From (?) 1978 to '80, U.S. evangelicals went from left to right?

And even more specifically, the idea that some persons were consciously trying to tear down America.
Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter, Randall Balmer, 2014, page 139:

https://books.google.com/books?id=r... Communists coming out of the closet"&f=false

James Robison and other lamented what they characterized as attacks on Christian values. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about all the radicals and the liberals and the leftists and the Communists coming out of the closet"

This is a "Washington for Jesus" rally on April 29, 1980.
 
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POD would have to be earlier. The fault lines were in place much earlier. By 1968 you already had a counter-reaction to the '60s and a hardline division. Heck, I'd say 1964 was the pivot point, and by the '70s it was just manifesting itself more openly.
 
I agree that 1964 was a branchpoint with the Republicans going right instead of middle-of-the-road by nominating Goldwater, including the aspect that he was against the Civil Rights Act for libertarian reasons. And delegates at the Republican Convention at the "Cow Palace" really yelling at the media goaded on by a speaker. This aspect has very much echoed down through the decades.

But I just wonder if Jimmy Carter had had a highly successful presidency, economically and otherwise?

And besides, I kind of like the idea of mid to late PODs. :)
 
This same book several pages earlier said that Carter got almost half of the evangelical vote in 1976, which was better than Democratic candidates usually did.
 
http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0772_1980_-_Washington_fo.html

" . . . America’s sense of patriotism was at a low ebb. Memories of Vietnam and Watergate lingered in the minds disillusioned citizens . . . "
This is fond memories from a guy who attended the April 1980 Washington for Jesus rally. And I don't know what the heck he's talking about! Most people are focused on the here and now, and if you really press them, maybe their future career prospects.

I'd say this is an example of theory becoming reality, at least in the mind of the subscribers to the theory. Your worldview becomes your reality.

In April 1980, I was seventeen and a junior in high school. I don't remember anyone mentioning this, whether at school, or in the news, or even two evangelical friends I had (although they may have thought of me as backslidden!).
 
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A possible POD is to decrease the influence of Bob Jones University in evangelical circles. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133
Bob Jones (the second?) was a mean man. When Ford was President, he publicly insulted the president's wife. I'm surprised that his fellow evangelicals didn't call him out for it. And disappointed that they didn't.

And Ah Yes, Bob Jones University vs. the IRS, the case started during the Nixon Administration, but Carter sure was blamed for it.
 
Lasner-Swingsites-2a.jpg

https://placesjournal.org/article/swingsites-for-singles/

The mere fact that it's secular. Just as an example of the steady drum beat of all the many things in the culture telling people they should pursue the shallow and superficial, the pleasures in life, especially the hint of sex, and not concern themselves with spiritual pursuits, nor pretty much with any other kind of serious pursuits.

And yes, all this from just an innocent ad by Oakwood Apartments in 1973.
 
The large couple sitting in the middle, and the small couple walking away to what looks like a stucco house (presumably to have sex!)

The guy at the top carrying what looks like a sack of flour on his shoulder! It's really his jacket.

So, five couples are drawn, and one single woman playing tennis. What's implied is that if you get out and mingle, you odds are actually pretty good?

The large guy in the middle, dark hair, the woman playing tennis, dark hair, two of the other guys, dark hair. And all the others depicted as having blonde hair? Well, hard to tell for sure. Any reasonable case to be made that any of these persons are Italian, Jewish, Puerto Rican, or any other classic 'ethnic' background? Probably not. It'd be a stretch.

And oh yeah, the small couple walking away at the top, I think they're actually walking to a pool with lounge chairs, but looked at another way, sure looks like a stucco house!

=====

Please tell me what you think of this picture. :)
 
"What galvanized the Christian community was not abortion, school prayer, or the ERA. I am living witness to that because I was trying to get those people interested in those issues and I utterly failed. What changed their minds was Jimmy Carter’s intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation."--Paul Weyrich https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzi7bIDP3aMC&pg=PA173
 
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" . . . against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status . . . " -- Paul Weyrich https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzi7bIDP3aMC&pg=PA173
I agree with the premise. I only agree with the conclusion in part.

Yes, Bob Jones, Jr. was mean-spirited, judgmental, confrontational individual. For example, on one occasional while "preaching" to his students, he called First Lady Betty Ford a "slut." Yeah, Holy shit. But he did.

It's a shame fellow evangelicals didn't call him out on this. Didn't call out him on his fixation with inter-racial dating. On his huge feet dragging with desegregation. Or at least advocate their own positive view, that according to their best understanding of scriptures, all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of differences in skin pigmentation.

I'm sure some did, but not enough publicity.

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Here's the part where I disagree. By 1978-1980, the evangelical concern and focus on abortion was sincere, even though evangelicals were far later to the issue than Catholics. I ask, Can a Johnny-Come-Lately be sincere? And I answer, yes.
 

This is a brief clip from the TV show Banacek, the episode "No Sign of the Cross" (Oct. 11, 1972), with the actors George Peppard and Louise Sorel.

These two characters don't sleep together during this episode, although plenty of other characters on the Banacek show did! And the character Banacek often put down women, making the show a rather weird combo of being both sexy and sexist.

And it did make standard TV, just mystery shows, detective shows, etc, etc, a somewhat dicey situation for Christian conservatives.

Banacek+on+TV+Guide-2.jpg
 
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3-Suzie-Holub-Hottest-Dallas-Cowboys-Cheerleaders.jpeg


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/0...s-cheerleaders-a-global-brand-dies-at-73.html

' . . . the team office was swamped with calls after one of its cheerleaders was captured winking suggestively — and uncharacteristically — into a television camera during the 1976 Super Bowl.

Maybe, Schramm figured, there was more to cheerleading than met the eye. . . '
This was Superbowl X between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys played on January 18, 1976. This was one turning point for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. There was also a poster, two TV movies, and an appearance on the show "Love Boat." And what previous year did they move to the sexy midriff-revealing uniforms?

Possibility --> So now, we can't even watch football?

I was an evangelical Christian in 1977 when I was fourteen-years-old and for half of 1978 when I was fifteen. I don't remember the uniforms of the Cowboys Cheerleaders being specifically criticized. I do remember a lot of criticism that our modern culture was just too sexual and one had to be on guard against 'temptation' (but then of course with the Buddhist understanding, you just make it a bigger deal!)
 
GeographyDude wrote:

And yes, all this from just an innocent ad by Oakwood Apartments in 1973.

More where that came from...

"SORCERY IN THE 70's!"

Check out the publisher. That book was Canadian, but if it had been better publicized in the US, the Religious Right might have reconsidered their alliance with Big Oil.
 
More where that came from...

"SORCERY IN THE 70's!"

Check out the publisher. That book was Canadian, . . .

Wow.

The book is entitled Everyday Witchcraft: love magic, charms and spells, fortune telling; everything you need know to enjoy occult power! And the cover shows a black candle, a white cat, and what looks like some kind of red necklace.

And the book is No. 12 in a series of 12, from your Esso dealer!!!
 
So, the Esso books on such topics as Family Horoscope, Adult Games (!), and Everyday Witchcraft. I guess they were trying to make the books attention getters (and I'm guessing they probably succeeded!)
 
Wow.

The book is entitled Everyday Witchcraft: love magic, charms and spells, fortune telling; everything you need know to enjoy occult power! And the cover shows a black candle, a white cat, and what looks like some kind of red necklace.

And the book is No. 12 in a series of 12, from your Esso dealer!!!

I've actually seen a copy of the Everyday Witchcraft book. It's pretty innocuos(by secular standards), but one section has advice on how to get back at an ex-boyfriend who mistreated you. The spell calls for a candle to be lit, with the caveat "Don't use a black candle. It might kill him!"

And I'm guessing the "adult games" on offer were more along the lines of Guess The Name Of Everyone's Childhood Pet, rather than Naked Twister With Mayonaisse. Though the title was probably calculated to get customers to expect the latter.
 
I've actually seen a copy of the Everyday Witchcraft book. It's pretty innocuos(by secular standards), but one section has advice on how to get back at an ex-boyfriend who mistreated you. The spell calls for a candle to be lit, with the caveat "Don't use a black candle. It might kill him!"
Mmm, you and I might view it as a "novelty item." Some people might take it for real. So, what discussion might be better? Maybe quoting Roger Moore from the end of one of the James Bond movies that the Chinese have a saying, If you want revenge, first dig two graves. Maybe acknowledging yes, revenge does run deep in the human heart. And avoid hot revenge if you can, but cold revenge is the real poison.

Maybe something like this.

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Although this has to be one of the zaniest corporate promotionals for a chain of service stations ever on record?
 
Although this has to be one of the zaniest corporate promotionals for a chain of service stations ever on record?

And the really strange thing about it is the ads totally reek of pre-1960s Canadiana, nothing remotely counterculture about them. But Everyday Witchcraft is something you'd expect to be marketed with at least a few sitar chords and a fake European accent.

The Religious Right has never been as strong in Canada as the US, but I'd still think that a gas-station handing out occult books is something that would raise the paranoiacs' hackles if done these days(throw in the Rockefeller Connection, and you'll be an Infowars sensation). Maybe if it was billed as Everyday Superstition, rather than Witchcraft, it might be able to fly under the radar.

And here is an example of one of the adult games. It actually does seem a little risque, in that mid-70s fondue-and-white-wine sort of a way.

(click on the bottom-right square to read the game description)
 
And here is an example of one of the adult games. It actually does seem a little risque, in that mid-70s fondue-and-white-wine sort of a way.

(click on the bottom-right square to read the game description)
Ah, the hand identifying game. It's risque because we human are highly imaginative and can easily imagine other versions!

Imagine a suburban 1970s home with high-quality elegant shag carpet (just a medium shag!), an L-shaped, low-slung coach, an elegant hanging lamp which the husband had to install.

And the kitchen appliances are either avocado green or harvest gold (or I think one of two other color choices!)
 
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