Radical/Religious Right
Dateline: February 03, 1999
Part 1: Christian Victimhood?
People will often read references to America's "radical/religious right," even though that term is rarely defined with any great clarity. Not defining key terms can be very dangerous, especially when it comes to terms which label certain groups of people. I myself have been guilty of this, and in doing so I run the risk of unfairly implicating the wrong people. I'd like to make an effort to correct that here by better exploring that label and offering some details about just what it might mean
I have occasionally gotten mild complaints that my site is focuses too much on America and not enough on other countries. I cannot deny that I do focus on America, especially when it comes to political issues - but I live in America and am surrounded by American issues, so it's a bias which is difficult to avoid. However, I hope that my non-American readers will not see this article as merely a continuation of this. Although it does indeed focus upon America, I hope that they will see this as a chance to learn a bit about the "radical/religious right" in America which they probably read about. I know that there are similar movements in other countries, and although I have no idea how much of what I write here will have parallels with non-American religious-right groups, I hope that non-American readers will let me know about their groups and possibly give me links to pages which discuss those groups.
In general, the term "radical/religious right" refers to those groups which, despite other ideological differences, share in common that they pose a threat to liberty, democracy and pluralism. They are "radical," in that they advocate extreme and dramatic changes in society. They are "religious," in that they tend to base their ideologies upon religious doctrines and religious texts. Groups range from self-righteous moral warriors like Pat Robertson and Don Wildmon to less overtly religious groups like the Heritage Foundation to even white supremacist groups and militias like the Ku Klux Klan. What links them are their ideas on who should hold power and how that power should be exercised.
There are also a wide variety of practical social and political goals which link these groups, and it is this which I'd like to explore first, along with copious direct quotations in order to let these people speak for themselves. People need to be particularly careful of how the rhetoric of the radical/religious right is packaged. Divisions between the groups can be unclear, and it is not at all uncommon for extremist group to downplay some of their worst ideologies while emphasizing those doctrines which are more likely to attract people, like pushing for lower taxes.
It's always been my belief that if you give someone enough rope, they'll often oblige you and hang themselves with it...
Redefining: Christianity A major goal - sometimes subtle, sometimes
overt - has been to completely appropriate the term "Christian" for their
own exclusive use. Few atheists on the net have not encountered
a fundamentalist who has made no effort to hide the fact that they considered everyone
else who believed differently from them to not be "True Christians" (tm).
In a sense, "Christian" has become a political code word to refer to only
those who agree with their political agenda, shutting out politically or theologically
liberal Christians. The degree to which the radical/religious right has linked the
term "Christian" not only to politically conservative doctrines like laissez-faire
capitalism, lower taxes, and gun ownership, but also to American patriotism, is simply
amazing. Others have gone even further by incorporating extreme racism in Christianity,
known as Identity Christianity.
"Our culture is superior to other cultures, superior because our religion is Christianity." - Pat Buchanan, 1992 Republican National Convention
"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that and the other thing. Nonsense! I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." -Pat Buchanan, New York Times
"We had lost the fight for the preservation of the white race until God himself intervened in earthly affairs with AIDS to rescue and preserve the white race that he had created...I praise God all the time for AIDS. - J.B. Stoner, white supremacist leader, to the 1994 Aryan Nations Congress
| Quote of the week: If faith cannot be reconciled with rational thinking, it has to be eliminated as an anachronistic remnant of earlier stages of culture and replaced by science dealing with facts and theories which are intelligible and can be validated Erich Fromm, Man for Himself |
Redefining: Victimhood Members of the radical/religious right have learned to use the language of victimhood very well over the past years, using it to attack those who disagree with their political or theological agenda. Criticism is more easily deflected when one can claim "anti-religious bigotry" - I myself have been accused of it often because of what I have written. Any statement which might vaguely be construed as critical of religion can and will be taken as a personal attack.
But are Christians forced to ride in the back of buses and drink out of separate water fountains because of their faith? No. Are Christians kept in lower paying jobs by a "glass ceiling" or told that particular careers just aren't cut out for them because of their faith? No. Are Christians told by Presidents that they cannot be patriotic or told by national organizations that they cannot be the best kind of citizens because of their faith? No. But none of those facts daunts members of the radical/religious right in their quest for victim status. Unfortunately, this misuse of the idea of victimhood has the effect of diminishing the legitimate oppression suffered by other groups.
"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different...It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-biased media and the homosexuals who want to destroy all Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination are the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in our history." -Pat Robertson.
"...those of the humanistic stripe want to see all Bibles banned in America." -Jimmy Swaggert
Don't miss the other section:
Part 2: Redefining Families & Society
Part 3: Policy Issues: Education, Media & Censorship
Part 4: Morals & Conspiracies
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