The Religious Right Turns 33: What Have We Learned?

[cbayer]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/the-religious-right-turns-33-what-have-we-learned/258204/


Jonathan Merritt
JUN 8 2012, 2:00 PM ET

As American Evangelicals have become more partisan, American Christianity has suffered as more shy away from the faith.



Many historians say the modern religious right was birthed in June of 1979. That was the month when the Rev. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, an organization tasked with saving the American public from the threat of moral decline. Not coincidentally, Concerned Women for America was formed the same month.

Previously, Evangelical Christians had been reticent to engage in partisan politics. But the cultural revolution of the 1960s brought on a blitzkrieg of social changes that left many religious conservatives feeling as if their way of life was being threatened. In response, the faithful flooded the public square -- millions of them under the Moral Majority's banner -- to influence national elections and legislation. Standing tall at the helm of the movement was the silver-haired Falwell, a man whose presence could silence a room and whose rhetoric would often rouse it to raucousness.

I first met Jerry Falwell in 1999 when I was a senior in high school. My father, a pastor who was about to be elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, drove me to Lynchburg, Va., at Dr. Falwell's request. The preacher planned to convince me to attend Liberty University, a task which he executed masterfully. I would arrive at the Evangelical super-school as a freshman in a matter of months.

The most memorable portion of the conversation, however, had nothing to do with Liberty. It was when my dad asked Dr. Falwell how his ministry was going. The reverend's jovial smile went somber and he leaned in closely:

more at link

[atreides1]

1. Really? 33?

33 years too long....

[appleannie1]

2. I find it strange that they call themselves Christian but don't follow the teaching of Christ.

They should call themselves Leviticusins instead. But then, they even pick and choose what abominations are real and which ones were just kidding.

[atreides1]

4. I prefer another term

I call them "Buffet Xtians", because they pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to implement, and ignore the rest!

[laconicsax]

12. Just like liberal Christians.

The only difference is that liberal Christians pick the good parts and ignore the rest.

[skepticscott]

16. And then claim

that only their interpretation of the Bible is correct and that anyone with a different view is not a True Christian.

[LeftishBrit]

18. They certainly don't follow all of Leviticus either

From all the details about burnt offerings and what you can't eat or wear, to such statements as:

'And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.
34: But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt'

(Not I think a popular sentiment among right-wingers!)

[JoePhilly]

3. The GOP version of Christianity is going to die out. But it will not go quietly.

Its most ardent adherents are dying off, and with their arrogance, their need to be seen as Gods themselves, caused them to chase away members. Sure, there are some who were not strong enough to shake away, and find a new path, but many did.

20 years ago, my wife's Methodist church was always packed. Now its always at least half empty, if not more. The leaders held too tightly to their power, abused it, and chased away those who would have come after.

I get the sense that younger people will either walk away completely, or leave the church of their parents, and find more positive and inclusive forms of spirituality.

[cbayer]

5. The data really supports what you are saying.

Millennials are leaving the churches of their childhood in great numbers.

The question indeed is whether they will find new institutions or not. Time will tell on that one.

[JoePhilly]

6. I suspect that some of them will.

I also think those new, or revitalized institutions will shift to social justice again.

And I'd also say that most of the Catholics I know are not nearly as Catholic as they once were. Plenty of them are "event Catholics". The go to Christmas mass, they do the Christening stuff, Easter, funerals, their kids get married in the church, but beyond that, little else.

So I think we'll see a continued drop in Catholicism in the US, at least in the traditional version most of us know. I think the influx of immigrants, particularly from Mexico, will help bolster it for a while, but the Latin American version of Catholicism has some of its own "flavor" if you will.

Its going to be interesting to watch.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Oh, the "modern" religious right. Otherwise off by 1700 years or so.

I'd date the Christian Right to around the time the emperor Constantine I made it more or less the state religion.

[cbayer]

10. Good point. I read this more as referring to the religious right vis a vis american politics.

[3waygeek]

8. Remember what happened to their hero, Jesus Christ, at age 33... n/t

[LeftishBrit]

9. At the hands of the Religious Right of that time, come to think of it.

[dimbear]

11. It's brave to try to put a date on it, but it's like the mold in the cellar. Hard to tell

just when it started. Was it with Father Coughlin, who invented hate talk radio? Was is Aimee Semple McPherson, pioneer of robbing the rubes en masse? Or does it go back to Moses?

Hard to say.

[turtlerescue1]

13. I am SO glad someone left a suggestion to come to this place.

Again, as I just posted somewhere else at DU, i've this delusion/suspicion its a Progressive Democrat i am. But just visited two sites located here at DU, and well, the thread is in the "Introduce yourself" place...related to "Are Lutherans..."


S I G H!!!!!
thanks for just being.

[rug]

14. Welcome!

Zombiehorde just earned a plenary indulgence for sending you here.



On edit, you may like this group as well:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1222

[cbayer]

15. Welcome to DU and the Religion group, turtlerescue1.

This group can be a little rough at times, so it takes a thick skin.

There are some other "protected" groups for believers, so you may want to check them out as well. You can find them under the general Religion & Spirituality tab.

Unless I am reading your posts incorrectly.

[LeftishBrit]

17. This form of the religious right, perhaps, but there has always been one, or rather many

Most religions, and indeed ideologies of any sort, have sometimes been used for right-wing purposes. An example from English history that instantly occurs to me is the 17th century concept of 'the Divine Right of Kings'.