The Power and the Spectacle
The Power and the Spectacle
By 1980, the momentum lay on the right side of the evangelical continuum. Ronald Reagan's victory linked evangelicalism with political conservatism in the popular imagination for decades to come. The Christian Right—a movement propelled by evangelicals but also containing sympathetic Catholics, Mormons, and a handful of Jewish allies—received disproportionate media attention, not least because its leaders served up a steady dish of spectacles. The Christian Right gave liberals an enduring foil, sparking the first of two evangelical scares. The reaction against Jerry Falwell and other Christian Right leaders led to the creation of People for the American Way. The public impact of evangelicalism was not strictly political, as the satanism scare and the PTL scandal revealed. Evangelical anxieties and spectacles were American anxieties and spectacles, too. This dynamic hindered Pat Robertson's presidential campaign, even as evangelical influence within the Republican Party remained strong.
Keywords: Ronald Reagan, Christian Right, Jerry Falwell, People for the American Way, satanism, PTL, Pat Robertson, Republican Party
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