Salon.com > Religious Right

Faux history for the GOP

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, the evangelical writer David Barton’s new book, “The Jefferson Lies,” hit the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction. Barton isn’t popular, however, only with the ordinary American reader. On May 8, John Boehner authorized the use of Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol for a religious service to commemorate the first inauguration of George Washington. Among the speakers was Barton, who is revered by social conservatives because he argues that the nation was founded primarily by evangelical Christians on explicitly Christian teachings.

Barton -- “one of the most important men alive,” according to Glenn Beck -- is frequently criticized as a pseudo-historian by progressives and academic historians for his claims about the Founders. He is now facing scrutiny, however, from evangelicals. After Barton’s speech in the Capitol, John Fea, chairman of the history department at evangelical Messiah College, accused Barton of “peddling falsehoods” about Washington, and asked, “Is it time to gather Christian historians together to sign some kind of formal statement condemning Barton's brand of propaganda and hagiography?”

The prudes are winning

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The explosion of government-funded abstinence-only education, extreme assaults on reproductive rights, crackdowns on "indecency" and "obscenity": This is but a small sampling of what spurred sex therapist Marty Klein to publish "America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty" in 2006, midway through George W. Bush's second term. Six years later, under a Democratic presidency, many of the same problems exist -- in fact, in some regards, things have gotten worse.

That's why Klein has updated the book in a new edition published this week to detail the ways that sexual rights have actually become "increasingly tenuous" under President Obama. Sure, abstinence-only programs have been greatly defunded, but the battle over sex education still rages on -- as do assaults on reproductive rights and all manner of sex-related business, entertainment, expression and experience.

“Oklahoma City”: The Bubba job

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:00:00 +0000

In the hours after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, cable news breathlessly reported that authorities were searching for three Middle Eastern men supposedly seen fleeing the scene. True, this was just two years after the bombing of the World Trade Center by a Islamist cell led by Ramzi Yousef, but even so, the notion that foreign terrorists would target an ordinary office building in the middle of flyover country was far-fetched. Yet not as far-fetched, it seems, as the idea that Americans would do it, and end up killing 168 of their fellow citizens, 19 of them little children.

An FBI agent from Dallas, Danny Coulson, knew better. As Andrew Gumbel and Roger Charles relate in their impressive new book, "Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed -- and Why It Still Matters," Coulson jumped in his car and headed to Oklahoma City as soon as he heard about the bombing, fielding a call from a CBS correspondent along the way. She told him "everybody in Washington" said the perpetrators were Middle Eastern, but he said no way. "It's a Bubba job," he told her. "It's Bubbas."

Home-schooled and illiterate

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:30:00 +0000

In recent weeks, home schooling has received nationwide attention because of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s home-schooling family. Though Santorum paints a rosy picture of home schooling in the United States, and calls attention to the “responsibility” all parents have to take their children’s education into their own hands, he fails to acknowledge the very real potential for educational neglect among some home-schooling families – neglect that has been taking place for decades, and continues to this day.

While the practice of home schooling is new to many people, my own interest in it was sparked nearly 20 years ago. I was a socially awkward adolescent with a chaotic family life, and became close to a conservative Christian home-schooling family that seemed perfect in every way. Through my connection to this family, I was introduced to a whole world of conservative Christian home-schoolers, some of whom we would now consider “Quiverfull” families: home-schooling conservatives who eschew any form of family planning and choose instead to “trust God” with matters related to procreation.

Birth control: The right’s still winning

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

There’s been a troubling trend among some liberals to do a premature victory dance over the contraception insurance benefit debate. Look at the polling data, the reasoning goes, and you’ll find even Catholics support both Obama’s policy and his reelection. Who doesn’t use birth control, except for few outlier zealots? This is a political winner for Obama and the Democrats, the victory dancers contend. Game, set, match.

It’s far too shortsighted, and worse, dangerously complacent, to measure victory election cycle by election cycle. (Even gaming the outcome of this year’s election is a risky proposition at best.) The opponents of birth control insurance coverage don’t use an election as a metric. Sure, they’d love to win, but even a loss inspires them to redouble their efforts, not to pack up and go home after learning they are on the minority side of public opinion.

They are evangelists. If public opinion isn’t on their side, they’ll strive to change public opinion. They are dogged, well-financed and unrelenting. Their claims about the proper role of religion in governing and policymaking — which Democrats fail to contest forcefully enough — are eroding the separation of church and state, and taking down gains made in access to reproductive healthcare along with it.

Obama’s winning hand on religion

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

President Obama's strategy of “reaching out to” or “appealing to” religious voters has proven to be ineffective electorally and counterproductive for policymaking. As much as Obama seems to understand the complexities of American religion, he listens too much to the voices of religious leaders who want the government to accommodate their edicts regardless of the impact on everyone else. The spoils go to the ones with access, to those who sit in the valued “seat at the table” in Washington.

After decisively issuing the contraception coverage rule last week, the administration took only a few news cycles, dominated by liberal Catholics like E.J. Dionne fretting about how Obama “botched” the issue, to dispatch surrogates to assuage the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Christian right, alive and powerful

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Recently, in a New Republic article titled "The End of the Christian Right," historian Michael Kazin confidently asserts that “the Christian Right is a fading force in American life, one which has little chance of achieving its cherished goals.”

I have lost count of how many times the Religious Right has been declared dead as a political force by someone in the mainstream media. Maybe Kazin’s piece seemed absurd to me because I read it the day after watching every Republican presidential candidate take time from their South Carolina debate preparation to stop by Ralph Reed’s “Faith and Freedom Coalition” event and pledge devotion to the Religious Right’s agenda.

Kazin acknowledges this dynamic, but says, “whatever their influence on the Republican primary, the Christian Right is fighting a losing battle with the rest of the country – above all, when it comes to abortion and same-sex marriage, the issues they care most about.”

What’s next for Michele Bachmann?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Michele Bachmann, a deeply deluded and irresponsible religious fanatic who until this week was apparently seriously running for president of the United States, has slunk back home to her oddly shaped Minnesota congressional district to brood on her future.

Politico declares her a "lock" for reelection, but that depends on whether or not she runs. She effectively promised not to, but that promise may have been predicated on her remaining a legitimate presidential candidate. (Minnesota law prohibits running for two federal offices at once.)

Bachmann is not a lock because she's particularly beloved in her district -- as longtime Bachmann critics have been at pains to point out to the national media, she never wins Stillwater, ~~her district's largest city~~, [CORRECTION: St Cloud is her district's largest city. Stillwater is where Bachmann's home is. Dumb mistake on my part, apologies.] and she has tended to win tight races with help from third-party spoilers -- but because she is hugely popular outside her district, with a nearly endless supply of Christian right cash.

Iowa evangelicals still can’t find a good non-Romney candidate

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Pity the poor Iowa evangelicals, who have no one to vote for in the upcoming caucuses. I mean, they have far-right Catholic Rick Santorum and genuine millennialist evangelical believer Michele Bachmann, but Bachmann is crazy and Santorum is creepy, so what they're actually looking for is someone electable who isn't also a Mormon.

Jason Horowitz has the story, for the Washington Post, and I bet he was thrilled to get this bit of color into the paper:

In 2008, evangelical support washed over former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, but this year [Iowa Right to Life executive director Jenifer] Bowen expressed bewilderment at the theological and electoral calculations that were leading conservative-values voters to bestow their blessing on one candidate after another.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Bowen said, as she set down a basket filled with fetus dolls.

Are evangelicals a national security threat?

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:50:00 +0000

If you have the stomach to listen to enough right-wing talk radio, or troll enough right-wing websites, you inevitably come upon fear-mongering about the Unassimilated Muslim. Essentially, this caricature suggests that Muslims in America are more loyal to their religion than to the United States, that such allegedly traitorous loyalties prove that Muslims refuse to assimilate into our nation and that Muslims are therefore a national security threat.

Earlier this year, a Gallup poll illustrated just how apocryphal this story really is. It found that Muslim Americans are one of the most -- if not the single most -- loyal religious group to the United States. Now, comes the flip side from the Pew Research Center's stunning findings about other religious groups in America (emphasis mine):

Deadbeat dad Joe Walsh rewarded for “support of the family”

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:07:00 +0000

Joe Walsh has earned a 100% "True Blue" rating from the Family Research Council, the evangelical lobbying organization and hideous advocate of assorted bigotries. Not Joe Walsh the Eagle, but Joe Walsh the "Tea Party" freshman congressman who, not coincidentally, owes more than $100,000 in back child support that he refuses to pay.

FRC lauds Walsh for his "unwavering support of the family," by which they don't mean his family, because obviously his support for them has been known to waver. But supporting one's actual children is less important, to Tony Perkins and his organization, than Walsh's steadfast belief that the government's sole responsibility is to ensure that life is as difficult and miserable as possible for women and gay people.

Mitt Romney proposes “partnership agreements” for gay couples who happen to be emotionless cyborgs

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Mitt Romney once celebrated gay pride weekend when he was running to be the governor of liberal Massachusetts, but now he is running for the Republican nomination for president, and so he does not like to talk about his shameful history of tolerance (or at least willingness to pander to a potential constituency). But at a recent New Hampshire town hall, Sam Stein reports, the audience peppered Romney with questions about AIDS funding and gay marriage, and Romney did not seem thrilled. Still, he has a great proposal to completely defuse the entire gay marriage debate in a way that will surely please everyone.

"What I would support is letting people who are of the same gender form, if you will, partnership agreements," he replied. "If they want to have a partnership with someone else and have, as a result of that, such things as hospital visitation rights and similar benefits of that nature."

Rick Santorum and the rest of the 2012 field hit the Values Voter Summit

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:06:00 +0000

The Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit is happening right now at Washington DC's Omni Shoreham Hotel. The summit is the Republican Party's annual tribute to the most retrograde and extreme members of the religious right, and normal people across the nation are asked to politely look away as GOP pols pander to their nutty base. Rick Perry apparently went over well.

So far today Eric Cantor referred to Occupy Wall Street as "a growing mob" and Rep. Steve King made a joke about how pro-gay marriage protesters were "the most unhappy people I ever heard refer to themselves as gay." (Maybe they were unhappy because you're trying to deprive them of rights enjoyed by everyone else in the country?)

Rick Perry was introduced by a guy who hates Mormons, and who made a series of barely veiled references to Mitt Romney not believing in the correct Jesus. (Rick Perry does not consider Mormonism a "cult," according to his campaign.)