Rethinking the Reasonableness of the Religious Right

Abstract

Using a sample of members of Moral Majority, we compare two general explanations of activism within the organization: "pathological" theories, which posit a connection between personal deficiencies and conservative political activism, and "representational" theories, in which supporters of right-wing organizations are thought to be motivated primarily by unrepresented policy preferences. We find much stronger support for the representational view and offer several possible explanations for this finding.