There are lots of things to be done.
One of the first things to do — is to learn more about it.
The Christian Right is one of the most successful political movements in American history. Yet people’s level of literacy about the subject is often, well, shockingly low. The Christian Right is the dominant faction in the GOP. There are reasons for that. But few seem to know what those reasons are. If we are going to have intelligent conversations about all this, let alone be able to have coherent discussions about what to do, we need to have more people who share a common base of knowledge and the language necessary to have meaningful conversations. After many years, I know that useful knowledge and conversation in this area can be hard to come by.
So here is my up-by-the-bootstraps, do-it-yourself program for coming up to speed: books, magazines, conferences, videos, blogging — and a radical idea.
Pick any three books: Among general interest books, I will certainly recommend my own. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy; but also Facing the Wrath by Sara Diamond; The Most Dangerous Man in America and Why the Religious Right is Wrong, both by Robert Boston. Current hot and excellent books are With God on Their Side by Esther Kaplan, Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America by Chris Hedges; and The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney. For the academically inclined: Rightwing Populism: Too Close for Comfort by Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons; Roads to Dominion, by Sara Diamond; and With God on Our Side, by William Martin.
Pick one or both magazines: Church & State; The Public Eye. (Yes, other publications cover the religious right periodically and well. Most recently Harpers has had some important coverage, and an upcoming issue of Mother Jones has good stuff. Max Blumenthal’s articles in the The Nation online are not to be missed, nor are Bill Berkowitz columns for Working Assets. But for regular coverage, its the monthly Church & State and the quarterly Public Eye.)
Read Blogs devoted to this subject: Talk to Action, DefCon blog; Dark Christianity, Religious Right Watch, Frederick Clarkson, Chip Berlet, and for more general discussions of politics and religion, Street Prophets.
Attend Conferences: These are, unfortunately, few and far between. The Texas Freedom Network had one this weekend. The National Cathedral in Washington, DC has a good looking conference October 13-15 that is mostly about progressive religious values, (which is not really to be confused with learning about the religious right, but there will be some of that). And finally, there is one focused on understanding the Christian Right, sponsored by the Graduate Program at the City Univeristy of New York and the New York Open Center.
Dominionism, Political Power & the Theocratic Right
Dominionism is an influential form of fundamentalist religion that believes that in order to fulfill biblical prophecy, “godly Christians” must take control of the levers of political and judicial power in America in the near future…. Just how has this religious ideology gained influence in Congress, American political culture, and in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East and on the environment? What can be done to alert concerned citizens to the theocratic impulse growing in their midst? The goal of this seminar is to examine the power and influence of a religious and political movement that questions the separation of church and state, and that aims to establish a biblical society governed by biblical laws.
Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates; co-author, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort; Frederick Clarkson, author, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy; Michael Northcott, teaches Christian Ethics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; author, An Angel Directs the Storm: Apocalyptic Religion and American Empire; Esther Kaplan, author, With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy and Democracy in George W. Bush’s White House.
Friday October 21 7:30-9:30pm & Saturday Oct. 22 10am-6pm $85; $50 students
Friday October 21 7:30-9:30pm $15
Saturday October 22 10am-6pm $75
View and Discuss Videos & DVDs: A DVD of highlights from a previous CUNY conference from last April Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right is available for $19.95. It features Karen Armstrong, Joan Bokaer, Joseph Hough, Robert Edgar, Hugh Urban, Chip Berlet and Frederick Clarkson. (212) 219-2527 / info@opencenter.org. Theocracy Watch has produced a very useful educational piece which is available on video or DVD. It can be downloaded for free or ordered by mail. Why not get a group of people together for a showing and discussion?
Consider a Radical Idea: Follow the above program and then do the same thing with religious right sources. Its a good thing to have some direct experiences of the people, books, periodicals and events of the religious right. In fact, I would argue that there is no substitute for it. One of these days, I will write up a beginner’s program for how to do this.
But in the meantime, try some or all of the above. Ideally, do them with others, perhaps as a reading and discussion group. I would add that when we launch the scoop-based version of Talk to Action, the above resources will be listed along with others, and whenever there are interesting events, we will announce them — and of course chew over whatever happens. Many of the people mentioned in this post will be frequent contributors at Talk to Action. You can think of it as a rolling conference on the religious right and what to do about it; how to talk about it; comparing notes on what works, what doesn’t, and why. We want to learn lessons from our mistakes and failures. And we will want to learn from and celebrate our successes. And it will be important to have many such celebrations, won’t it? As I often say, this is one of the central struggles of our time.
We really will need to know a lot more about what we are talking about.
The Christian right is the dominant faction in the GOP in Congress.
I have been writing about this subject for a very long time. And I can say that the level of discourse has not much improved. Whether that is because of or in spite of my work, I’ll leave to others to judge.
I hate to sound even the slightest bit hyperbolic, its not my style. But really, if we expect to defend any semblance of constitutional democracy — by politically prevailing over the Christian right — we need to better understand this formidable adversary. If we don’t have adequate understandings of the Christian right, we will not be able to formulate effective strategies to counter it.
And I am afraid we will have to do a lot better than merely sneering at religion in general, or religious views that inform the Christian Right in particular. That and a quarter will get you into a pay toilet, if you can find one.
As always a great diary with cool links Frederick. Funny also that I happened on the site DefCon just yesterday(and saved it).
Your absolutely right about people educating themselves on the Christian Right which has almost nothing in common with your average everyday Christian.
That’s the hard part, getting people to understand the the CR is more like a counterpoint to Bin Laden’s ‘Islam’ or more akin to the Taliban than anything Jesus is actually promoting in the New Testament.
Most people simply get past the idea that if you say your Christian then you have to be a good/decent person. Many, many Christians in this country(at least from my personal experience)never go to church and only rather vaguely believe or know what the bible says, only believing also in the notion of God but that’s about it. Those are the people we need to find/target. Certainly not any true believers of the CR.
It’s the CR who stirs up these people-especially at election times with their dire/false crap about ‘liberal’s wanting to do away with God, etc and preys on their beliefs that this is a ‘Christian’ nation.
So I guess in my rather long winded way I’m saying, yeah we really have to get informed on the CR so we can engage and discuss with people what the CR really is all about and what they are really planning for this country..and it ain’t Christian.
Thanks, CI.
There is not much I can do to get to folks to do what they really, really don’t want to do. I guess people can hold thier breath until they turn blue and shake their heads and say “no you can’t make me” and when that’s over say “you can’t make me learn stuff I don’t wanna learn.” Well, a truer thing has hardly ever been said.
My hope is that people will come to recognize the need for some self-ed. I know that people don’t like to admit when they don’t know stuff.
But I’ll admit that for all I know about this stuff, I feel downright illiterate in some important areas. For one, I need to know alot more about the Catholic Church, and its conservative factions in particular. These factions are rising in poliical signficance in the U.S. (I do know that much. Thats why I want to learn more.)
But generally, these things are a matter of making choices. We can fill our days with distracting infotainment, (or whatever we fill our days with) or we can learn the things we need to know in order to defend and advance the things we say that we care most deeply about.
This mini rant is not directed at anyone in particular, of course.
And certainly not you, CI.
I’m just sayin’…
Speaking of the Catholic Church(where I was raised and went to Catholic school and mass every damn day before school)I read in my People magazine(yeah I really do subscribe to it..has a lot more informative stories than people may think)about the rise of exorcisms and that this new pope has issued new guidelines on exorcisms, the first since 1614. Also that the Vatican is sanctioning it’s first ever class in exorcisms. Everything I’ve read-which isn’t that much really-about this new pope is that he seems to be a throwback to very old and unenlightened views on way to many issues.
And no I am definitely no longer a Catholic or belong to any church/religion for that matter.
Mr. Clarkson, did you catch that diary over at daily kos which pointed out that 23% of Americans believed that the recent hurricanes were an act of God?
I saw the headline. I ignored it.
If that was the wording of the poll, it was poorly worded from the outset. Act of God is stock phrase. Even people’s insurance policies sometimes use that phrase.
Lots of people could use the phrase, without believing that God was sending anyone a message.
I try not to get too distracted by bogus polls and bad sociology. When I do, I go for the jugular. And I am not in a jugular mood.
If you are not from a conservative religious group, you may not understand that the Religious Right is not a monolith. Were the Religious Right to gain control of the Congress, White House, Supreme Court (moreso than it already has), you would find a great deal of conflict taking place.
Many conservative Christians, for example, are not Millenialists, a la Tim LaHaye – most groups, in fact, do not accept this doctrine. Many do not consider Mormons to be Christian, but rather consider them to be a post Christian cult. Many do not accept Catholics to be acceptable – one common historical reading of Revelation has interpreted the “Whore of Babylon” mentioned there as being the Roman Catholic Church. What you have is a group of churches and belief groups, many of which think that they have the one true way of interpreting scripture. In the interest of gaining control in order to make the country a Christian nation, they have suppressed a number of their doctrines in favor of working together. But the differences are strong and will make for strange and uncomfortable bedfellows if true power is attained. (Sound familiar?).
These groups may present a common front with respect to issues such as abortion or homosexuality (though there are some minor cracks even in uniformity on those issues). However, they have great differences on the role of women. For example, the particular church I came from, that has produced very active conservative politicians in California, Texas, and Tennessee, does not typically allow women to have any role in church leadership, public worship, or teaching any male above the age of about 12.
Other groups go so far as to ordain women. Some of these groups have an extensive hierarchy, others are not linked by any such organization, but exist as sole churches, either as a matter of scriptural interpretation, or as unique, local developments.
These differences have to be kept in mind when we attempt to deal with religious oppositions. If we treat the religious right as if Pat Robertson or James Dobson’s voices speak for all, we make a mistake that will hamper our efforts.