2008 and the decline of the Religious Right
About two weeks ago, Steven Thomma wrote an excellent piece for McClatchy Newspapers outlining the decline of the religious right's political influence.
After three decades of striking fear into the hearts of progressives everywhere -- and serving as the driving force behind the South's shift to the GOP since the 1960s -- Thomma found may signs of the religious right's decline. Some excerpts:
For example, yesterday Robert Taylor -- dean of South Carolina's evangelical Bob Jones University -- announced his support for Mitt Romney. It was a stunning endorsement, given that in 2000, Bob Jones' then-president denounced Mormonism -- Romney's faith -- and Catholicism as "cults which call themselves Christian."
It's not that religious conservatives will likely swing Democratic in 2008. But they are no longer the highly-energized voting block they once were. In addition to the reasons above, Thomma also finds they're also losing their identity on the issues:
After three decades of striking fear into the hearts of progressives everywhere -- and serving as the driving force behind the South's shift to the GOP since the 1960s -- Thomma found may signs of the religious right's decline. Some excerpts:
Today, their nearly three-decade-long ascendance in the Republican Party is over. Their loyalties and priorities are in flux, the organizations that gave them political muscle are in disarray, the high-profile preachers who led them to influence through the 1980s and 1990s are being replaced by a new generation that's less interested in their agenda and their hold on politics and the 2008 Republican presidential nomination is in doubt. [...]The fall of political religious conservatism looms large as the 2008 primaries approach, and will only be exacerbated by the candidates leading the GOP pack.
In church, the generation of politically active, high profile evangelists such as Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell is giving way to new preachers such as Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, who shun partisan politics or are willing to embrace Democrats. [...]
In elections, the organizations that once gave political focus to Christian conservatives and turned their passions into votes have splintered or disappeared.
The biggest of them all, the Christian Coalition, is a shell of its former self. Its budget has crashed from a 1996 peak of $26 million to about $1 million. Its new director wants to expand to issues besides abortion and marriage. And state chapters in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio have parted ways with the group they think is now too liberal.
For example, yesterday Robert Taylor -- dean of South Carolina's evangelical Bob Jones University -- announced his support for Mitt Romney. It was a stunning endorsement, given that in 2000, Bob Jones' then-president denounced Mormonism -- Romney's faith -- and Catholicism as "cults which call themselves Christian."
It's not that religious conservatives will likely swing Democratic in 2008. But they are no longer the highly-energized voting block they once were. In addition to the reasons above, Thomma also finds they're also losing their identity on the issues:
In the country, many people have shifted priorities. Even among white evangelical Christians, Iraq and other domestic issues are now more important than social issues, according to a recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
One reason could be that religious conservatives are victims of their own success. They managed to win a ban on late-term abortions and see it upheld by the Supreme Court. They helped drive dozens of states to adopt constitutional amendments or laws against gay marriage.
Labels: Election 2008, religious right
2 Comments:
Mitt’s church, the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) has been misunderstood in the past by Evangelical preachers . . Some accused the Church of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion . . Perhaps Robert Taylor finally recognizes that Mitt's religion has some legitimacy:
http://mormonsarechristian.blogspot.com/ helps to clarify the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS)' Christian rootes by examining early (First Century) Christianity's theology relating to baptism, the Godhead, the deity of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Mitt’s church believes in the Jesus of the New Testament, who prayed to his Father in Heaven in the Garden of Gethsemene, not the Jesus portrayed in the creeds of the 4th Century.
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) adheres to Early Christian (New Testament) theology more closely than other Christian denominations. . Perhaps the reason Evangelical preachers promoted this mis-representation was to protect their flock (and their livlihood). . Now they realize Mitt may be their only hope for a moral administration.
Here is my opinion of the Christian Right
I see another religious abuse scandal coming- it isn't sexual, but its activity parallels in harmfulness
It was difficult enough when the Catholic sexual abuse scandal came out. People who were supposed to be the most trusted took sexual advantage of children. To made matters worse parishioners knowingly covered it up.
The consequences of the sexual abuse were severe. First there was the initial suffering the children endured. Then there was the economic hardship imposed on the Church. Finally there was the suffering the children and others endured after the initial abuse. Many were shunned for speaking out. Others turned to drinking, drugs, sexual promiscuity, and even suicide.
In the Catholic Church, Protecting God's Children, a program to educate about the signs of abuse was made a requirement for anyone working around children. The program was designed to help educate about sexual abuse and what signs to look for in the victim and the abuser. That should have been the end of things, but another form of abuse and cover up actively crept into Christianity. It was psychological abuse.
Psychological abuse might sound vague at first, but when one begins to look at psychological abuse on the level of what blacks endured during slavery or Jews endured during Hitler's reign, it is a little easier to comprehend. These incidents were a type of psychological abuse done on a coordinated group level to cleanse society and keep people in their place. Today instead of blacks and Jews it is homosexuals, abortionists, and others that need to be cleansed and Muslims and others who need to be kept in their place.
As a result of these viewpoints, two very, very different psychological abuse patterns have escalated in society.
First, instead of looking at the behavior and actions of homosexuals and abortionists as a manifestation of a past abuse, similar to the actions of those abused by Catholics who were mentioned earlier, many are unable to look beyond the signs of abuse – of drinking, drugs, sexual promiscuity, suicide, homosexuality, and abortions to face the initial psychological abuse as the cause. Then when the abused victims act out their suffering they are getting abused a second time, this time by people trying to cleanse society.
The second is an entirely different perspective. Rather than looking at homosexuality and people of the Muslim faith as a difference to be accepted such as people of the Jewish faith or people with black skin color, the natural difference whether it is skin color or sexual orientation or the freedom to hold a different religious belief, the difference is seen as the problem. Then when these new differences became a strong focus a segregated society and all the problems that go with it began to be created in America.
A new path needs to be taken because these two patterns only foster additional turmoil. An inspiring model is the way the Catholic Church successfully faced their issue and brought about a healthy openness and awareness of sexual abuse and prevention through the Protecting God's Children program. Christianity as a whole needs to adopt a similar method to bring about a healthy openness and awareness of psychological abuse, its consequences, and its prevention. In 2008, I hope we elect someone to do this.
Lou Wms
Columbus, Ohio
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