It is important to remember the learning outcomes when writing this paper because, in completing
the paper, you will have fulfilled some of them. After successfully completing this course, a
student should be able to:
• Appreciate the importance of politics in his or her daily living.
• Have a basic knowledge of the American political system and its historical context.
• Develop an understanding of the challenges of maintaining democratic governance in
a pluralistic, ethnically diverse society.
• Integrate knowledge of American politics with her or his own personal opinions.
These are based on the following program learning objectives:
1. Analyze and apply theories of politics and society to contemporary politics.
2. Integrate political knowledge and personal experiences with faith commitments, civic
responsibilities, and ethnic and gender identities.
3. Compare political institutions, governmental and non-governmental actors, and political
cultures in the United States and other states, distinguishing basic differences and
similarities among them.
Your Task
In your paper, you will analyze how the Christian Right have influence your politics.
Evangelical Christianity has been a huge part of American politics since the early 1980s.
It has impacts all Americans, regardless if you are an evangelical or not because they help
determine the electoral coalitions in American politics. You will use the Wilcox reading
to help you in this regard.
So far in this class, you have learned many terms and concepts that apply to the
concepts of evangelicals in America: faction, party system, ideology, interest group,
lobbying, just to name a few. Be sure to use this concepts when writing your paper. One
of the main reasons for this paper is for you to learn to integrate what you have learned in
the class
Many of you come from conservative evangelical backgrounds, so you will be
very familiar with the topic. But even for those of you who aren’t these people should be
of great interest to you because of their importance to American politics. So regardless of
your background or political learning, you will be able to get something out of analyzing
this specific group.
Step 1
Give an overview of the policy areas that you care about. You are given 100 points to
allocate to any policy areas that you want. For example, suppose that you care about
defense, taxation and spending, and the environment. Then your allocation of points should go into a table. Remember that they should add up to 100. Here is an example of
what it should look like.
Defense Taxes and spending Gay marriage Environment
40 20 30 10
Step 2
Determining who you are. Everyone should fall into one of these categories.
Foreign Student: You will have to pretend that you are an American. You can mention
that you are a foreign student and analyze American politics from an objective
perspective. You can talk about how evangelicals influence the things that are not related
to moral values, like trade relations with Japan and China.
Conservative Evangelical: You can analyze the topics from this very interesting
perspective if you fall under this category. Do politically active Christian fundamentalists
represent your political views exactly? If not, how do they differ? And how does the fact
that evangelicals are in the Republican Party coalition effect the way your policy
preferences are actually translated into policy? For example, you may have conservative
views on abortion, drug control, and gay marriage, but how do Republicans represent
your views on taxation and spending, environmental policy, and foreign affairs? Does the
Republican platform align perfectly with your views?
Non-conservative Evangelical: These are the people who are either non-religious,
religious but non-Christian, or if Christian than not of the evangelical strand of
Christianity. Even if you are not a conservative evangelical, these people still influence
the politics that you must encounter. Some of you may prefer lower taxes and less
government spending, but the party that advocates these things also advocates for
restricting abortion, ban gay marriage, and have strict punishments for even the smallest
infraction on illicit drugs. Do these things hurt your ability to support the Republican
Party or do you simply not care that they advocate these things? Or maybe you’re a
libertarian and care equally about the government staying out of the lives of people’s
economic and social activities.
Step 3
Once you determine which category you fall under, now analyze how the Christian Right
affects your politics and write the paper. One of the great resources that you can use if the
Wilcox book to help you understand who evangelicals are and analyze how they have
changed the American political landscape. Another helpful resources is the PBS
documentary on God in America:
https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/
I recommend paying attention to chapter 5 and 6. These give a very interesting history of
the evangelical movement in America. And of course you can use other resources that
you find. This is where the Pepperdine access to academic journals and newspapers come
in handy.
Paper Organization
Your name should be specified at the top right hand corner of the first page. Use standard
undergraduate paper formatting: 1 inch margins, 12 point font, double spaced, ect. The
suggested length of the paper is 4-5 pages long, but length should not be that much of an
issue. Make sure that you write enough that gives sufficient information but also make
sure that you don’t go on rambling. I will take off points if you are not succinct enough.
Other helpful notes:
-talk about evangelical right and their progress in the american electorate as a group
-how they’re a faction and act within the party system that they’re in- the 6th party system that were in- how they’re fitting in
-who’s arguing with them and who are they allying with?
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