Getting Religion in Politics

Archive Report

Evangelicals Become Electoral Force

After making a strong early showing in the campaigning that led up to Michigan's Aug. 5 Republican primary, television evangelist Marion G. “Pat” Robertson expressed jubilation about the early success of his exploratory 1988 presidential campaign. “The Christians have won!” he wrote to some 50,000 supporters in June. The comment seemed to sum up both the emerging political strength of Robertson and others on the “Christian Right,” as well as, in the eyes of some people, the potentially dangerous impact of a powerful religious movement on American political life.

As it turned out, Robertson did not do as well in the Michigan primary as some of his supporters had hoped. Most accounts had him finishing well behind Vice President George Bush in ...

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