The Moral Majority in Middletown

Abstract

The major question addressed in this paper is why people have a favorable attitude toward the moral majority. The theoretical model predicted that moral majority support would be positively related to having a Christian Right orientation, to being opposed to change, and to watching religious television; in turn, it was predicted that the latter three variables would be negatively related to modernity characteristics. Data came from a stratified, staged-random sample of residents of the SMSA containing Muncie, Indiana, the Lynd's Middletown (N = 281). It was found that moral majority support had three independent sources: 1) persuasion via religious television; 2) a cultural fundamentalist attitude stressing continuation of the status quo; and 3) advocacy of the Christian Right perspective. Two of these factors are negatively related to modernity variables suggesting long-term decline in support for the moral majority.