evidence: The real change came when Jimmy Carter got elected, interestingly enough. Jerry Falwell declared verbal war on Jimmy Carter, as did Pat Robertson. A lot of evangelicals said, "Oh, these people don’t control influence." Yes, they do. They are very powerful influences. And here’s the reason why Jerry Falwell got so upset with Jimmy Carter. Shortly after being elected, Carter called a White House Conference on the Family. It was to live up to a promise. The promise was: "If elected, I’m going to do all that I can to restore the family, the basic institution of society." Well, he called this White House conference and people came to talk about the family. Lo and behold, they couldn’t even define a family! Was a gay couple with children a family? Was the single parent with children a family? What about abortion? All of these family issues came up. And nothing good came out of that conference except for this: it was an incendiary conference that blew the lid off. From that point on, the religious right said, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! This government does not concern itself with family issues." And they came down strong.