Right-Wing Organizers Do This Too: The Case of the Christian Coalition

Abstract

This article documents and evaluates the organizing strategies of the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. Unlike most other Christian Right efforts, the Christian Coalition strongly emphasized a grassroots component in a social movement strategy that combined local efforts with a national organization. This study informs three debates in the field of community organizing: whether anything of value can be learned from right-wing organizing; whether contemporary organizing should remain focused on the local community or build power at the national level as well; and whether there is a place for mobilizing strategies in progressive community organizing.

Keywords:

• community organizing
• Christian coalition
• new right
• Christian right
• social movements
• community and organizational theory

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the University of Connecticut, which provided support for this research. We also thank the many people who read earlier drafts of this article, especially Steve Burghardt, who also shared a copy of the Christian Coalition's Leadership Manual. We also thank Chip Berlet and the staff of Political Research Associates.