Christian Right's Alliances Bend Political Spectrum
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THE NATION’S NEWSPAPER 2005 Secondary Case Study www.usatodayeducation.com Court limits file sharing, display of Commandments Freedom of By Joan Biskupic and Toni Locy 5-8 Give ‘em that new-time religion Religion: Summary By Cesar G. Soriano 8 Religious diversity is one of the basic freedoms protected by the first amendment of the U.S. constitution. Moreover, religious Inside the Iraqi constitution: groups preserve the right to organize and express their beliefs Three main points still about public policy. While the Supreme Court continues to debate remain in dispute where the line between state and church should be drawn, U.S. citizens are freer than those in many other countries. Celebrities By Rick Jervis 9-10 alone demonstrate a variety of religious beliefs, ranging from Kabbala to Buddhism, and are not shy about sharing their beliefs. Chinese Catholics caught This is a marked contrast to other countries, where religion is between churches controlled by the government or considered illegal. On one hand, in countries such as Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Syria and Saudi By Paul Wiseman 10-12 Arabia, religious doctrine has been incorporated into national law. On the other, in China, the government believes that citizens Additional Resources cannot be loyal to the government and to a church at the same time. This case study examines freedom of religion, its impact on 12 society, and situations where it is lacking. Christian right’s alliances bend political spectrum Humanitarian issues at the core of the unlikely coalitions evangelicals have struck with ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Feminist Majority, liberal Jews and Tibet’s Dalai Lama By Susan Page cease-fire in Sudan, enact legislation aimed at reducing USA TODAY prison rape in the USA and push for more funds to fight AIDS in Africa. WASHINGTON — Many evangelical Christians got In the process, they have forged coalitions with — or involved in politics because of a single issue: abortion. sometimes simply pulled in the same direction as — But in recent years, without much notice, conserva- activists who more often are their adversaries. The tive Christians also have helped force the State occasional allies include liberal Jews and Planned Department to place a higher priority on bat- Cover Parenthood, the Congressional Black Caucus and the tling religious persecution, set the stage for a story ACLU, Gloria Steinem and the Dalai Lama. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. AS SEEN IN USA TODAY NEWS SECTION, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2005, PAGE 1A “Evangelicals have broadened their persuade some Republican senators? Trial debated evolution in 1925, many perspective and widened their Well, you wait and see.” fundamentalist Christian leaders agenda,” says John Green, a political That could be tested in the Senate eschewed politics as a worldly scientist at the University of Akron and debate on the energy bill, which endeavor that risked contaminating co-author of The Values Campaign: opened Tuesday. the sacred. But distress about the The Christian Right in American Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision Politics. “It's not as if the social issues Lieberman, D-Conn. have sought in 1973, which recognized abortion have vanished; they still care about evangelicals’ support for their rights, helped galvanize an evangelical them. But foreign policy issues, amendment to limit global-warming political movement. environmental issues, even social pollution. Conservative Christians In the three decades since then, welfare issues have joined the agenda. working on the issue aim to release a fundamentalists have had mixed That has led them to develop broader consensus statement on it this success on abortion. Twenty-nine alliances in some really odd ways.” summer. Their advocacy isstates mandate counseling for women “Conservative Christians will controversial among some evangelicals before they can obtain abortions and continue to fight hard on the life issue and could put them at odds with the 34 states require minors seeking and the definition of marriage,” says White House. abortions to either notify or get Gary Bauer, head of an advocacy group Evangelicals’ engagement on a wider consent from their parents. But a called American Values and a GOP range of issues and their willingness to constitutional amendment banning presidential contender in 2000. “But forge surprising coalitions reflect the abortion is stalled, and a federal law there is a willingness on another day to growing maturity and sophistication of outlawing a procedure that opponents make common cause with liberals.” the most powerful emerging force in call partial-birth abortion is entangled The latest examples: debt relief and American politics today. And while the in court challenges. global warming. Conservative alliances formed on, say, Sudan aren’t On other issues, however, evangelical Christians were among those who likely to change anyone’s mind when Christians in recent years have played pushed for an accord reached in the topic turns to abortion or same- a crucial role in lobbying for laws that London on Saturday by major sex marriage, they could help have reshaped U.S. policy, including industrial nations to cancel at least $40 moderate the bitter tone of the nation’s diplomacy toward such key nations as billion of debt owed by the world's politics. China and Saudi Arabia. Among them: poorest nations to international aid “It offers the possibility on both sides v The International Religious organizations. And the National to derail the demonization process,” Freedom Act, passed in 1998, stipulates Association of Evangelicals and other says Larry Eskridge of the Institute for that promoting religious freedom is a conservative Christian groups are the Study of American Evangelicals at basic aim of U.S. foreign policy and putting their clout behind efforts to Wheaton College, a Christian college in requires the State Department to take limit the “greenhouse gas” emissions Wheaton, Ill. “It maybe offers the specific steps to monitor and promote linked to global climate change. possibility of at least getting both sides it. The measure was pushed by a That campaign has been identified to hear and respect the other’s point of coalition of conservative Christians, with mostly secular, mostly liberal view — initiating dialogue and maybe Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, environmentalists who disagree with thinking your political opposite doesn’t Tibetan Buddhists and others. evangelicals on population control, have horns growing out of their head.” v The Trafficking Victims Protection among other things. “The less people see people as uni- Act, passed in 2000, aims to dismantle ‘Critical piece of the pie’ dimensional, the better off we are,” the international crime syndicates that “We offer a critical piece of the pie, says Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist send women and children from the namely that we represent conservative Majority. Her group supports abortion developing world into prostitution and evangelicals who are the mainstay of rights that are anathema to the sweatshops. Its supporters ranged the GOP coalition that's running both evangelical Christian organizations, but from feminist Gloria Steinem to Chuck ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” says the they joined in lobbying for a law Colson, a former Nixon aide and Rev. Richard Cizik, the vice president against international sex trafficking. founder of Prison Fellowship for governmental affairs at the National ministries. Association of Evangelicals and an Galvanizing a movement v The Sudan Peace Act, passed in energetic supporter of the broader 2002, was promoted by evangelicals, agenda. “You don't think we can For a half-century after the Scopes the Congressional Black Caucus and Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Page 2 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY NEWS SECTION, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2005, PAGE 1A others outraged by the Muslim former secretary of State Madeleine support. Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, government's attacks on Christians in Albright says. In a speech at a Republican who as chairman of the the south. The measure and its threat Georgetown University in March, she Environment and Public Works of sanctions are credited with laying said the two extremes “may not Committee is taking the lead on the the groundwork for a cease-fire in always meet, but they do overlap.” energy bill, calls the coalition on global 2003 and a peace treaty in 2004, Albright, a liberal Democrat, last warming “a farce” and an effort by “far- though violence continues in Darfur. month approached Sen. Sam left environmentalists” to divert v The North Korea Human Rights Brownback of Kansas, a conservative attention from family issues. Act, passed last year, directs the Republican, about co-sponsoring a “Those people who are the antithesis administration to do more to help conference in the fall on international of everything we believe are trying to defectors and emphasize human rights human rights issues. He has agreed. divide and conquer ... and they have issues as well as nuclear proliferation in Brownback, a leading figure on divided us,” says Inhofe, who is a born- dealing with the rogue nation. The bill evangelical causes, has worked with again Christian. He calls global warming was pushed by Korean Americans and such liberals as Massachusetts Sen. “a hoax” and says evangelicals should conservative Christians. Edward Kennedy on counseling heed the biblical injunction to worship “In the last decade, evangelicals have families about Down syndrome and the creator, not the creation. provided the grass-roots muscle for California Sen. Barbara Boxer on There is some unease among their the most important human rights women’s rights in Afghanistan. He says new allies, too. movement since the end of the Cold such alliances work best on issues that Rabbi David Saperstein, a veteran War,” says Allen Hertzke, a University are “the right thing to do” but offer lobbyist in Washington for liberal of Oklahoma professor and author of little partisan gain.