The Rise of Baptist Republicanism

Oran P. Smith

Published by New York University Press 1997

The Rise of Baptist Republicanism

Oran P. Smith

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814739761.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

By championing the ideals of independence, evangelism, and conservism, the Southern Baptist Covention (SBC) has grown into the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Convention's mass democratic form of church government, its influential annual meetings, and its sheer size have made it a barometer for Southern political and cultural shift. Its most recent shift has been starboard-toward fundamentalism and Republicanism.
While the Convention once ofered a happy home to Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and church-state separationists, in the past two decades the SBC has become an uncomfortable institution for Democrats, progressive theologians, and other moderate voices. Current SBC member-heroes include Senators Trent Lott and Jesse Helms. Despite this seeming marginalization, Southern Baptist politicians have grown from political obscurity to occupying the four highest positions in the constitutional order of succesion to the presidency. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senate President pro-tempore Strom Thurmond, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich are all Southern Baptists.
In its emerging Republicanism, the SBC has taken on characteristics of its more active fellow travelers in the Christian Right, forging alliances with former enemies (African Americans amd Roman Catholics), playing presidential politics, establishing a Washington lobbying presence, working the political grassroots, and declaring war on Walt Disney. Each of these missions has been accomplished with calculating political precision.
The Rise of Baptist Republicanism traces the Republicanization of the SBC's Republicanism in the context of the rise of the Fundamentalist Right and the emergence of a Republican majority in the South. Describing the SBC's political roots, Oran P. Smith contrasts Baptist Republicans with the rest of the Christian Right while revealing the theological, cultural, and historical factors which have made Southern Baptists receptive to Republican/Fundamentalist Right influences. The book is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the intersection of religion and politics in America today.

Author / Editor information

Smith Oran P. :

ORAN P. SMITH is a researcher and writer for the South Carolina business community. He has taught political science at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

Reviews

Smith has written a richly detailed, valuable study that clearly deserves a place on the shelves of scholars of southern politics and of religion and politics.

Smith's provocative and insightful book offers an excellent history lesson in Southern and Southern Baptist politics.

A fascinating and well-documented study of the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) into the single largest religious force in modern American politics.

Earl Black,coauthor of Politics and Society in the South:
A welcome addition to the literature on American politics and religion.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of figures Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
List of tables Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of appendices Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction: baptist republicanism's cultural antecedents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Backlash: baptist republicanism as fundamentalist reaction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
3. Culture war: baptist republicanism as cultural defense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
4. Fundamental differences: baptist republicanism's political partners Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
5. Bible belt: baptist republicanism in the palmetto state Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6. The pew and the pulpit: baptist republican mass and elite politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
7. United we survive: baptist republican alliances Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
8. Conclusion: baptist republicanism, southern conservatism, and American politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Appendices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: September 1, 1997
ISBN: 9780814739761