Republicans and Evangelicals | Why Christians Didn't Vote for Carter

About this episode

This episode explores why evangelicals did not support Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election despite initial hopes.

Give to help Chris make Truce Boy, the Religious Right did not like Carter, at least by 1980. Some of them, like Pat Robertson, had high hopes for him at the start. But they quickly grew to distrust the man from Georgia. Why? In this episode, Chris goes through some of the top issues that evangelicals had with Jimmy Carter. They include his article in Playboy Magazine that mentions his struggles with sex (but also featured a strong gospel message), his support of the ERA, and his lackluster responses to their questions about abortion. But... It's not as if Ronald Reagan was significantly better. Reagan was not a regular churchgoer like Carter. He consulted a medium for his decisions. He was a divorced former actor in a time when evangelicals didn't like Hollywood. So... how bad was this Carter guy that they didn't vote for him? Our special guest for this episode is historian and author Rick Perlstein. Sources: Today story on Carter's church Tampa Bay Times story on Carter's church Associated Press story on Carter's church Christianity Today article on Carter's 100th birthday Reaganland by Rick Perlstein Document the interview the Religious Right guys did Criswell ad Strom…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Staron

Guest: Rick Perlstein

Topics covered

• Evangelicals
• Jimmy Carter
• Ronald Reagan
• Religious Right
• Voting behavior
• Political history

Keywords

• evangelicals
• Jimmy Carter
• Ronald Reagan
• Religious Right
• voting
• politics
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Playboy Magazine, Christianity Today, Carter's church, Jimmy Carter Library, God's Own Party, The Evangelicals, Reaganland, White House Conference on Families

More episodes of Truce - History of the Christian Church

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• Republicans and Evangelicals | What Did Evangelicals Get from Reagan? · May 26, 2026 · 18 min
• Republicans and Evangelicals | Reaganomics · May 19, 2026 · 19 min
• Republicans and Evangelicals | Ronald Reagan's Star Wars · May 5, 2026 · 34 min
• Republicans and Evangelicals I Reagan's Shibboleths · April 21, 2026 · 39 min
• Republicans and Evangelicals | Ronald Reagan's Double Cross · April 7, 2026 · 36 min