of evangelicalism. Consequently, while all fundamentalists are evangelicals, not all evangelicals are necessarily fundamentalist (Reichley 1985: 312).