Jimmy Carter, the politics of family, and the rise of the religious right

Resource Information

The work Jimmy Carter, the politics of family, and the rise of the religious right represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Jimmy Carter, the politics of family, and the rise of the religious right

Statement of responsibility

J. Brooks Flippen

Creator

• Flippen, J. Brooks, 1959-

Subject

• Carter, Jimmy, 1924- -- Religion
• Christian conservatism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Christianity and politics -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Families -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Religious right -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• United States -- Politics and government -- 1977-1981
• United States -- Social conditions -- 1960-1980
• Carter, Jimmy, 1924- -- Political and social views

Language

eng

Summary

As Jimmy Carter ascended to the presidency the heir apparent to Democratic liberalism, he touted his background as a born-again evangelical. Once in office, his faith indeed helped form policy on a number of controversial moral issues. By acknowledging certain behaviors as sinful while insisting that they were private matters beyond government interference, the author argues, Carter unintentionally alienated both social liberals and conservative Christians, thus ensuring that the debate over these moral "family issues" acquired a new prominence in public and political life. The Carter era, according to the author, stood at a fault line in American culture, religion, and politics. In the wake of the 1960s, some Americans worried that the traditional family faced a grave crisis. This newly politicized constituency viewed secular humanism in education, the recognition of reproductive rights established by Roe v. Wade, feminism, and the struggle for homosexual rights as evidence of cultural decay and as a challenge to religious orthodoxy. Social liberals viewed Carter's faith with skepticism and took issue with his seeming unwillingness to build on recent progressive victories. Ultimately, thar author argues, conservative Christians emerged as the Religious Right and were adopted into the Republican fold. Examining Carter's struggle to placate competing interests against the backdrop of difficult foreign and domestic issues, struggling economy, the stalled Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, disputes in the Middle East, handover of the Panama Canal, and the Iranian hostage crisis, the author shows how a political dynamic was formed that continues to this day

Member of

• Since 1970

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

973.926092

Illustrations

• illustrations
• plates

Index

index present

LC call number

E873.2

LC item number

.F57 2011

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Since 1970 : histories of contemporary America