Political Participation Of American Contemporary Fundamentalist Movement From The Perspective Of Psychological Stress Theory

The growth and political awakening of Christian conservatives have been a new trend in global religious arena since the second half of the 20th century. Within the United States, conservative Christians broke political "forbidden area" in late 1970s. In what the media and scholars term as "New Christian Right Movement (NCR)" or "Religious Right Movement", conservative Christians are observed to have been aligning with the Republican Party with an agenda mainly concentrating on the social "moral" issues, while conservative defense policies, diplomatic issues, and economic policies are also among their political concerns. The New Christian Right Movement has been spearheaded by Christian fundamentalists, who, upholding the banner of "morality", have been yoking together with inter-religious or cross-denominational forces such as Christian evangelicals, conservative Catholics, Jews, or Mormons. It can be observed that since its inception, the New Christian Right Movement has been molded by several key figures and political lobby groups, among which, Jerry Falwell and his "Moral Majority" are of highest significance. Jerry Falwell was a Fundamentalist priest from Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1979, he founded the political lobby group Moral Majority, which is believed to take credit for Reagan’s presidential victory in 1980. During the ten years of its existence, Moral Majority had been attracting extensive media and public attention, and its name was used as an equivalent to the New Christian Right Movement. It can be safely concluded that as the pioneer of the Movement, Jerry Falwell and Moral Majority had accomplished the political enlightenment for American evangelicals and fundamentalists. This dissertation is a study devoted to Jerry Falwell, through whom, we hope to achieve depth in understanding the NCR Movement.The innovation of this research is the borrowing of "stress" theory from the field of Psychology. It is on basis of it that the analysis framework of Jerry Falwell’s political participation is constructed. The reasons for using psychological "stress" theory are listed as follows:Both the inside participants and the outside observers agree that the New Christian Right Movement is a reaction to modernism, secularism, and communism in both domestic and international settings. In this sense, it is a typical political "stress" phenomenon. Among the numerous psychological research fruits, a cross-disciplinary "stress" framework offered by Richard S. Larazus in "Stress, Appraisal and Coping" is of greatest interest. Richard S. Larazus is an influential figure in the field of psychological stress study. In 1983, Larazus coauthored with his pupil, Susan Folkman, in publishing the monumental work "Stress, Appraisal and Coping", which, among all the psychological works, is one of the most widely cited book. Inspired by Prof. Larazus’stress theory, this dissertation comes up with an analysis framework on Jerry Falwell’s political participation:on the horizontal axis,4 phases of study are identified. They are ①litical Inactivity (1933-1973), ②rovocation of Political Coping (1973-1979), ③limax of Political Coping (1979-1989),and ④ Continuation of Political Coping (1989-2007); On the vertical axis,3 levels of analysis are classified. They are individual level (cognition and resources), domestic level (moral issues), and international level (foreign policy issues such as combating the expansion of Soviet Union’s communism and pro-Israel initiatives).There are five chapters in this dissertation. Chapter 1 is the construction of the analysis framework on basis of Richard S. Lazarus’stress theory; Chapter two is the study on political inactivity phase (1933-1973). This chapter traces how Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalism-based cognitive pattern is formed, evaluates his cognitive appraisal of domestic and international settings, and analysizes reasons behind his political inactivity; Chapter 3 is the study on the phase of provocation of political coping (1973-1979). This chapter reviews how Roe vs. Wade provoked Jerry Falwell into political action, examines his political activities at domestic and international levels, and explores how he accumulated coping resources; Chapter 4 is the study on the phase of climax of political coping (1979-1989). Moral Majority represents the peak of Jerry Falwell’s political action. This chapter analyzes into the reasons behind Moral Majority’s rise and fall from the perspective of "resources", examines his political activities at domestic and international levels, and how the "stress" system changed as Jerry Falwell made his imprint in American politics. Besides, this chapter also includes two interindividual comparisons:Jerry Falwell vs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell vs. Bob Jones Jr. Chapter 5 is the study on the phase of continuation of political coping (1989-2007). This chapter uses the index of "resources" to explain Jerry Falwell’s failures to restore Moral Majority, examines his political activities at domestic and international levels, and briefly introduces the legacy Jerry Falwell left for his offspring.The concluding part of this dissertation not only summarizes Jerry Falwell’s legacy for American politics, but also offers reflection on the New Christian Right Movement and religious factor in Sino-U.S. relations. Political psychology has the potential to create a universal analysis framework for explaining religion mixing with politics, which will be the author’s next research focus.