Different habits, different hearts: The moral languages of the culture war

Bellah et al. (1985) argue that middle-class Americans have wholeheartedly adopted a moral language of individualism. However, Hunter's (1991) description of the “culture war” suggests that moral values in general and individualism in particular are being contested in America, with “progressivist” groups advocating a language of individualism and “orthodox” groups rejecting it. While Hunter focuses on the presence of the culture war in the public arena, the present article provides an account of the moral discourse of ordinary middle-class Americans who tend toward progressivism and orthodoxy. Interviews with mainline Baptists (progressivist) and fundamentalist Baptists (orthodox) on issues such as divorce and abortion showed that the progressivists often used a language of individualism, but also gave voice to community considerations. The orthodox participants rejected the language of individualism, and instead spoke first of divinity considerations and secondarily of community concerns. The present article ends by calling for a dialogical approach (Levine, 1995) to the study of morality that brings together sociologies of moral discourse with psychologies of moral reasoning.