Church and state : public education and the American religious right

In the late 1970's and 1980's, education issues formed a pivotal part of the American religious conservative agenda. The issues of school prayer, textbook content and the teaching of evolution in particular inspired lively debate and committed activism on the part of conservative Protestant leaders and activists. Confronting the behemoth of secular humanism, these leaders sought to win converts and to foment action in the converted through two separate modes of rhetoric: the emotional, which used impassioned arguments, and the intellectual, a more phlegmatic approach used to achieve political ends. Finding their roots in the 1920's, conservative Protestants have placed paramount importance on education issues throughout American history, believing that the United States is a fundamentally Christian nation, founded on a normative Protestant world view, and that American children should be taught according to these principles