Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T13:05:47.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning the Value of Rights: Abortion Politics and the Liberalization of Evangelical Free Speech Advocacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

Andrew R. Lewis
Andrew R. Lewis*
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Andrew R. Lewis, University of Cincinnati, McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, 1102 Crosley Tower, 301 Clifton Court, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0037. E-mail: andrew.lewis@uc.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For the past century, the expansion of free speech rights has been the domain of liberals. Recently, however, conservatives have become advocates for expanded free speech rights. For Evangelicals Protestants, this advocacy would have been highly controversial only a generation ago, offending the base's ordered liberty sentiments. I suggest that abortion politics is a primary contributor to the evangelical free speech advocacy shift. Using a variety of data, I detail the evangelical shift toward expanded free speech by exploring the topics of radical protest, campaign finance, and obscenity. While rank-and-file evangelicals are less supportive of free speech than the general-public, elites have routinely used abortion politics to frame the shift toward individual free speech rights. Elites have diverged from their constituents to support a higher-priority issue (abortion), and the constituents have been supportive. Abortion politics has come to dominate evangelical advocacy decisions and has cultivated an evangelical rights culture.

Type
Symposium: The Politics of Religious Alliances
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 309 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

“Baptist Leader Asks Public Funds to Fight Pornography.” 1970. Baptist Press: 1.Google Scholar
Boggs, Kelly. 2010. “First-Person: Limits to the First Amendment?” Baptist Press, September 17.Google Scholar
Brown, Steven P. 2002. Trumping Religion: The New Christian Right, the Free Speech Clause, and the Courts. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
CBS. 2014. “Southern Baptist Leader Calls for Fresh Approach in ‘Increasingly Post-Christian America.’” http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-southern-baptist-leader-russell-moore-calls-for-a-change-in-tone (Accessed on March 2, 2015).Google Scholar
Christian Legal Society. 2014. Brief of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, American Bible Society, Christian Medical Association, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Institutional Relgiious Freedom Alliance, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, National Association of Evangelicals, and Christian Legal Society, Amicus Curiae. In Eleanor McCullen, et al. v. Martha Coakley, et al. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Diggins, John P. 1984. The Lost Soul of American Politics: Virtue, Self-Interest, and the Foundations of Liberalism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul A., Lewis, Andrew R., Jelen, Ted G., and Dahan, Charles D.. 2014. “Rights Talk: The Opinion Dynamics of Rights Framing.” Social Science Quarterly 95:652–668.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 1998. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg-Hiller, Jonathan. 2004. Limits to Union: Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Civil Rights. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hacker, Hans J. 2005. The Culture of Conservative Christian Litigation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hanson, Russell L. 1985. The Democratic Imagination in America: Conversations with Our Past. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hartz, Louis. 1955. The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of Political Thought. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, and World.Google Scholar
Hayworth, Beth. 1970. “Graham Calls for Spiritual Renewal to Honor America.” Baptist Press, July 7.Google Scholar
Hunter, James Davison. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Land, Richard. 2010. “FIRST-PERSON: Is Kagan the Right Choice for the Court?” Baptist Press, June 29.Google Scholar
Lewis, Andrew R. 2011. The Southern Baptist Church-State ‘Culture War:’ The Internal Politics of Denominational Advocacy . Ph.D. diss., Political Science. Washington, DC: American University.Google Scholar
Lewis, Andrew R. 2014. “Abortion Politics and the Decline of the Separation of Church and State: The Southern Baptist Case.” Politics & Religion 7:521–549.Google Scholar
Counsel, Liberty. 2011. “U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Free Speech in Funeral Protest Case.” http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=1040 (Accessed March 2, 2015).Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. 1958a. Alcohol Advertising. Washington, DC: National Association of Evangelicals.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. 1958b. Obscene Literature. Washington, DC: National Association of Evangelicals.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. 1965. Obscenity. Washington, DC: National Association of Evangelicals.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. 1969. Pornography and the Courts. Washington, DC: National Association of Evangelicals.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. 1971. Abortion. 1971. Washington, DC: National Association of Evangelicals.Google Scholar
National Association of Evangelicals. Abortion . 1973. Abortion. http://nae.net/abortion (Accessed March 1, 2015).Google Scholar
Pacelle, Richard L. Jr. 1991. The Transformation of the Supreme Court's Agenda: From the New Deal to the Reagan Administration. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Perry, Pam. 1996. On Guard for Religious Liberty: Six Decades of the Baptist Joint Committee. Macon, GA: Smith & Helwys.Google Scholar
“Public Financing Passes Senate; House Outlook Dim.” 1974. Baptist Press: 3.Google Scholar
Shain, Barry Alan. 1994. The Myth of American Individualism: The Protestant Origins of American Political Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 1993. “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America.” American Political Science Review 87:549–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommerkamp, Theo. 1957. “Campaign Against Indecency Mapped.” Baptist Press, August 14.Google Scholar
Southern Baptist Convention. 1953. Resolution Concerning Obscenity in Literature. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/836/resolution-on-concerning-obscenity-in-literature (Accessed August 1, 2013).Google Scholar
Southern Baptist Convention. 1980. Resolution on Abortion. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/19/resolution-on-abortion (Accessed August 1, 2013).Google Scholar
Southern Baptist Convention. 1986. Resolution on Pornography. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/846/resolution-on-pornography (Accessed August 1, 2013).Google Scholar
Southern Baptist Convention. 1993. Resolution on Freedom of Choice Act, Hyde Amendment. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/24/resolution-on-the-freedom-of-choice-act-hyde-amendment (Accessed August 1, 2013).Google Scholar
Southern Baptist Convention. 2001. On Protecting Free Speech in Campaign Finance Legislation. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/556/on-protecting-free-speech-in-campaign-finance-legislation (Accessed on August 1, 2013).Google Scholar
Southworth, Ann. 2008. Lawywers of the Right: Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Staff. 2007. “Court Hears Case on Students’ Rights.” Baptist Press, March 20.Google Scholar
Steensland, Brian, Park, Jerry Z., Regnerus, Mark D., Robinson, Lynn D., Wilcox, W. Bradford, and Woodberry, Robert. 2000. “The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art.” Social Forces 79:291–318.Google Scholar
Stetzer, Ed., and Burge, Ryan P.. 2016. “Reltrad Coding Problems and a New Repository.” Politics & Religion 9:187–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strode, Tom. 1991. “Supreme Court Hears Operation Rescue Case.” Baptist Press, October 18.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 1992. “NEA's Frohmayer Resigns; Critics Credit Buchanan.” Baptist Press, February 24.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 1993. “Congress Approves Outlawing Abortion Clinic Blockades.” Baptist Press, November 19.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 1998. “High Court Hears Arguments over NEA Decency Standard.” Baptist Press, April 1.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 2000. “Supreme Court's Term Confirms Commitment to Abortion Rights.” Baptist Press, July 7.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 2001. “Campaign-Finance Bill Violates Free-Speech Rights, Critics Say.” Baptist Press, April 3.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 2002. “ACLJ Seeking to Overturn Campaign Finance Reform Law.” Baptist Press, April 5.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 2003. “ERLC, Others Decry Ruling on Campaign Reform Law.” Baptist Press, December 11.Google Scholar
Strode, Tom. 2014. “Court Backs Pro-Life Ads as Free Speech.” Baptist Press, June 16.Google Scholar
Teles, Steven M. 2008. The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tushnet, Mark V. 2005. NAACP's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education, 1925–1950. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Daniel K. 2016. Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before Roe v. Wade. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Michael P. 1996. The Natural Rights Republic: Studies in the Foundation of the American Political Tradition. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Lewis supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Lewis supplementary material(File)
File 27.4 KB