Understanding the Christian Right
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Understanding the Christian Right John C. Green - THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE ~ The Jacob Blaustein Building 165 East 56 S1reet New York NY 10022 The Amencan JeWISh Commlltee protects the nghts and freedoms of Jews the world over combats bigotry and anti Semltzsm and promotes human nghts for all works for the secunty of Israel and deepened understandzng between Amencans and IsraelLS advocates publze polzcy posztzons rooted 111 Amencan democratzc values and the perspeCtives of the JeWISh hentage and enhances the creative vualay of the JeWISh people. Foll1!ded 1111906, It LS the pIOneer human relatzons agency 111 the United States Understanding the Christian Rtght John C. Green CONTENlS The Chnstlan RIght and the Jews 33 The Impact of the ChnstJan RIght 36 Prospects for the Chnstlan RIght 38 Notes 40 IV Foreword Views about the Chnstlan RIght -the movement of conservative Chnstlans actIVe m politics-tend to be polanzed m the extreme For some the Chnstlan RIght constitutes a saVing remnant Amenca s best hope for halting the nation s disastrous decline mto moral degeneracy For others the Chnstlan RIght represents Amenca at Its worst-a group of mtolerant bigots stnvmg to Impose their narrow sectanan agenda on the natIOn as a whole Jews have their own special problems With the Chnstlan RIght Most Amencan Jews strongly oppose the Chnstlan RIght s conservative political program In addition some Jews harbor the suspIcion that elements of the Chnstlan RIght, especially those With a strong evangell cal bent see Jews as candidates for Chnstlan mlsslomzmg efforts Fmally Jews View With alarm occaSIOnal mamfestatlons of outnght anti Semltlsm Wlthm Chnstlan RIght Circles To be sure some Jews have sought to defend the Chnstlan RIght on both political and religIOUS grounds but thiS clearly represents a mmonty trend Wlthm the JeWish commumty Agamst thiS background of sharply polanzed Views, John C Green s Understandmg the ChrIStian Right stands out for Its cool analytical approach Yleldmg a balanced and objective assessment of the Chnstlan RIght m both religIOUS and political terms Green professor of political sCience and director of the Ray C Bliss Institute of Applied PolitiCS at the Umvemty of Akron, prOVides an dlummatmg account of the hlstoncal background of the Chnstlan Right movement, Its leaders Its mass constituency and Its ongomg mvolvement m the political arena An Important feature of Green s diSCUSSIOn IS a section devoted to the Chnstlan RIght and the Jews Smce Green makes It clear that the Chnstlan RIght Will long remam an Important player on the Amencan 1 Understandmg EvangelIcal Protestantism Descnbmg the Chnstlan nght IS complicated by the nature of evangelical Protestantism the largest and most diverse religious tradition III Amenca While the size of this religious tradition gIVes the Chnstlan nght great potential to mfluence politics Its dlVeTSIty mhlblts the realizatIOn of that potential Evangelicalism IS one of the two major tendencies among Amencan Protestants It IS sometimes called the party of pnvate Protestantism because of Its emphasIs on traditIOnal morality and the salvatIOn of mdlVlduals This emphasIs denves from a highly orthodox View of core Protestant beliefs mcludmg (1) the necessity for each person to accept Jesus to obtam eternal life (2) the Imperative to communicate thiS message to all people (I e to evangelize) and (3) acceptance of biblical authonty on these and other matters The chief nvals of evangelicals are mamline Protestants sometimes called the party of public Protestantism and once the largest religIOUS tradition III Amenca before bemg surpassed by evangehcals Mamline Protestants tend to have less orthodox beliefs stress the Improvement of community life rather than mdlVldual salvatIOn and emphaSize social Justice over traditIOnal morality The difference between mamline and evangelical Protestants roughly corresponds With the dlstmctlOn SOCIOlogists draw between churches and sects "Churches are religIOUS mstltutlons that attempt to accommodate themselves to the world and are therefore more tolerant of vanatlOns m religIOUS belief and practice In contrast sects are religiOUS groups that seek to separate themselves from the world m order to mamtam punty of belief and practice Over time churches 8 UNDERSTANDING EVANGEUCAL PROTESTANTISM tend to spawn sectanan movements as those dissatIsfIed With worldhness break away But then sects tend to adapt to the world aroundI them becommg more churchlike This cycle IS VIVIdly Illustrated by the Protestant ReformatIOn which began With sectanan movements agamst the Roman Catholic Church- Eventually these sectsI became churches m theu own nght only to spark new sectanan movements from Wlthm The church sect cycle has been partlcularlyipromment m the Umted States and accounts for the great diverSity of denommatlOns I and religIOus movements among evangelicals 10 I I I DenominatIOns and Movements [ r At the nsk of overSimplifIcatIOn three major denommatlOnal groupmgs Wlthm evangelicalism can be Identified and these can be roughly paired With three major movements II By far the largest groupmg are the Baptists and theu km which mclude the Southern Baptist ConventIOn the largest Protestant denommatIon m Amenca dozens I of other Baptist bodies and other small churches orgamzed m a similar fasmon such as the Churches of Chnst Another smaller groupmg comeI from the Reformed and confessIOnal traditIOns such as the PresbytenanI Church m Amenca and the Lutheran Church Mlssoun Synod which represent sectanan breakaways from theu mamline counterparts AI third large I groupmg are churches m the Pentecostal Holiness traditIOns such as the Assemblies of God and the vanous Churches of God In additIon many evangelicals belong to mdependent or nondenommatlOnalI churches that are often closely linked With sectanan movements I I Evangehcals are far better known for their sectanan movements than for their denommatlOns 12 The most famous of these IS fundamentalism an early twentIeth century revolt agamst the accommodatIonI of the major Protestant denommatlOns to the modern world (The name comes from The Fundamentals a senes of pamphlets published from 1910 to 1915 ) Counterparts have smce developed Wlthm most ofI the major religious traditIOns m the world mcludmg CatholiCism Judaism Islam I and Hmdulsm Protestant fundamentalism IS best known for ItS I hyperorthodox beliefs mcludmg bIblical literalism (the Bible IS literally true word for word) and eccleSiastIcal separatism (believersI should I 9 UNDERSfANDING THE CHRISTIAN RIGHf tradItIonal moralIty (the nuclear family publIc schools and relIgIous InStItutIOns) Unlike preVIous movements antagonIsm toward nval ethnIc and relIgIous groups was largely absent but lIberals In other churches the news medIa and government were subject to VIrulent attacks Such publIcIty was accompanIed by lobbYIng and lItIgatIOn but In contrast to the past the movement emphasIzed electoral polItIcs mobilIZIng millIons of evangelIcal voters behInd favored candIdates Presldentzal Pollncs The 1980 presIdentIal electIOn offered the new ChnstIan nght an excellent opportunIty WIth some help from the movement Ronald Reagan won a solId VICtOry agaInst Incumbent JImmy Carter the RepublIcans captured the US Senate for the first tIme sInce 1954 and the party made substantIal gaIns In the House of RepresentatIves Encouraged by thIs success the movement redoubled ItS efforts In succeedIng electIOns In Reagan s 1984 reelectIOn campaIgn a coalItIon of Chnstlan nght groups and evangelIcal mInIstnes called the Amencan CoalItIon for TradItIOnal Values (ACTV) conducted an extensIve voter regIstratIon dnve By hlstoncal standards these efforts were qUIte ImpreSSIve but as before Chnstlan nghtIsts mostly encountered dISappOIntment The mobIlIzatIOn of evangelIcal voters was more dIfficult than expected long standIng differences among evangelIcals undermIned these efforts and the outreach to conservatIve maInlIne Protestants CatholIcs and Jews was largely unsuccessful Many candIdates supported by the Chnstlan nght were defeated (espeCIally In 1982 and 1986) and many who won lIke Ronald Reagan and the GOP Senate leaders proved unwIllIng to advance the movement s controversIal agenda Indeed the new Chnstlan nght generated a storm of cntIcIsm To many people the use of relIgIOUS language In POlItICS appeared unCIvil harsh attacks on lIberals seemed Intolerant and assaults on govern mental programs smacked of mean spmtedness Arguments over the meanIng of separatIOn of church and state raIsed concern that the movement opposed relIgIOUS pluralIsm And the baggage of the past haunted the Chnstlan nght s dIscourse References to a Chnstlan 16 1HE RISE OF 1HE NEW" CHRISTIAN RIGHf natIon brought back negatIve lIDages from the antIevolutIon campaIgns of the 1920s whIle references to the secret power of secular humarusts were remIlliscent of the antIcommurust conSplTaCIeS of the 1950s The new' ChnstIan nght peaked WIth Pat Robertson s bId for the RepublIcan presIdentIal nommatIon m 1988 which starkly revealed the movement s strengths and weaknesses In terms of strengths, Robertson mobIlIZed hIS followers among chansmatIcs and Pentecostals to raIse $19 mIllIon and field an mVlslble army' of some 150 000 actIViSts HIS polItIcal background (hIS father was a U S senator) and medIa skIlls (he was a televangelIst) were put to good use m early caucuses mcludmg a second place fIrush m Iowa But Robertson s polItIcal Views and personal hIstOry were electoral lIabIlitIes he lacked support from other Chnstian