Chapter 4

Assessing the Christian Right

Onward Christian Soldiers?

The Religious Right in American Politics

Controversy

The Christian Right is a deeply controversial element of

American politics.

Its activists depict a movement that seeks to defend the rights

of conservative Christians to freely exercise their religious

beliefs.

Opponents describe a movement of moral censors who

would impose their interpretation of biblical law on all

Americans.

Why Do People Support or Join the

Christian Right?

Opponents of the Christian Right view its members as

irrational and suffering from a variety of social and even

psychological deficits.

Rank and file Christian Right members may also strike

nonsupporters as irrational.

Most studies of membership in other movements suggest that

the individuals support groups that promote their values.

Personality Explanations

In the 1960s it was claimed that support for the Right came

from individuals with distinctive, distorted personalities.

The most prominent charge was that supporters of the Right

had authoritarian personalities.

The Christian Right also offers a straightforward portrait of a

struggle between the forces of darkness and light, symbolism

that has strong appeal to those who dislike ambiguity.

Personality Characteristics Research data suggests that the Christian Right attracts some

individuals with a predisposition to defer to strong leaders.

Similarly, data confirmed that Christian Right activists may see political issues as having one side and political conflicts as a battle between good and evil.

What is striking about Christian Right activists is the extent of their fear of their political opponents.

Group Membership as a Rational

Choice

The most parsimonious explanation for why people join the Christian Right is that the organizations of the movement represent their political and religious views.

In this way, the Christian Right is like all social movements, mobilizing a group of people with shared identities, ideologies, and grievances.

However, well-adjusted, rational citizens are capable of limiting the civil liberties of others.

The Christian Right and American

Democracy

Critics of the Christian Right charge that it is a dangerous

movement that would undermine basic civil liberties and

possibly impose a right-wing theocracy on America.

Supporters of the movement claim that the Christian Right

enhances democracy by mobilizing previously apolitical

Christians into active citizenship.

Democratic Participation The Christian Right may have had a positive impact on

democracy if it provided a voice for a previously disenfranchised community.

Evangelicals, pentecostals, and especially fundamentalists have traditionally been less likely to participate in politics than other citizens.

However, it is not clear that the increase in voter turnout among evangelicals is primarily because of the Christian Right.

The Christian Right and Democratic

Values

Critics charge that the Christian Right has mobilized a horde

of uncompromising activists whose intolerant activities pose

a danger to democracy.

Studies have shown that Christian Right activists are more

likely than other political elites to express certainty about the

truth of their views.

Democratic Values

According to data collected from Republican presidential

donors in 2000, Christian Right members are not universally

uncompromising and intolerant.

Yet, Christian Right activists are less supportive of

democratic values than other GOP donors.

Educational Issues

Christian Right activists show surprising levels of intolerance

when it comes to teaching in public schools.

One reason that Christian Right activists are so intolerant on

educational issues is that they perceive public schools as

hostile to their values.

Intolerance to Liberal Groups

One large study of religious activists found that Christian

Right members most often identified liberal groups as being

the most dangerous to the country.

In contrast, although religious liberal activists frequently

named the Christian Right as the greatest threat, they were

far more willing to accord its adherents basic civil rights.

Mobilizing a Constituency The Christian Right seeks to mobilize a constituency that enters

politics with a deficit in civic virtues.

Studies have shown that fundamentalists and Pentecostals in

general are less tolerant than other Americans.

This suggests that Christian Right activists are less willing to

deliberate and compromise and that the Christian Right has

increased their civic virtues.

Compromise Within the Christian Right

Studies show that Christian Right members who have been

active the longest are most willing to compromise.

Those who have been newly mobilized are far more likely to

reject the necessity of political compromise.

Bonding and Bridging

Bonding capital refers to social trust and reciprocity among

those who share a common identity.

Bridging capital extends those bonds to those who are in

some way outside of the social group.

The Christian Right Agenda: Radical or

Mainstream?

The Christian Right, like all social movements, is

characterized by decentralization and has competing leaders

and social movement organizations, each with somewhat

different complaints and policy solutions.

Nevertheless, it is possible to describe in general the shared

agenda and to consider the range of positions that movement

organizations and activists take.

Abortion Almost all Christian Right activists believe that abortion is murder,

and they ardently seek to ban most or all abortions.

It is a measure of how strong the pro-life consensus is in the

Christian Right when some activists will only voice their

reservations on the issue off the record.

Movement leaders are divided on their approach to the abortion

issue: either banning abortion or imposing modest procedural

restrictions.

Education

At the heart of the Christian Right criticism of American

education is the charge that it promotes anti-Christian values

and threatens the ability of conservative Christians to

inculcate their values in their own children.

Criticisms of Public Schooling

The schools are promoting a religion called secular

humanism.

Multi-cultural curricula promotes tolerance of non-Christian

lifestyles.

Inviting students to clarify their values may lead them to

reject their orthodox Christian views.

School psychologists “brainwash” students away from their

Christian values.

The absence of prayer and religious content.

Altering Curriculum

Christian conservatives have pushed to alter public school

curriculum.

Some pushed to teach “intelligent design” as an acceptable

scientific alternative to evolution.

Others seek to teach creationism instead of evolution.

Some attempt to excuse their children from reading certain

books.

Most seek to include prayer in public schools.

Opposition to Gay and Lesbian Rights For the past twenty-five years Christian Right groups have made

opposition to gay and lesbian rights a central part of their policy agenda.

The intensity of Christian Right opposition to gay and lesbian rights strikes many outside of the movement as unusual.

Christian Right organizations also condemn any national, state, or local laws that prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing and employment.

Traditional Families

Christian Right leaders prefer to refer to their organizations

as “pro-family” while advocating policies that promote

“traditional” families.

Right activists charge that current government policy

encourages women to work.

Christian conservatives also object to any government

interference in how they raise their children, including

matters of discipline.

Pornography

The Christian Right today wants to restrict the distribution

and possession of “pornography.”

However, Christian Right activists are divided as to what

constitutes pornography.

Therefore, they advocate differing policies on these matters.

Interestingly, the pornography issue is one on which the

Christian Right finds common ground with many feminists.

A Christian Nation

Christian Right activists believe that the United States is a

Christian nation, and that its laws should reflect God’s will.

Activists seek to restore a more public role for religion in

general and Christianity in particular in American life.

Opponents charge that the Christian Right seeks to

marginalize religious minorities.

An Economic Agenda?

Many Christian Right leaders since the 1980s have staked

neoliberal positions on economic issues including:

Endorsing subminimum wages

A return to the gold standard

Protectionist trade policies

Privatizing the welfare system

Cuts in Medicaid and other social spending

A flat income tax

An end to the estate tax.

Economic Focus

Surveys show that white evangelicals have a mixed reaction

to the economic agenda of the Christian Right.

Even those who take conservative positions on eliminating

welfare and scaling back other poverty programs do not see

these issues as essentially religious questions.

The Agenda as Defensive Action Christian Right leaders argue that the core of their agenda is

a defensive action against the rapid social change of the past several decades.

Policies on the Right agenda will be advocated by both movement moderates and extreme activists.

The extreme positions and statements of the fringe elements of the movement are not unusual, for all groups have members with varied ideologies.