Hypochristianity: Exposing the wrongs of the right
Sat Nov 13, 2004 at 04:15:46 PM PDT
I wanted to open a discussion and review of one of the themes I think it's worth pursuing in a concerted manner. I see this as something that will be built in small subtle pieces and with repetition, evidence, and repetition, will become common knowledge, and weave well into the frames we use to combat right wing spin.
This theme is hypochristianity. The appropriateness of the name itself is open to debate, but the idea is this:
Every one of us knows that many of the preacher/politicians on the right who rant against abortion, seethe about stem cell research and gay marriage have no more beloved mantra than Family Values. Yet there are piles of evidence of these self same sermonizers have been divorced, caught in affairs, cheated on their taxes, employed illegal immigrants and worse.
(more below the fold)
These people are hypochristians. Their hypocrisy, however, is more devious than most because it exposes their professed allegiance to the values of the conservative right as empty rhetoric designed to win power.
The idea here is to push the frame that these politicians are using religious rhetoric to win votes. By bits and pieces, exposing and publicizing transgression, over many years the goal is for it to become clear that you can't trust a politician just because he rails against gays and abortion, and says he loves guns and Jesus that he will stand up for those values in government, or even live up to them in his own life. This frame in turn needs to be woven into broader frames of the progressive movement.
Now I know that politicians on the left are perhaps equally vulnerable to being exposed for moral and legal transgressions. But I think that the difference is that the same shortcomings are simply much more eggregious when they come from people who claim to be the standard bearers for the conservative religious agenda.
So I'd like to open up this discussion to thoughts about whether this is a useful strategy, ways to move the strategy forward, and of course, beginning to compile a list of elected Republican officials that are blatant Hypochristians.