Whither Hunter's culture war? Shifts in evangelical morality, 1988-1998

Ten years have passed since the events of the late 1980s spurred lames Davi son Hunter to write his book Culture wats, which was Published in 1991. Sin ce then, the political world has witnessed several shifts that call into qu estion the durability of this conflict. This paper examines both the curren t state of the culture war and its precipitating trends over the past decad e. In doing so, it is necessary to determine whether evangelicals have been softening their traditionalist moral positions on issues like women's role s, homosexuality, nonmarital sexuality, birth control, abortion, suicide, a nd euthanasia. It is also necessary to determine the nature of any fluctuat ions in evangelical morality relative to that of religious progressives and moderates. Specifically, three questions are addressed. First, are evangel icals leaving the socioeconomic margins of society! Second, is evangelical morality becoming more liberal! And finally, is the culture war dissipating ! Using data from the 1988 and 1998 General Social Surveys, results indicat e that evangelicals are capitulating on some - though not all - arenas of m oral conflict, but that the cultural tension between evangelicals and relig ious progressives remain; strong. The evidence suggests that, consistent wi th Christian Smith's subcultural identity theory, evangelicals will likely continue to experience a cultural tension with the larger culture, but this tension is not likely to result in anything resembling warfare.