The Limits of Cooperation Inside the Christian Right: James Robison, James T. Draper, Jr., and the Southern Baptist Convention

Abstract The Southern Baptist “conservative resurgence” of the 1980s and 1990s is one of the defining events in the alignment of US evangelicals with the Republican Party. Lacking information about internal decision-making processes, existing studies have tended to exaggerate the cohesiveness of the activist network that ultimately captured the denomination. This paper takes a micro-historical approach to trace how movement leaders responded when one of the movement’s stars, evangelist James Robison, began using his ministry to promote charismatic theology that many in the movement viewed as heretical. Focusing on how Southern Baptist conservatives worked out the boundaries of legitimate cooperation in real time, I show that key conservatives initially tried to convince Robison to walk back his charismatic turn and rejoin the Southern Baptist mainstream. Their ultimate failure set the pattern for the movement’s subsequent opposition to charismatics and clarifies the relationship between the Southern Baptist Convention and the broader Christian Right coalition.