Why Are Most Evangelicals Political Conservatives?

In the late 1970's, a major theological and political shift took place in the Southern Baptist Convention. The convention was moving leftward in the 1960's and 1970's, but that all changed. A massive grassroots efforts affected the political landscape of the convention. The Southern Baptist Convention moved to the right, and the nation followed.

The truth is that this shift was mostly caused by theological reasons. Southern Baptists are people of the book. Once the local church became aware of what was taking place at the Seminaries, the local church felt the need to respond. However, this theological shift had major implications on the nation as a whole.

The Reagan revolution started in 1980. This political movement was created when Southern Democrats switched parties and began voting for Republicans. The once solid south, became a political juggernaut for the Republican party. The Republicans had an educated evangelical voting block to thank for this movement.

Now we know that most evangelicals align themselves with the Republican party. I hope to give a brief explanation of why this is so. I believe there are two reasons for it. The first reason is obvious, and the second reason may make you think.

The first reason that most evangelicals are conservative is their moral convictions. Evangelicals believe that the Bible is true. The Bible speaks very clearly on several social issues. I know that there are those out there that say that the Bible doesn't really speak on these issues, but there are also people out there that will argue that the Earth is flat. The Bible tells us that Homosexuality is a sin. The Bible declares that marriage is a sacred relationship between a woman and a man. The Bible tells us that life is sacred. The Bible tells us that life begins in the womb. These undeniable facts lead most evangelicals to vote for conservatives. Liberals do not hold to these social views, and thus evangelicals are going to reject liberal candidates.

The second reason that most evangelicals are conservative has to deal with Eschatology. Evangelicals hate communism. They hate communism for two reasons. First, communism, for the most part, promotes atheism. Second, most evangelicals see communism as a way for the anti-Christ to rule the world. Dispensationalism lends itself to this belief. Most Evangelicals are dispensationalists whether they know it or not. Thus, the fact that Republicans have been very vocal about the evils of communism helped fortify evangelical support.

You have to go all the way back to Richard Nixon to see this line of thought. Many Evangelicals began to move towards the Republicans in the 1960's. The Republican party took a harder line against communism than the Democratic party. The reason for this is due to the fact that the Democratic party believes in more government programs than the Republican party. The Democratic party is more socialistic, and Socialism is one step away from communism.

Early evangelical thinkers began to see the difference in the two parties. There were calls by some Evangelicals long before the Reagan revolution to move towards the Republican party. The social liberalism of the 1960's moved even more evangelicals to the right, and the Reagan revolution moved many more. Much of this was due to Reagan calling the Soviet Union an evil empire.

The early 1990's finished the shift. President Bill Clinton pushed the country to the left, right after his election in 1992. Clinton's progressive stances, educated the South further. The South saw that their beliefs were out of line with the leader of the democratic party. The nation saw a dramatic change in the 1994 congressional elections. This change was due to an overwhelming evangelical turnout in the South. The evangelical shift has been completed.

As a political observer, I do not believe that there will be another theological/political movement like this any time soon. Evangelicals are firmly placed in the Republican party. Nevertheless, the republican party can cause them to stay home if they refuse to stand up to moral issues or stop fighting communism and other anti-Christian beliefs. If the Republican party desires to keep this huge voting block intact, they must stay conservative. Simply put, that is what most Evangelicals are.