Republicans and Evangelicals | Why Christians Didn't Vote for Carter

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Boy, the Religious Right did not like Carter, at least by 1980. Some of them, like Pat Robertson, had high hopes for him at the start. But they quickly grew to distrust the man from Georgia.

Why? In this episode, Chris goes through some of the top issues that evangelicals had with Jimmy Carter. They include his article in Playboy Magazine that mentions his struggles with sex (but also featured a strong gospel message), his support of the ERA, and his lackluster responses to their questions about abortion.

But... It's not as if Ronald Reagan was significantly better. Reagan was not a regular churchgoer like Carter. He consulted a medium for his decisions. He was a divorced former actor in a time when evangelicals didn't like Hollywood. So... how bad was this Carter guy that they didn't vote for him?

Our special guest for this episode is historian and author Rick Perlstein.

Sources:

• Today story on Carter's church
• Tampa Bay Times story on Carter's church
• Associated Press story on Carter's church
• Christianity Today article on Carter's 100th birthday
• Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
• Document the interview the Religious Right guys did
• Criswell ad
• Strom Thurmond ad
• Playboy Magazine, November 1976
• Reagan: An American Journey by Bob Spitz
• White House Conference on Families: Listening to America's Families. Pamphlet
• God's Own Party by Daniel K Williams
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
• The Surprising Work of God by Garth Rosell
• Jimmy Carter Library interview with Robert Maddox
• Carter's speech to NAE (courtesy of Jimmy Carter Presidential Library)

Discussion Questions:

• Why did some evangelicals so strongly oppose the ERA?
• What did you see in the Playboy article that might be construed as unappealing to Christians?
• If Reagan engaged in fortunetelling, why did some evangelicals follow him and not Carter?
• Why have evangelicals become enamored of leaders? What has that done to our witness?

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