In search of a constituency for the "new religious right"

The paper evaluates claims by the "New Religious Right" to have created a mass constituency or a new "moral majority." The paper examines evidence for the development over the l970s of new consciousness which reflected politicization of a growing moral opposition to three feminist issues: abortion, sexual preference, and women's liberation. Comparisons are drawn with attitudes toward 11 national spending priorities. All the findings run contrary to claims for a newly politicized "moral majority." The basic findings are these: (1) there is no conservative trend on the three feminist issues for 1972-80; (2) factor analytic techniques reveal simple factor structure within the three issues but not between the three issues over the decade; (3) politicization of the issues is greater in 1974 than in 1977; and (4) the differences between the religiously involved and others have existed since the beginning of the decade and show no evidence of increasing politicization during the 1970s. Data are from the NORC General Social Surveys, 1972-80.