The term Moral Majority refers to the concept that there are often informal subgroups within many larger nations that pursue a strict moral agenda, usually based upon a deep belief in a religion, such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. Such people often perceive themselves to be, or act as, the custodians or representatives of the culture's values, although they may in fact be a small minority of the people, and their views may therefore be given disproportionate emphasis in the news and other media, and in politics and other social decisions made by the government.

Moral Majority also refers to a political movement within the United States of this kind, which pursued an agenda of religiously-oriented political lobbying.

The rest of this article is about the latter meaning of the term.

The Moral Majority movement got

• outlawing abortion
• suppression of homosexuality
• enforcement its vision of family life
• censorship of media outlets that promote what it labeled as an 'anti-family' agenda

The Moral Majority had adherents

In 1981, a series of exposés (later nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) by Memphis reporter Mike Clark led to some condemning the interactions between the Moral Majority and the Republican Party. Despite the group's name, opinion polls as well as election and referendum outcomes suggest that it was less representative of public opinion than its name might have suggested.

Pop culture references

• Echoing Voltaire's quip about the Holy Roman Empire, some of the organization stated that "The Moral Majority is neither moral nor a majority."

• The punk-pop band Green Day makes a reference to the moral majority in their single "Minority" with the line "I wanna be the minority/I don't need no authority/Down with the moral majority/'cause I wanna be the minority"

• The hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys had a song called "Moral Majority" on their EP In God We Trust, Inc.

• In the movie "Airplane!" a large breasted woman wears a very revealing T-shirt with the words "Moral Majority" printed upon it.

• 80's/90's band Pop Will Eat Itself use a sample of a Jerry Falwell speech in a track, opening their Cure for Sanity album, called "The Incredible PWEI vs. the Moral Majority".

• The Welsh band, The Manic Street Preachers, sing "Number one - the best - no excuse from me I am here to serve the moral majority" (sarcastically) in their song "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart".

Notable people within the movement

• Jerry Falwell
• Robert Grant
• Pat Robertson
• Tim LaHaye
• Beverly LaHaye
• Charles Stanley (radio evangelist)
• James Kennedy (televangelist)

The Moral Majority Coalition

In November 2004, Jerry Falwell unveiled The Moral Majority Coalition, an organization designed to continue the “evangelical revolution” that helped to bring President Bush back into the White House and saw the election of many pro-life leaders to national office. Referring to the Coalition as a “21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” Falwell, the father of the modern “religious right” political movement, commits to leading the organization for four years.

See also

• Moralism (Note that the Moral Majority was not 'moralist' in the humanist sense.)
• Moral panic