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Maybe this is a
partial answer to what the sacred musicians should be contemplating in these times: how being a social movement is not the
same as being a religious one. And
maybe they should be reminded that if you “live by the sword, you die by the
sword.” Just ask the Taliban. - KWC Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Executive Richard Land "I would say that Pat Robertson is way out on his
own, in a leaking life raft, on this one."
(Note: Rev. Robertson has had a business relationship with Taylor
in Liberia for years, a gold-mining operation. Rev. Robertson, it has also been disclosed, owns a $350,000 racehorse.
No vow of poverty there. He must
be a member of the same “I don’t walk the talk” club as Bill Bennett.) Religious Right seeks new agenda as popularity ebbs
With the Supreme
Court’s ruling on gay rights, the conservative movement finds itself at a
crossroads By Mark O’Keefe, NEWHOUSE NEWS
SERVICE, in the Oregonian, July 11, 2003 WASHINGTON – With such fellow
believers as President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft in office,
religious conservatives have never had more friends in high places. But a growing sense of frustrating is
enveloping the leadership of the political movement that began nearly 25 years
ago when the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority burst onto the national
scene. A generation later, most
Americans don’t stand with the Christian right. Its big agenda items have fizzled. As the effect of last month’s sweeping Supreme Court ruling
on gay rights sinks in, the movement is at a soul-searching crossroads. “Obviously, in some ways
Christians are losing the culture war, certainly on this issue of (gay rights),”
said the Rev. D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., and a religious broadcaster. “The time has come for us to re-examine the situation we’re
in.” Some see opportunity in a new
battle arising from the June ruling: gay marriage. Handled correctly, strategists say, it could re-energize
religious conservatives, putting them in a posture of defending heterosexual
marriage instead of attacking the rights of homosexuals. Dissatisfied and reluctant
There appears to be a growing
consensus that the movement must find a way out of its predicament: being
dissatisfied with the status quo but reluctant to criticize it because allies
control the White House and Congress.
“They’re at a moment where they have to reinvigorate themselves or
reinvent themselves, or they’ll just slowly fade away,” said John Green, a
professor at the University of Akron and co-editor of a new book, “The
Christian Right in American Politics.” Most
social movements do better rallying against enemies than helping allies govern, Green said. Many
Christian right organizations thrived when Bill Clinton was in the White
House. With gay rights marching on,
abortion an established right, no return to teacher-led school prayer in sight
and public vouchers for private schools a messy proposition at best, the
Christian right has learned that it’s easier to fulminate than to
legislate. Even when laws are
passed, the courts can and do overturn them. Some see history repeating
itself, as when President Reagan spoke the language of religious conservatives
but wasn’t able or willing to deliver on key policy goals. A few national leaders, such as the
outgoing Family Research Council president, Ken Connor, advocate a more
demanding tone, even if it means criticizing Bush
for not doing enough. “Bought
off cheap” That appears unlikely, however,
because Bush remains immensely popular among the white evangelical Protestants
and conservative Catholics who make up the movement. It’s a constituency that makes up as much as 18 percent of
the electorate, according to surveys, but it has no realistic place to go
outside the GOP. (In a dozen Gallup surveys in the
past five years, the share of Americans identifying themselves as “born-again”
or “evangelical” ranged between 41 percent and 49 percent. That grouping is much larger than the
Christian right because it includes blacks, who vote strongly Democratic, as
well as some Catholics, mainline Protestants and nonvoters who may identify
with those spiritual terms.) Connor, who leaves the Family
Research Council on Monday for unspecified “professional and personal reason,”
says fellow leaders of the Christian right have been
used, accepting rhetoric instead of results
and confusing access with influence. “They go to an East
Room ceremony or a Rose Garden signing or to the White House Christmas party
and say, ‘Look at all the influence I have,’” he said. “In reality, they’ve been bought off
cheap.” Paul Weyrich – head of the
Washington-based Free Congress Foundation, co-founder of the Moral Majority and
a man some call the father of the Christian right – shares some of Connor’s
frustration without criticizing Bush. “We’re losing ground”
“The president is a religious
conservative. The Senate majority
leader is a religious conservative.
The Speaker of the House and the House majority leader and the majority
whip are all religious conservatives,” Weyrich said. “Yet we make only marginal, incremental progress. We really have to rethink our
strategy.” Walt Barbee is a veteran political
activist in Virginia, the state where the Christian right has arguably been the
most successful. “In politics and
public policy, we’re losing ground,” Barbee said. “I don’t see how anyone can say otherwise in light of the
prima facie evidence of this recent Supreme Court decision.” Justin Antonin Scalia, in his
blistering dissent, said the court’s majority had decreed “the end of all
morals legislation” and made gay marriage the logical next step. KWC – it seems that as a social
movement aligned with a political party, the Christian right is learning that
the walls of Jericho did not come tumbling down, a blessed Kingdom on Earth was
not installed in Washington and the White House, (and for this they should be
grateful) and to be just anti-Clinton or anti-something does not mean that the
message has been incorporated into a sustainable theme. Somedays, I actually feel sorry for
them, the little people at the bottom who believed what their leadership told
them, but not most days. And I’m a
preacher’s daughter and former Missionary Kid! They could have asked questions and done some independent
thinking. These so-called leaders
took the Old Testament too literally, mimicking prophets in the wilderness
calling for the destruction of the heathen in society, instead of practicing
what the New Testament told them to do.
One does wonder whose glory they were seeking. |
OKEEFE Religious Right seeks new agenda.doc
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