within U.S. religious denominations as well as greater
participation among the groups. Since the establish-
ment of the National Council of Churches (NCC) in
1950, many denominations had continued to work
together to find points of agreement and common
areas of interest. One example of this kind of collab-
oration was the publication in 1989 of the New Re-
vised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible. Under
the supervision of the NCC, a group of scholars
from Protestant denominations joined with Roman
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Jewish scholars to
produce a version of the Scriptures that included
more gender-inclusive language and updated other
archaisms. The NRSV was widely endorsed by larger
Protestant denominations and is an accepted trans-
lation in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Though the NCC is a broad alliance of churches
representing members of various theological incli-
nations, it has been criticized by liberal Christians
for its exclusion of the Metropolitan Community
Church (MCC), an organization that formed during
the late 1960’s but grew in both membership and na-
tional recognition during the 1980’s. Throughout
the decade, the MCC, with its explicit mission of
ministering to gay and lesbian Christians, became a
voice for AIDS awareness and in support of church-
ordained marriage ceremonies for gays and lesbians.
Between 1983 and 1992, the MCC sought member-
ship in the ecumenical body. In 1992, it was denied
not only membership but also the opportunity to
apply for “observer” status.
The Rise of the Religious Right The decision by the
NCC to deny the MCC’s membership resulted in
part from tensions at the other end of the political
and theological spectrum. The NCC’s decision to
appeal to more conservative members represented
the council’s own acknowledgment that conserva-
tive Christians were playing a larger role not only in
American religious life but also in politics at the lo-
cal, state, and national levels.
The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan (and the de-
feat of Jimmy Carter, a self-professed born-again
Christian) was a political victory delivered in large
part by Christian activist groups that had been mobi-
lizing throughout the 1970’s in response to the Su-
preme Court’s 1973Roe v. Wadedecision and to the
proposed adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA). Singer Anita Bryant’s crusade to repeal a
1977 civil rights ordinance in Florida that included
protections for gays and lesbians is often marked by
historians as the birth not only of the current strug-
gles for gay and lesbian rights but also of what is
sometimes referred to as the New Christian Right or
the New Religious Right. Opponents of the ordi-
nance were quite successful in their use of grass-
roots-level organization strategies to influence vot-
ers to vote according to their religious principles.
The 1980’s thus saw a dramatic increase in partici-
pation in conservative religious organizations. Op-
ponents of the ERA—including the Concerned
Women for America, founded by Beverly LaHaye,
and Eagle Forum, founded by Phyllis Schlafly—
helped ensure that the 1982 deadline came and
went without the required number of votes for ratifi-
cation to the U.S. Constitution. Other groups that
gained status and popularity during the decade were
the Moral Majority, founded by Jerry Falwell and
others in 1979, and the Christian Coalition, estab-
lished in 1989 by the Reverend Pat Robertson.
Reagan’s election marked an important victory
for the Religious Right. The president rewarded his
base by appointing activists to national leadership
positions. His tenure in office was marked by social
and economic policies that derived from his en-
gagement with what a future presidential candidate
called the American “culture wars.” Reagan often in-
voked rhetoric associated with Judeo-Christian prin-
ciples and frequently referred to America as God’s
“city upon a hill,” a reference to John Winthrop’s
1630 sermon “A Model of Christian Charity.” Rea-
gan proclaimed 1983 the “Year of the Bible,” argu-
ing: “Of the many influences that have shaped the
United States of America into a distinctive Nation
and people, none may be said to be more fundamen-
tal and enduring than the Bible.” The proclamation
ended: “I encourage all citizens, each in his or her
own way, to reexamine and rediscover its priceless
and timeless message.”
Christian conservatives continued to work on so-
cial and political issues. Though there has been frag-
mentation and some division among conservative
leadership at the national level, activists remain
united in at least one area—their crusade to end the
legalization of abortion in the United States. The
Reagan years were a period of great political mobili-
zation for conservative Christians. Many activists
joined in Robertson’s 1988 failed run in the Republi-
can primary election for the presidency. Robertson,
an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was not the820 Religion and spirituality in the United States The Eighties in America