RELIGION AND THE NEW MAJORITY: Billy Graham, Middle America, and the Politics of the '70's

The thesis of this work is that a new religious majority is evolving in America; one which is also, and inescapably, a political majority; and that its prophet is Billy Graham. ""Graham,"" the authors state positively, ""is today the leader of the politically decisive majority."" This conclusion is founded on a double phenomenon: that most Americans incline to the sort of moderate fundamentalism, both political and religious, that Graham preaches; and that Graham's prominence as an unofficial presidential adviser and preacher has made him the natural leader of this civil religion. The essence of this new religion -- although the authors do not always call it that -- is conservatism: God, America, punishment of sinners (political as well as moral), rewarding of the virtuous (at both levels), A religion, in other words, curiously like that of the ancient Hebrews, with American Christians as the Chosen People; and a political system reminiscent of that of medieval Europe, with two almost indistinguishable heads, one spiritual and the other temporal. The authors neither bless nor curse; they merely record what they have observed. Their record is often frightening (except, of course, to the New Majority), but interesting if problematic job of religious and political synthesis.