Reluctant Warriors: Premillennialism and Politics in the Moral Majority

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1991

Publication Title

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Volume

30

Issue

3

First page number:

245

Last page number:

258

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of premillennialist theological beliefs on attitudes about political participation among members of the Indiana and Arkansas chapters of the Moral Majority. Premillennialism was found to increase positive attitudes toward political activity by inculcating beliefs about an active Devil taking part in human affairs, and to decrease the perceived efficacy of political participation by engendering beliefs that political activity is futile in the face of the coming millennium. This was found to produce a significant level of cognitive dissonance among Moral Majority members.

Keywords

Evangelicalism; Faith; Religion; Religion and politics; Theology

Disciplines

American Politics | Political Science | Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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