The religious right has been growing as a
political movement for decades. It remains poorly understood by most of those most affected by its growing power and influence at all levels of society.
That's a shame, since anytime one has a formidable opponent, whether it's in sports, business, or the military, its good to have some, well, strategic intelligence about the capacities of the opposition. Their strengths and weaknesses. I daresay most people reading this mini-rant have more to say about the capacities of the Iraqi insurgents than the capacity of the domestic religious right.
Whatever happens in Iraq; whatever happens in the midterm elections; whatever happens in the '08 elections -- the religious right as an organized and powerful political movement will still be with us. Based on over twenty years of experience in studying and writing about the religous right in the U.S. my message to anyone who has read this far, is that the religious right in most of it's manifestations will be a powerful force for the rest of your life, so if you don't already,you might as well get to know it.
While we can't provide all the answers tonight, here are some of the better blog posts from the past week from Talk to Action, and the Greater Blogosphere.
Pastordan at Street Prophets has an analysis of James Naughton's report on the rightwing money behind the attacks on the Episcopal Church.
Father Jake highlights a review of Hardball on Holy Ground, an expose book on the subversive role of the Institute on Religion and Democracy and its tentacles in mainstream protestant churches. "If you want to fully understand the current struggle in the Episcopal Church, and how it is connected with our nation's current tensions, this book is required reading."
At Talk to Action, diarist Mike Doughney has an excellent investigative report exposing that Ron Luce the man behind the militant evangelical youth group Battle Cry uses the same outfit to produce his shows -- as produce the rock shows he denounces. He also has a new web site devoted to further exposing Luce's operations called Aquire the Evidence.
The Revealer has a provocatively titled post: Jesus Bitch Slaps Teen Agents of the Radical Homosexual Agenda.
Lorraine's front page post at My Left Wing discussed how Concerned Women for America "is distributing, through its web site, a "Risk Audit Plan," that parents can use to determine whether their school districts are pushing a "homosexual agenda."
It would be easy to ignore this kind of frothing-at-the-mouth bigotry and assume that, left in the dark, it will rot. But, in the RAP are listed targeted school districts, including the school district that I graduated from.
Don Byrd at Blog from the Capital reports that yet another Ten Commandments court case got underway on Monday in Oklahoma; and that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recommended the dismissal of a case involving a social worker who wanted to be able to evangelize in the course of his government employment.
Jeremy Leaming, writing at The Wall of Separation, reports that Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, facing a tough reelection fight, is demagoguing a favorite religious right issue: prayer in the public schools. He has proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would reinstitute school prayer. Leaming says that in a speech on the Senate floor, Byrd stooped to rhetoric about how the U.S. was founded as a "Christian nation" and that Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s barred public schools students from praying in school.
Byrd, who took ten years to earn his J.D. from American University, should know better. The high court rulings in 1962 and 1963 did not prohibit voluntary prayer by students. What those rulings did do was to bar public school officials from leading students in prayer and Bible readings, thus leaving decisions about worship to parents, where that choice belongs.
In the 1963 Abington v. Schempp case, Justice Tom Clark concluded, "The place of religion in our society is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church, and the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and mind. We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard. In the relationship between man and religion, the State is firmly committed to a position of neutrality."
Senator Byrd is apparently posturing for his constituency back home and using the Senate floor as a platform to air a tortured and grossly inaccurate history of the First Amendment.
Over at Talk to Action here are three excellent front page posts from the past day or so:
Moiv has an eye-opening report on the politics of emergency contraception.
John Dorhauer has a quietly moving account of how actual knowledge of the organizing activities of the religious right and how people are responding, can make a difference. This story epitomizes why we started Talk to Action, and why we do what we do.
Chip Berlet offers part 4 in his series explaining how several old theological strands frame the contemporary debate about social welfare policy.
It's hard for many Americans to understand how theological disagreements and beliefs about the Second Coming of Christ and the apocalyptic End Times can play a significant role in how people vote for public policies and political candidates. For many influenced by the Christian Right, however, theological and apocalyptic beliefs shape their political participation in profound ways.