Religion: Jerry Falwell's Crusade

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The years since World War II have brought a boom among both Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in youth ministries, foreign missions, day schools, publishing ^ and broadcasting. Political activism became necessary, as the Fundamentalists saw it, in order to try to counteract numerous unpalatable social trends and policies. Among goads to action: the 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court rulings against school prayer and Bible reading and the 1973 ruling to legalize abortion. The creation of Moral Majority and the "new religious right" resulted partly from the 1978 IRS decision to stop giving automatic tax exemptions to religious day schools and to set racial quotas as the general standard for qualifying. Though some of the schools were begun as segregation academies, many more were nondiscriminatory but found that few blacks wanted to enroll.

Today Fundamentalists and Evangelicals share very similar beliefs and values. But the Evangelicals tolerate a somewhat broader range of Bible interpretation and cultural outlook, and tend to be against doctrinal witch- hunts. The gut difference is a matter more of attitude than of theology. In Historian Marsden's tongue-in-cheek but perceptive definition, "a Fundamentalist is an Evangelical who is angry about something."

Another distinction involves church affiliations. Evangelicals often coexist amicably with liberals within mainline denominations, such as Methodist and Presbyterian groups, that hold membership in the National Council of Churches. These bodies tolerate a variety of beliefs. All true Fundamentalists, strictly speaking, belong to congregations or denominations that root out any hint of liberalism. As many as 10 million members worship in wholeheartedly Fundamentalist churches.* There are several times as many Evangelicals, both inside and outside the mainline groups. The largest Evangelical body, the 14.4 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, is now facing a powerful takeover campaign by its Fundamentalist wing.

The factions and distinctions can also be described in terms of personalities. Falwell is leading a church movement increasingly known as the New Fundamentalism. It seeks to shed the reputation for bigotry and cultural narrowness without giving an inch on the Bible issues. Falwell wants to build spiritual alliances with as many of the moderate Evangelicals as possible. But even without the furor over his foray into South Africa, he faces enormous obstacles in building support among black Protestants. In the 1960s, the ex- segregationist did nothing to advance civil rights. Today his right-wing political agenda does not fit that of most blacks. With a few exceptions, ; black churches are too flexible in theology to qualify as Fundamentalist.

An older, more extreme version of Fundamentalism is still around, symbolized most visibly by South Carolina's Bob Jones University (enrollment: 5,500), which did not admit blacks until 1971 and still forbids interracial dating. Chancellor Bob Jones Jr. of the superstrict institution (supervised dating, no pop music, rigid dress code) almost seems to take pride in what he jokingly calls the school's "lunatic-fringe" reputation.