ABSTRACT
In recent years, the popular culture has devoted a good deal of attention to the political aspects of religious experience. Partly as a result of Jimmy Carter's explicit claim to be a born-again Christian, the political implications of religious experience received a great deal of attention. Indeed, journalistic accounts of Carter's "walk in the woods" with his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, which led to Carter's conversion experience, emphasized the dramatic, emotional nature of many such experiences (Witcover 1977). In the 1980 presidential election, all three candidates (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and John Anderson) claimed to have been born again. Seemingly, by 1980, the status of born-again Christian was considered a highly desirable candidate attribute.
