Christian fundamentalism

===== Christian right =====
{{Main|Christian right}}
[[File:Jerry Falwell portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jerry Falwell]], whose founding of the [[Moral Majority]] was a key step in the formation of the "New Christian Right"]]
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a surge of interest in organized political activism by U.S. fundamentalists. Dispensational fundamentalists viewed the 1948 [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|establishment of the state of Israel]] as an important sign of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and support for Israel became the centerpiece of their approach to U.S. foreign policy.<ref>Aaron William Stone, ''Dispensationalism and United States foreign policy with Israel'' (2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=d2q8oKwWRMsC&pg=PA6 excerpt]{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> United States Supreme Court decisions also ignited fundamentalists' interest in organized politics, particularly ''[[Engel v. Vitale]]'' in 1962, which prohibited state-sanctioned prayer in public schools, and ''[[Abington School District v. Schempp]]'' in 1963, which prohibited mandatory Bible reading in public schools.<ref>Bruce J. Dierenfield, ''The Battle over School Prayer'' (2007), page 236.</ref> By the time [[Ronald Reagan]] ran for the presidency in 1980, fundamentalist preachers, like the prohibitionist ministers of the early 20th century, were organizing their congregations to vote for supportive candidates.<ref>Oran Smith, ''The Rise of Baptist Republicanism'' (2000)</ref>

Leaders of the newly political fundamentalism included [[Robert Grant (Christian leader)|Rob Grant]] and [[Jerry Falwell]]. Beginning with Grant's American Christian Cause in 1974, [[Christian Voice (USA)|Christian Voice]] throughout the 1970s and Falwell's [[Moral Majority]] in the 1980s, the [[Christian Right]] began to have a major impact on American politics. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Christian Right was influencing elections and policy with groups such as the [[Family Research Council]] (founded 1981 by [[James Dobson]]) and the [[Christian Coalition of America|Christian Coalition]] (formed in 1989 by [[Pat Robertson]]) helping conservative politicians, especially [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], to win state and national elections.<ref>Albert J. Menendez, ''Evangelicals at the Ballot Box'' (1996), pp. 128–74.</ref>