Religious Right

Eating Their Young? Fracturing?

Here are two quotes I received in the last 12 hours.

I’ve been a Republican all my life. They’ll never throw me out. But they have an amazing ability to eat their young. They give each other the saliva test of purity every once in a while, and then they lose. And then they just sit around and bitch for four years. It’s a fairly fascinating party.   – Ex-Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming, quoted in an email from Anne Lewis, DSCC)

I think there is a feeling that if someone speaks out they will break the force that has taken years to build up, but I sure hope more people do speak up. I believe the Christian right as a solid movement is actually fracturing, but the media isn’t attuned and the Christian right leaders won’t admit it.   – a private email

Do you see a common theme in these two quotes? Are they right? Does it matter?

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  • To which I will add that if the self-appointed big mouths on the Christian Right keep pushing doctrinaire attitudes about what constitutes being “born again,” & the relationship between Christian charity & Christian “missions,” & a theocratic view of the United States government — conservative members of mainstream denominations that are rooted in Wesleyan or Scottish enlightenment beliefs (not to mention Roman Catholics) might well be distracted long enough from divisive internal disputes over matters like gay rights to remember what really unifies them. I pray for that to happen.

  • The “Christian Right” as a solid movement is an illusion & always was. Beyond a few unifying button issues – which the media covers as “family values” & such – there’s irreconcilable differences of theology & strategy.

    The fundamentalist, mostly Baptist King James Version believers have been griping for years about ecumenical evangelicals like Pat Robertson & their alliances-of-covenience with conservative Roman Catholics & mainstream protestants. The KJV folks are even arguing amongst themselves about old versus updated translations. Arcane debates over Dispensational Premillennialism versus Historic Premillennialism; strict creationism versus intelligent design; theovratic dominionism versus Richard John Neuhaus’ “Public Square” activism.

    Toss in the role of women in the church (to preach or not), Christian rock music, & the high ratings of TV shows like “Desperate Housewives” in red state markets & one gets the impression the pollsters aren’t asking the difficult questions or there are a lot of Born Again people who say one thing in public & do another in private.

 
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