The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1573 page)

 
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Moral argument for God's existence
.

A type of theistic argument which became common in the 19th and early 20th cents. Typically, such arguments contend that the binding character of moral obligation can only be explained in terms of God's will.

 
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Morality plays
:

see
THEATRE AND DRAMA
.

 
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Moral Majority
.

Organization in the USA which aims to exert political pressure in favour of traditional ‘moral’ values (family life, free enterprise, strong national defence) and against such causes as homosexual rights and freer abortion. Moral Majority, Inc. was founded in 1979 by the Baptist pastor and television evangelist Jerry Falwell (b. 1933), and rose to prominence in the presidential election campaign of 1980. Although it is ‘pluralistic’ and ‘not based on theological considerations’, the organization's support comes mainly from conservative Protestant Christians.

 
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Moral Re-Armament
(i.e., MRA).

Before 1938 the Oxford Group Movement, founded by Frank
Buchman
. Its largest organizations are now in the USA, Britain, Japan, and Switzerland. Its message, at home among conservative evangelical Christians, is the need for a moral awakening to reconvert the world.

 
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Moravian Brethren
.

The Church of the United Brethren, a Christian body which renewed the declining Bohemian Brethren, after refugees from the Thirty Years' War took refuge on the estates of Count Zinzendorf (1700–60), who presided over a great spiritual revival. As a ‘unity of brethren’ (
Unitas Fratrum
), they did not seek to become a separate church, but saw themselves as a leaven in existing churches. Nevertheless, survival dictated organization (it was recognized as a church, e.g. in Britain in 1749), and it was vigorously missionary throughout the world. It is strongly
evangelical
, regarding the Bible as the sole rule of faith and conduct.

 
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