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Christian rightChristian Right is a term collectively referring to a spectrum of conservative Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of social values they deem traditional in the United States and other western countries. The terms Christian Right and Religious right are sometimes used interchangeably, although this is problematic.Terminology Theological versus Political conservatism History Issues U.S. foreign policy and Christian Zionism Dominionism Pro-Republican political activism Notable persons and organizations said to be members of the Christian Right See also Critics on the left try to mobilize their supporters by warning of dangers from the Christian Right, and use phrases such as theocrat, religious extremist, or other terms that are often objected to by leaders of conservative Christian groups. Some Catholic writers characterize these terms as pejorative and representing Christianophobia, while some writers such as American journalist Kevin Phillips, feel the terms accurately describe the movement. The tendency of some critics of the Christian Right to use the terms Christian fundamentalist or evangelical as if all three terms were equivalent is seen as problematic by a wide range of commentators. At the same time, fundamentalists across several religions often share with the Christian Right certain positions on specific issues such as women's and gay rights, separation of religion and government, and opposition to evolving moral standards. So even though many leaders of the Christian Right are outspoken critics of radical Islam, conservative Christians, Muslims, and Jews sometimes cooperate in national and international projects, especially through the United Nations. The term is complicated by the appropriation of "Christian" by members of the evangelical-doctrine churches for their particular brand of Christianity. Used in another sense, "Christian Right" may describe a more benign association of individuals from a wide variety of theological beliefs, ranging from moderately traditional movements within Lutheranism and Catholicism to theologically more conservative movements such as Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism and Fundamentalist Christianity. Theological conservatism heavily overlaps political conservatism and the Christian Right, but many are nonpolitical and there are a few liberals such as Tony Campolo. Similarly, in many theologically conservative African-American churches, leaders and congregants are strongly liberal on civil rights and other issues. All evangelicals approach environmental issues heedful of what they view as man's role as a good steward over God's creation, which puts some on one side and others on the other side of controversial issues. Jerome Himmelstein writes that: "The term New Religious Right refers to a set of organizations that emerged in the late 1970s, the Moral Majority (later renamed the Liberty Federation), the Religious Roundtable, and the Christian Voice; their leaders, including Robert Grant, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Ed McAteer; and the movement that these leaders and organizations fostered. Though this movement made a broad, religiously based conservative appeal, its deepest roots and most lasting impact were among white evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians (p. 97)." The beginnings of "The Christian Right" as a nascent political movement began when evangelicals began organizing against a series of Supreme Court decisions, notably Roe v. Wade and also engaged in local battles over pornography, obscenity, taxation of private Christian schools, school prayer, textbook contents (concerning evolution), homosexuality and abortion. As a modern political force, the Christian Right began in 1974 when Dr. Robert Grant founded American Christian Cause to advocate Christian moral teachings in Southern California. Concerned that Christians overwhelmingly voted in favor of President Jimmy Carter in 1976, Grant founded Christian Voice to mobilize Christian voters in favor of candidates who share their values. Grant involved national conservative leaders including Gary Jarmin, Howard Phillips, Terry Dolan, and Richard Viguerie in his movement and made national headlines when Christian Voice-backed candidates including Ronald Reagan, Steve Symms, Dan Quayle, and John East defeated entrenched incumbents in the 1978 and 1980 elections.. After Grant ousted Phillips, Dolan, and Viguerie several years later, the trio went on to recruit Jerry Falwell to build a new Christian Right organization, the Moral Majority. Grant's movement was said to have played a significant role in the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 and dozens of immitators were founded including Concerned Women for America, American Coalition for Traditional Values, and Christian Coalition. The Christian Right does not represent all evangelicals. Some Christians are active on the left. In taking the Great Commission as a global political mandate for Christendom they have looked to government for support. They hold to a more left-wing ecumenical view of the Gospel. This socialistic perspective is not nearly as common in the U.S.A. as it is in Europe and the British Commonwealth countries. Then there are a significant number of evangelical Christians in America and elsewhere who are quite apolitical. Positions labeled "Christian Right", but sometimes held by only a minority of those commonly considered "Christian Right" include: • The Pro-Life movement, which advocates stronger regulation or prohibition of abortion. • Opposition to euthanasia. • Opposition to same-sex marriage laws by groups such as the Focus on the Family and Traditional Values Coalition. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell brought controversy when they attributed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to God's wrath against "abortionists, pagans, feminists, gays and lesbians". Other opinion leaders of the Christian Right contested the remarks as extreme and insensitive; Robertson and Falwell later revised their statements. • Regulation and restriction of certain applications of biotechnology: in particular both theraputic and reproductive human cloning and stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos. • Support for the presence of Christianity in the public sphere, such as with organized prayer in school, and varying degrees of opposition to the separation of church and state doctrine. • Reducing restrictions on government funding for religious charities and schools. However, some politically conservative churches refuse government funding because of their restrictions regarding acceptance of homosexuality and other issues; others endorse President Bush "faith base initiatives" and accept funds. • Promotion of conservative Christian moral values, including an emphasis on the value of the nuclear family in raising children, and opposition to extramarital sex. • Regulation and restriction of the publication and public exhibition of explicitly sexual content and pornography. • Opposition to sex education classes in public schools. A spectrum of views exist, from advocation of no sex education in public schools to advocation of abstinence only to strong advocation of abstinence in concert with other sex-related information. • Support for homeschooling, and private schooling, generally as an alternative to secular education rather than for Libertarian reasons. This manifests itself as support for school vouchers. • Promotion of the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools as alternatives to the theory of evolution. • Opposition to "judicial activism" by liberal federal judges regarding religious issues and abortion. • Support for the war in Iraq. Some leading evangelicals and Christian conservative politicians have made statements about a religious conflict between Christianity and Islam in the context of the War on Terrorism, prompting many critics and some supporters to refer to the war as a Tenth Crusade. Defenders explain some such criticism as a misinterpretation of the term "crusade", which can be used to mean "a grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause" without any intentional overtones of holy war, although this explanation does not apply to the more detailed characterizations of the war on terror as a holy war. • Strong support for President George W. Bush and a belief that he was chosen by God, with a mandate to lead America. However, in the early part of his second term some have withdrawn their support for the President over concerns of the growth of the federal government and proposed amnesty for illegal aliens. • It is difficult to pinpoint the issue of race among the Christian Right. There are a sizeable amount of non-white members of this faction. However, they tend to have universal opposition to Affirmative Action, in belief that it is reverse discrimination. Many have also voiced opposition to government-funded Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Most of the Christian Right have also been staunch opponents of illegal immigration. In the past, southern U.S. Christian Right groups generally advocated and practiced racial segregation, but this is not openly advocated today by most of the Christian Right movement. Additionally, many midwestern Holiness and Pentecostal churches were founded by abolitionists and largely opposed segregation. Groups such as the Promise Keepers, which are allied with the Christian Right, encourage participation by men of all races in their activities, and have encouraged discussions of race and racism. Many in the Christian Right refer to apocalyptic and other Biblical prophecy in their support of Israel, and support of Israel is often seen as a matter of biblical doctrine. Israel figures prominently in the school of interpretation of Biblical prophecy called premillennial dispensationalism, which with regard to its political implications contributes significantly to the movement sometimes called Christian Zionism. According to Ribuffo, the Old Christian Right was generally isolationist, while Diamond notes the Christian Right since the 1950s has tended to support U.S. military intervention and covert action (see references below). After the September 11, 2001 attacks, many leaders in the Christian Right joined with neoconservatives in strongly supporting the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. Expressing profound sympathy for Israel, some have gone so far as to advocate the "transfer" of the Palestinian population from the West Bank to another Arab nation (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Saudi Arabia) as the only viable long-term solution to the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. The Reverend Franklin Graham, in particular, has been noted for his strident views, drawing secular criticism for his harsh remarks directed at Islam and for his traveling to Baghdad to conduct an open-air Good Friday service primarily for persecuted Assyrian Christians and Chaldean Christians on April 18, 2003, nine days after the city had fallen to American troops. Citing these and other statements and actions, some critics have taken to characterizing the post-9/11 foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration and its most visible supporters as the Tenth Crusade. Some critics of the Christian Right including Sara Diamond and Frederick Clarkson claim that the Christian Right's political agendas are a form of Dominionism influenced by Dominion Theology and Christian Reconstructionism; the latter two are related philosophies that regard the Bible as the only strictly true reference for civics, government, scientific theory or any scholarly pursuit. Many in the Christian Right oppose this point of view, and no major Christian Right leader has gone on record as advocating Reconstructionism. According to sociologist and professor of religion William Martin, author of With God on Our Side, however: "It is difficult to assess the influence of Reconstructionist thought with any accuracy. Because it is so genuinely radical, most leaders of the Religious Right are careful to distance themselves from it. At the same time, it clearly holds some appeal for many of them. One undoubtedly spoke for others when he confessed, 'Though we hide their books under the bed, we read them just the same.' In addition, several key leaders have acknowledged an intellectual debt to the theonomists. Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy have endorsed Reconstructionist books. Rushdoony has appeared on Kennedy's television program and the 700 Club several times. Pat Robertson makes frequent use of 'dominion' language; his book, The Secret Kingdom, has often been cited for its theonomy elements; and pluralists were made uncomfortable when, during his presidential campaign, he said he 'would only bring Christians and Jews into the government,' as well as when he later wrote, 'There will never be world peace until God's house and God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world.' And Jay Grimstead, who leads the Coalition on Revival, which brings Reconstructionists together with more mainstream evangelicals, has said, 'I don't call myself [a Reconstructionist],' but 'A lot of us are coming to realize that the Bible is God's standard of morality . . . in all points of history . . . and for all societies, Christian and non-Christian alike. . . . It so happens that Rushdoony, Bahnsen, and North understood that sooner.' He added, 'There are a lot of us floating around in Christian leadership James Kennedy is one of them-who don't go all the way with the theonomy thing, but who want to rebuild America based on the Bible.'" (Martin 1996:354) Political groups and individuals that worry about how dominionism influences the Christian Right include People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Interfaith Alliance, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Joan Bokaer and Katherine Yurica Sara Diamond warns, however, that while dominionism has influenced the Christian Right, liberals too often use hyperbolic language to describe the activities and goals of the Christian Right. National organizations (including the Christian Coalition and Christian Voice) and local churches have engaged in voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts, targeting people likely to vote for Republican candidates and using materials that portray Republicans more favorably than Democrats. The Christian Right has also worked to promote expressly partisan Republican campaigning. For example, during the 2004 campaign, Christian Voice waged a $2.9 million Christian Voter Drive. Their 6,199 Church captains collectively registered 355,562 new voters and turned out an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million voters.. The Traditional Values Coalition website highlighted a voter registration drive by the Republican National Committee, with a link to the RNC website, and added, "The Democratic National Committee is also engaged in an aggressive campaign to register homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered individuals to defeat President [George W.] Bush in the November election." Individual ministers also made political comments from the pulpit. The pastor of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina "told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry [the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004] should either leave the church or repent". The church later expelled nine members who had voted for Kerry and refused to repent. Fred Phelps, (founder of godhatesfags.com) has never had a significant following. Other figures, such as the controversial Robert Grant, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, built coalitions but made overzealous statements that then lost their broader bases of support.
See also Bill O’Reilly (commentator) Conspiracy theory Secularization of Christmas Culture of the United States PC – Political Correctness |
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