Social Conservatives

[Free Speech Enjoyer]

During the time my laptop was down for repair, a couple questions popped into my head about the American social conservative movement;

1. Why are evangelical leaders prone to be more outspoken on issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage than poverty and hunger?

2. What is the social conservative movement rooted in?

I think someone once sent me a YouTube video that links the social conservatives' roots to the Cold War, but I lost the link a while ago.

[The Mikado]

At its roots, Protestant Christianity has a strong conviction that faith alone can bring salvation and that attempting to curry favor with the divine through works (including both good works and Catholic-style sacraments) is not only ineffectual, but counterproductive (all men are inherently depraved from the fall etc so there is no such thing as a "good person"). Inherently, these beliefs can lead certain clergy and congregations to the view that encouraging people to embrace the faith and shun things that can distract/lead people away from it like homosexuality is far more productive for that person's spiritual well-being than clothing him etc., because this lifetime is a temporary moment while salvation or damnation is eternal.

Needless to say not all or even most Protestants take sola fides quite that seriously (whether they reject that message as nihilistic or simply aren't as familiar with doctrine as they could be).  There are, of course, big Christian movements towards charity and social activism (notably the campaign to divest from the Sudanese government during the Darfur genocide).  I'm just saying that to the extent that there are movements that prioritize faith and personal righteousness over social activism, it's descended straight from Martin Luther and Faith vs. Deeds.

[Free Speech Enjoyer]

At its roots, Protestant Christianity has a strong conviction that faith alone can bring salvation and that attempting to curry favor with the divine through works (including both good works and Catholic-style sacraments) is not only ineffectual, but counterproductive (all men are inherently depraved from the fall etc so there is no such thing as a "good person"). Inherently, these beliefs can lead certain clergy and congregations to the view that encouraging people to embrace the faith and shun things that can distract/lead people away from it like homosexuality is far more productive for that person's spiritual well-being than clothing him etc., because this lifetime is a temporary moment while salvation or damnation is eternal.

Needless to say not all or even most Protestants take sola fides quite that seriously (whether they reject that message as nihilistic or simply aren't as familiar with doctrine as they could be).  There are, of course, big Christian movements towards charity and social activism (notably the campaign to divest from the Sudanese government during the Darfur genocide).  I'm just saying that to the extent that there are movements that prioritize faith and personal righteousness over social activism, it's descended straight from Martin Luther and Faith vs. Deeds.

I know where many Protestants derive their philosophy from, but religion didn't become prevalent in US politics until, at the very earliest, the slavery debate, did it not?  (One book I read suggests that the belief in Biblical literacy/inerrancy in the South is rooted in the slavery debate, when slaveholders used certain passages of the Bible to justify it.)

What we know today as social conservatism probably saw its highest level of support in the early 1980s, and has been on a steady decline since W.'s reelection.

[DC Al Fine]

2. What is the social conservative movement rooted in?

Short answer: Backlash to the socially liberal shift after WW1

[Torie]

They hew to the already formed preconceptions of their market niche.

[Robert California]

Regarding the Cold War mention: What you had as America's greatest enemy at that time was a Godless communist dictatorship of sorts. They had legalized abortion around 1920 by my memory and had enacted a litany of other policies related to the idea of liberating people from the typical family structure, etc. While I doubt many people really read enough about the USSR to know or care about what they did in the 1920's regarding women's issues, the stuff mentioned in the first sentence is quite obvious. What is the better foil to those Godless communists than Christian capitalists? It could be proffered that the late 20th century conservative movement was in many ways made as an opposite to that. As well, it's not like drugs, LSD, the anti-war movement, hippies, etc. were associate with Republicans or conservatism. The party associated with them was bound to see defections from social conservatives.

I know that what I said above communicated very little, however, I hope you got as much out of it as possible.

[afleitch]

Regarding the Cold War mention: What you had as America's greatest enemy at that time was a Godless communist dictatorship of sorts. They had legalized abortion around 1920 by my memory and had enacted a litany of other policies related to the idea of liberating people from the typical family structure, etc. While I doubt many people really read enough about the USSR to know or care about what they did in the 1920's regarding women's issues, the stuff mentioned in the first sentence is quite obvious. What is the better foil to those Godless communists than Christian capitalists? It could be proffered that the late 20th century conservative movement was in many ways made as an opposite to that. As well, it's not like drugs, LSD, the anti-war movement, hippies, etc. were associate with Republicans or conservatism. The party associated with them was bound to see defections from social conservatives.

I know that what I said above communicated very little, however, I hope you got as much out of it as possible.

Regarding the Cold War mention: What you had as America's greatest enemy at that time was a Godless communist dictatorship of sorts. They had legalized abortion around 1920 by my memory and had enacted a litany of other policies related to the idea of liberating people from the typical family structure, etc. While I doubt many people really read enough about the USSR to know or care about what they did in the 1920's regarding women's issues, the stuff mentioned in the first sentence is quite obvious. What is the better foil to those Godless communists than Christian capitalists? It could be proffered that the late 20th century conservative movement was in many ways made as an opposite to that. As well, it's not like drugs, LSD, the anti-war movement, hippies, etc. were associate with Republicans or conservatism. The party associated with them was bound to see defections from social conservatives.

I know that what I said above communicated very little, however, I hope you got as much out of it as possible.

You’re almost there I’d say. Social conservatism as we know it has its roots in the immediate Cold War and appeals at all times to the ‘family.’ The core of this group was or are the parents of babyboomers and babyboomers themselves. The idea of the ‘model family’ being the mother, father and two kids exclusively is both old and new. It’s old in the sense it’s not the default structure of many families today and it’s ‘new’ in the sense that it wasn’t the structure of families prior to the 1940’s and 50’s. Before then if you were rich or poor, the primary care givers (and this is important) in your family were often not just your parents (or even your parents at all); they were nannies, maids, schools or your aunt or sister or gran. Mother and father often did very little in the way of parenting (and fathers were often discouraged from assisting) if they were well off or dirt poor. You had two generations who sent their sons off to war and in between suffered from the effects of the Great Depression when both parents had to get work to simply survive. However the 50’s saw the boom in the middle class, consumerism and time saving gadgets and the ‘American Dream.’ At this point with many women not having to work, care-giving became more insular and restricted to mother and father (yes grandparents still looked after the kids but not in the same manner) When it became more restrictive then it bred social conservatism focused on family, protection and aspiration. The counter culture burst this bubble, but when they themselves started to settled down and have kids in the 70’s and 80’s that sense of security and indeed paranoia found an outlet. Community became like minded individuals with like minded ideals and suburbia, churches, social clubs all became a breeding ground for this.

[Kitteh]

Everything that has been said so far is very true. I'd also add that the obvious answer of the historical connection between Protestantism (especially Calvinism) and capitalism, the Protestant work ethic and all that.

IMO, one of the effects of the backlash against "Godless Communism" and then hippie-ism was the uniting of conservative Protestants and Catholics in the US. I'm not sure if this is something that has actually been studied/written about, but it does seem that around the 50s/60s/70s there was a marked shift towards more Protestant-Catholic unity, and it seems like at least part of that was due to the "the best way to unite people is to give them a common enemy' effect related to the Soviets and the New Left.

[Torie]

The fading away into almost nothing of the longstanding Catholic-Protestant animus is something that deserves more study. I think a lot of it had to do with Catholics becoming a more educated and middle to upper middle class demographic, and assimilating into well, the overarching Protestant (I mean mainline here), leitmotif. And both of course became gradually more secular to boot. It interests me because the animus my parents had to the Catholic Church (and they were not religious at all) did have a lot of psychological energy behind it, but by the time I was in college I felt absolutely none at all. I just didn't give a damn. Just what was it that caused that change?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I know where many Protestants derive their philosophy from, but religion didn't become prevalent in US politics until, at the very earliest, the slavery debate, did it not?  (One book I read suggests that the belief in Biblical literacy/inerrancy in the South is rooted in the slavery debate, when slaveholders used certain passages of the Bible to justify it.)

What we know today as social conservatism probably saw its highest level of support in the early 1980s, and has been on a steady decline since W.'s reelection.

Scott, religion was used by both sides of the slavery debate. Many of the earliest abolitionists were Quakers and when it became a mainstream opinion in the north, it was because it was a part of the Congregationalist desire to perfect society, along with the increasing push for Prohibition and other aspects of the "reform" movement. Because these overlap with early Progressivism, it is often forgotten that it's primary motivation was out of a religious motivation first and foremost to perfect a clean, godly society. Also a number of religious groups out of New England formed the core of opposition to the Indian Removal Act, because they had become so deeply involved in the Cherokee society of the time.

Even amongst the Southern churches, support for Slavery was an adaptation to the changing climate resulting from the rise of Cotton and the threat posed by slave rebellions in the early 1800's.

[All Along The Watchtower]

The more interesting question is why the "Religious Right" has become actively involved in American politics in recent decades, particularly in light of religion's overall decline in America in the modern age. I suspect anxiety and fear over the overall decline of religiosity in America, especially in urban areas going back to WWII, and the connection in social/religious conservatives mind's between "secularism", Communism, liberalism (though, it is important to note that liberal intellectual elites have not always been so secular!), and overall depravity (according to the beliefs of social conservatives) has a lot to do with this.