Without trying to go through contortions of definition, there are a few things that are particularly worth recognizing about the Christian Right groups. And here I'm talking about the ideologically committed groups, like the Christian Coalition or Focus on the Family, and those who follow their lead. That is not the same as evangelical/born-again Christians, or even the same as Protestant fundamentalists, though the Christian Right attracts many of the latter, in particular. (See Red-State PC by Timothy Noah Slate 11/08/04 for more on Christian Right comma-dancing over their name.)
One of their favorite memes is that liberals, elites, Democrats and, of course, the ever-sinister Liberal Media, are picking on them, making fun of them, looking down on them. As is often the case, I find myself sympathizing with Bob Somerby's frustration at this particular kind of whining:
But boo-hoo-hooing religious voters have long tended to get a free ride in the press (much more on this to come). When they say that Democrats mock their religion, it’s time to ask them who they mean. Clinton? Lieberman? Kerry? Edwards? Who exactly has mocked their faith?
The Christian Right's complaints about how terribly persecuted they are fits in well with the Republican Party's "usual game of claiming to be victims" (Molly Ivins). But, judging from the commentary I've seen in Liberal Blogostan, a lot of Democrats seem to think they have to tiptoe around this issue.
I'm not sure why. We're not talking about learn-to-get-along programs in grade schools here. The Christian Right is collectively a major player in the adult fields of politics and religion. In democracy, that means they have to compete in a "free-market" of ideas. (Let's pretend for the sake of argument that corporate dominance and Foxist ideology aren't skewing the national discussion toward the conservative and the superficial.)
That means they and their programs and ideas, yes, including their religious ideas, are subject to criticism. In the adult world, criticism is not condemnation, disagreement is not mockery. But in the adult worlds of politics and religion, people are sometimes rude and obnoxious. If you can't stand that, stick to church Bible studies and rightwing circle-jerk conversations about politics.
Liberals should also be very aware that the Christian Right is often very critical of those who don't share their religious beliefs. It's the fashion these days for Christian Rightists to trash Islam in the ugliest, most sweeping ways. And since their hero and Dear Leader Bush seems determined to turn the "war on terrorism" into a "clash of civilizations,"these yay-hoos can expect criticism of that both from other Christians and from Americans of different faiths.
Because as a general matter, Islam has never made the clear distinction between state and religion that Western democracies have made, and that mainstream Protestants and the Catholic Church have accepted. And in the Muslim world, people are used to taking the pronouncements of key religious leaders on political matters very seriously in a way that just isn't so in America. Most Catholics have little or no pangs of conscience about departing from their Church's recommended positions on abortion, war and a priority concern for the poor.
But condemnations of Islam from Protestant leaders like Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham have received wide publicity in Islamic countries, as have the totally inappropriate comments of Christian General Jerry Boykin. And since Christian Right ideas have a major influence in the Bush administration and the Republican Party, they aren't entirely wrong to pay close attention to such statements. But those leaders, with their anti-Muslim bigotry and their big mouths, are creating an image of America in the eyes of a large part of the world that is rejected by most Christians in America as well as the population as a whole - though people looking at last week's election results may have particular reason to question the latter.
Pat Robertson, the former Pentacostal minister who is probably the best-know Christian Right figure in America, published at least two books, The New World Order (1991) and The Turning Tide (1993), that laid out an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of history. And you don't have to scrutinize the Christian Right's "philo-Semitic" stance on "supporting Israel" very hard to see that it also is based on an anti-Jewish and essentially anti-Semitic outlook. Or to see that it really involves supporting only the hardline policies of the Likud Party, which Bush has been doing the last four years. Christian Right-oriented groups have provided funding for illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Neither the anti-Semitic ideology nor their advocacy of uncritical support of high-risk policies by Ariel Sharon and his Likud Party are going to escape criticism, both on religious and foreign-policy grounds. If they think that criticizing their opinions or opposing their policies on such very material matters is offending their religion, then they can either feel offended, or perhaps rethink whether the Almighty is being quite so explicit as they think in his instructions to them about earthly matters of policy.
But the former is more likely in most cases than the latter. Because the Christian Rightists are addicted to their stance of being persecuted. Columnist David Limbaugh, author of Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging Political War Against Christianity, is fond of this posture. It would be generous to say that, at bottom, this is a silly stance. Because there are places in the world where Christians are persecuted in a serious way - Saudi Arabia comes to mind. It just seems grotesque for Christians in America, who are fully free to practice our religion in tax-emempt (aka, tax-subsidized) churches and make our tax-emempt (aka, tax-subsidized) donations to our churches and other religious institutions, to be whining about being "persecuted" because public schools don't force Jewish kids to pray Christian prayers.
So, whether it's secular liberals, or church-going Christians who disagree with important aspects of the Christian Right view (and most of us do), or whoever, don't think you can tiptoe around the complaint that you're mocking the Christian Right or persecuting them or some such thing, by bending over backward to use respectful language in talking about their ideas, whether religious or political. They're going to accuse you of persecuting them anyway.
Better to speak and write plainly enough to be understood by a normal literate person, and most adults not looking for something to whine about can understand the difference between disagreement and disparagement/ridicule/mocking. As the saying goes, "Even a dog knows the difference between being kicked and being stepped on." Even if some Christian Right zealots don't.
And let's face it. If you're a Christian who disagrees with the Christian Right, they are likely as not to claim you're not even a "real" Christian. If you're gay, or Jewish, or (God forbid!) Muslim, you're likely to be "offending their religion" by even existing.
For example, Josh Marshall reproduces an exchange involving James Dodson, one of the leading figures of the Christian Right, denoucning Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy as a "God's people hater." It's an awkward construction, but it's clear he didn't mean it as a compliment. Leahy, by the way, is the Senator to whom Dark Lord Dick Cheney famously said, "Go [Cheney] yourself."
Politically, this "everybody is picking on us" posture is one of the key elements in the advacing authoritarianism of the Republican Party. It's one thing for a minority with little or no power to complain about being despised and persecuted and sneered at, even if they exaggerate their sufferings on occasion. If they don't have any power, they don't have any power to hurt somebody.
It's another thing when a ruling party that controls all three branches of the national government and a large number of state governments thinks and acts like a hounded, persecuted group surrounded by enemies on all sides. It's practically the definition of a bullying mentality. And we're already starting to see that acted out with new force since Bush now claims not only the Voice of God but a "mandate" from the Will of the People.
2 comments:
The Christian Right is basically following the "moral values" of the Southern Baptist Convention. Odd this, because our Southern states have have been on the WRONG side of every great moral issue since in US was founded. This includes supporting slavery, Jim Crow laws, and segregation. They stood against women's suffrage, federal lynching laws, desegregation, and Civil Rights. Why Northern churchs and Black churches of ANY denomation follow their thinking on the issue of gay marriage is beyond me. (I know why really, it's because they've mixed it in with the abortion issue.) It certainly isn't American. American moral values say, "All men are created equal." The South, as it has throughout history, says, "We whites are more equal than others." The passed election allowed them to state this over and over and over without a dissenting voice heard from our Democratic leaders. Is it any wonder why people believe them? It's the only arguement they hear. True American moral values need to be trumpeted in the halls of Congress, from our courts, from our media and most of all, from our leaders. It needs to start NOW and it needs to continue repeatedly until the next election, because that is what the Republicans will do concerning their values which they prostituted themselves with from the South.
That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen
Ironically, the Southern Baptists had historically been insistent on the separation of church and state up until about 30 years ago. They were worried about the Catholic Church somehow becoming a state church. But after the integration of the public schools in the Southern states, many conservative churches started sponsoring church schools, whose popularity was largely due to the fact that they were predominantly white, not because their quality was anything like competitive with Catholic schools. But the desire to channel public money toward church schools made them more open to state intervention in religion.
But there is a more egalitarian and libertarian strain in the Baptist tradition, including Southern Baptists. Bill Moyers grew up as a Southern Baptist. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter are all Southern Baptists. The following is an interesting glimpse of a kind of Baptist very different from the Christian Right kind; he considers the Christian Right's approach a "corruption of Christian faith":
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez10nov10,1,3304382.column
Unfortunately, the Southern Baptist national denomination today is in the grip of hardcore fundamentalists. - Bruce
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