The end of the religious right?

[Doug1029]

Last night I attended a lecture by Michael Duffy, a Christian lecturer and theologian. He was of the opinion that the upsurge of the religious right is a temporary phenomenon that may already be starting to fade. He said that the Christian right is trying to use the power of government to force changes in society that it has been unable to accomplish by other means. While its power and authority in government have grown, its ability to influence people's religious beliefs and behaviors and its ability to shape policy have waned.

Some examples Mr. Duffy gave:

The religious right has not been able to effectively indoctrinate children, even those who attend its own church-run schools, in Creationism/Intelligent Design, so it is trying to force public schools to do it.

The religious right has not been very successful in convincing people, particularly teenagers, to abstain from non-marital sex, so it tries to force the issue with government-induced policies that make sex dangerous. These include opposition to abortion, opposition to birth control assiatnce that would make abortion unnecessary and opposition to public health programs that seek to control diseases like AIDS and HPV.

The religious right has failed to educate its own members, let alone the general public, on what constitutes a just war. The result has been an unprovoked attack on another country by a president who owes his office to the religious right. This is perhaps the biggest failure of religious morality in recent times.

The religious right and the politicians it supports have treated the public to a never-ending parade of pastors and congressmen who have been caught having affairs, including gay affairs. Congressmen supported by the religious right, including Knewt Gingrich and Bob Dole have abandoned their first wives and families to survive on public assistance while trying to eliminate public assistance. There have been a number of cases, of which the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker episode is the most-famous example, in which prominent clergy have been caught stealing from the collection plate. Mr. Duffy gave Ronald Reagan as an example of a philandering politician who was popular with the religious right only because he told them what they wanted to hear.

Mr. Duffy also commented that the power, money and corruption associated with government will not change as a result of religious influence, but rather, will corrupt the church that meddles in government, destroying its last vestiges of its moral authority. These events will not be lost on the public. People will desert the religious right as a result.

There were many other examples, but these will suffice for now. Mind you, this man is a CHRISTIAN theologian.

Comments?

Doug

[+Paranoid Android]

The "religious right" - isn't that just a political point of view? Doesn't even have merit outside America. Anything like that is bound to be transitory. The "secular left" (is that the opposite the American religious right?) is also bound to fail one day. That's just part of life.

Though he does make some interesting observations. Religion and public office have never gone well together. Christianity promotes that we should serve others and not our own needs. Yet it is the paradox of leadership that only those who seek power and position tend to actually strive for such goals. It makes for an interesting situation where those who are least suited to head the Christian movement end up in positions of power. As such, we have all these scandals and wars from proclaimed Christians because they are the ones that are least suited to the job, despite that they are the ones in public eye.

Overall though, I would tend to agree with the basic position that the religious right is only a passing movement. Though as said, I think the same can be said for all human viewpoints. All the best.

Regards,

[+Sherapy]

this is no more obvious then prop 8 the legislation started by the Mormons to codify a law into the constitution that would seek to take rights from another person because of their sexual expression....

they call this using the law to revert the law.....

they are once again trying to shape policy the way they want it..

I think that its the behavior and actions that is destroying the last shadows of the religious right...

Doug did you see the movie Religulous ( Bill Maher's movie)

[Doug1029]

I think that its the behavior and actions that is destroying the last shadows of the religious right...

I think that's exactly what Duffy was saying.

Doug did you see the movie Religulous ( Bill Maher's movie)

I laughed all the way home - it's a two-hour drive. Would you believe: our local theaters wouldn't show it. Seems the owner is a "conservative." Definitely not a movie for those who lack a sense of humor.

Doug

[+Sherapy]

I think that's exactly what Duffy was saying.

I laughed all the way home - it's a two-hour drive. Would you believe: our local theaters wouldn't show it. Seems the owner is a "conservative." Definitely not a movie for those who lack a sense of humor.

Doug

It was hysterically funny to us too....indeed its not for everyone..we had no issue with our local theater not showing it but I had heard this is an issue in some places ... you drove for it eh right on...??? .......

I think that little by little the extreme aspect is isolating this brand, perhaps a better way to say this is the understanding of toleration is so limited so self absorbed that its contributing to its own end and will/has begun to take its place with other hate based groups .. we will and are simply teaching our kids to just stay away from them sort of how you approach drugs or gangs....... Just say no........

[momentarylapseofreason]

Here is a bit on the religious right:

Praise Jesus, It's The Collapse of Evangelical Christian Rule in America. Rejoice!

by Mark Morford http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/21/4001

Oh yes, by all means please take a moment to look around, ye who might be feeling a bit hopeful and optimistic right now.

Because indeed, you've got your wonderful and ever-accelerating green movement, your lovely mixed-blessing organic food movement and your rejuvenated attention to solar power and sustainable buildings and organic cotton and free-trade coffee and clean energy and CFLs and urban recycling .

We've got urban smoking bans and Smart cars and women finally rising to the most powerful positions in the land. We've even got an increasing awareness (BushCo, the Middle East, and China gruesomely excepted) of industrial pollution and global warming, all maybe indicating a subtle but still profound shift away from traditional modes of waste and war and our everlasting thirst for death and all possibly pointing to a happy delicious karmic sea change toward light and health and love for all beings everywhere for all time, as the butterflies and bunnies and birds all hum and smile and sing. Mmm, utopian.

But wait, why stop there? While we're wearing these swell rose-colored glasses of momentary progressive bliss, let us go one big step further.

Because right now, there is perhaps no greater item we as a struggling human ant farm can be grateful for, no single social emetic we can look to for inspiration or hope or a happy tingly sensation in our collective gutl region indicating a possible move away from our long-standing Dick-Cheney-in-hell attitude of shrill bleakness, alarmism and religious righteousness than the simply wonderful implosion of the evangelical Christian right that's happening right now in America.

Do you know this clenched and panicky group ? Of course you do. They're the throngs of megachurch lemmings Karl Rove masterfully manipulated and rallied and whored to Bush's very narrow advantage in two elections.

They're the ones who've made all the headlines and influenced all sorts of laws and national policy changes lo, this past half-decade concerning everything from stem cell research to gay marriage to evolution, sanitized school textbooks to failed abstinence programs to RU-486 restrictions to silly anti-science rhetoric, the ones who gasped in horror at a woman's bare nipple and made a disgusting mockery of Terri Schiavo and actually applauded when John Ashcroft spent $8,000 of taxpayer money to throw some heavy drapery over the shamefully exposed breasts of the bronze (female) Spirit of Justice statue in the Hall of Justice. And so on.

They are, in short, responsible for a great many of the most notable social and intellectual embarrassments in America since the new millennium took hold, and rest assured, we and the rest of the civilized world shall recall their bleak accomplishments for much of our natural born lives, and shudder.

Now then, your evidence of a new hope? Your reason for rejoicing? Right here: It seems the remaining core of politicized evangelicals, far from realizing its diminished influence and far from realizing the GOP has largely imploded and far from sensing, therefore, that it might perhaps be time to dial down some of its more unpopular, virulent agenda items, this group is actually aiming to step up its dogmatic demands from various GOP candidates this next election.

That's right. They want more. Or rather, less.

Apparently, Bush's GOP has let them down. They have not been content with BushCo's anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-sex, pro-abstinence, anti-women, anti-science, pro-war, God-hates-Islam stance, nor have they been content with having their trembling hands around the throat of the preceding Republican Congress for half a decade and clearly they have been insufficiently humiliated by the happy slew of right-wing preachers and politicians who've been revealed as meth-loving, restroom-lurking, boy-fetishizing gay hypocrites.

According to the new plan, any current GOP candidate who now wants the valuable evangelical vote will have to prove himself not merely guided by conformist religious zealotry in all things (Hi, Mitt!), but will have to prove his unflappable support for the GOP stance in key issues across the evangelical board, primarily regarding the Big Duo: abortion rights and gay rights. Or, more specifically, the total annihilation of both.

Do you see? This is exactly why we can now rejoice. Because this is the delightful thing about the fundamentalist worldview (and, for that matter just about any strict religious worldview you can name), the thing that absolutely and forever guarantees its frequent and eventual downfall: It can never be sated.

It's true. No matter how clamped down we as a culture become, no matter how much misinterpreted Biblical dogma we're forced to swallow, no matter how many insidious laws are passed limiting behaviors and restricting independent thought and repressing sexuality and banning adult toys in Texas, it will never be enough.

And why? Because the fundamentalist mind-set is not so much a firm and rational set of beliefs based on thoughtful interpretation of strict Biblical screed as it is, well, a paranoid wallowing in fear. Fear of the Other, fear of change, of progress, of the new and different and young and the sexual and the truly spiritual. And as we all know from almost seven years of Bush, fear knows no reason. It knows no stability. Fear is simply insatiable, voracious, and about as un-Godlike as Jesus with a machine gun.

But let's not get carried away. Make no mistake, tremendous damage has indeed been done. After all, this last batch of hotly politicized evangelicals that just passed through our nation like a giant kidney stone enjoyed one hell of a run, and much of what they accomplished will be felt for years and decades to come. The Supreme Court, by way of just one example, has now been so front-loaded with righteous misogynists, we've already lost great hunks of women's rights, environmental protections and many of the cornerstones of America's moral foundation.

Truly, the evangelical movement is still a significant enough threat, at least regionally, in areas where its megachurches still wield tremendous power and where cultural conservatism has held sway for decades and where the laws are already so misogynistic and homophobic and backwards we might as well lump them all into one giant state and call it Alabama.

But then again, the cheerful upside is tough to resist. Jerry Falwell is dead. Pat Robertson is so politically dead he's become nothing more than a sad punch line, a guy who makes the devil himself smile every time he opens his "gays-caused-9/11" mouth. Then there's the truly spectacular list of scandals and meltdowns and moral collapses that have befallen the "family values" party. Indeed, while cultural conservatives have certainly won a few nasty battles (and they'll doubtlessly win a few more), they're very much losing the war.

But when you come right down to it, the Great Truism has been validated once again: Righteous fundamentalism, be it Christian, Islamic, or otherwise, has the seeds of its own destruction built right into its very framework, a priori and de facto and by default. Powered by the deeply joyless engines of fear and shame, it can never quench its own impotent desires.

And for that, we can all praise Jesus indeed.

Edited October 28, 2008 by momentarylapseofreason

[chaoszerg]

women finally rising to the most powerful positions in the land.

Dark times ahead

[ravergirl]

Dark times ahead

That isn't what you said the other day. on saturday.

[momentarylapseofreason]

Dark times ahead

If it's Palin indeed.

Joe sixpack be afraid.......................be very afraid

[Rosewin]

Palin is not attractive I wish people would quit acting like it...

Man oh man. The moral majority is no longer a majority mate. In fact:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_majority

Even if we go just by those who vote the same way and have the same values as the moral majority once did they are no longer in power. The Republican Party has changed drastically since the Contract With America in the mid '90s. The Christian Right is not the dominant force within the Republican Party. Michelle is right though that majority of people who vote Republican do so not because of religion but because of business, finance, and economical issues.

I agree with you the system is corrupt and both partys are just two sides of the same coin. Seriously though those articles you posted about the Christian Right rallying the troops is mere propaganda. Consider it a dying rally call for they no longer hold sway in American politics. I am not telling you this to sway you in anyway because if it was up to them they would be telling us how to live but they have long fallen out of power.

The following is from an article.

George W. Bush has stiffed the Christian Coalition in yet another sign that the influence of the religious right is in steady decline.

During the Republican Convention in Philadelphia, the religious right was almost totally downplayed. Robertson did not speak to the convention, but spent it (as one news account noted), "tucked away comfortably in a skybox." The Christian Coalition has been through some hard times since the departure of Ralph Reed in 1997. It has been beset with staff upheaval and lost both money and members. News reports told of temporary employees hopping from room to room ahead of news camera crews so that each office appeared to be bustling with activity. Massive numbers of Coalition voter guides showed up in dumpsters and recycling centers after Election Day.

Today, both conservative and liberal churches are showing a deepening social conscience on the issues of poverty and race. A recent survey showed that 86% of the American people (religious or not) believe that "churches and religious organizations should spend more time helping the poor." This public opinion is echoed in both presidential candidates' emphasis on new partnerships between government and faith-based organizations to overcome poverty. And many churches associated with the religious right are now among those involved in social service ministries in their communities.

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/200...ious-Right.aspx

This does not mean Christianity is out but rather as generational changes occur so shall Christianity. The new face of Christianity embraces environmentalism and other social issues. The younger generation is more accepting of others who believe differently and who accept people just as they are. They understand that salvation is between one person and God and not between one person and the congregation.

Edited October 28, 2008 by Rosewin

[momentarylapseofreason]

The following is from an article.

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/200...ious-Right.aspx

This does not mean Christianity is out but rather as generational changes occur so shall Christianity. The new face of Christianity embraces environmentalism and other social issues. The younger generation is more accepting of others who believe differently and who accept people just as they are. They understand that salvation is between one person and God and not between one person and the congregation.

The Christians in Germany have been involved in environmental & social issues for quite a while now. Many are activists too-that picket right alongside non-believers. But we really have no "religious right" either.

They are active & seem to practice what they preach.

If that link is true then that is good news .

[Doug1029]

But we really have no "religious right" either.

You have no idea how lucky you are.

They are active & seem to practice what they preach.

If that link is true then that is good news .

I would be a lot happier if the American religious right would practice what it preaches. But they don't. Just look at their political ads for the proof.

Doug