The Republican presidential platform was built on a specific brand of Christianity. Where did it come from and how did it happen?
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There was a time, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, when someone could vote for a political party and not also be identified by their religion. In 1972, there was no mention of God on the presidential platform of the Republican Party. But in 1976, after the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, Laureen Feeney said, it was the Republican Party that asserted, “Our great American Republic was founded on the principle: One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.” These sudden religious values didn’t come out of nowhere; they were designed to ignite a flailing Republican party back into power.
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In his book, From the Bible Belt to the Sun Belt, Plain Folk Religion, Grass Roots Politics and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism, historian Darren Dochuk tells how Southern fundamentalists, previously unaffiliated with politics, made their way to California. “By 1969,” he said, “California claimed more Southern residents than Arkansas.” The change began happening during the Great Depression and the dust bowl, when over six million southerners relocated to major cities like Detroit and Los Angeles, looking for work, according to Dochuk.
Until the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the Republican and Democratic parties were similar. But when the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave equal rights to blacks, an outcry arose among those who believed the federal government overstepped its bounds.
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Until the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the Republican and Democratic parties were similar. But when the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave equal rights to blacks, an outcry arose among those who believed the federal government overstepped its bounds. That’s when Barry Goldwater, who supported Civil Rights before running for president, instead took the position that state rights were violated. While the party lost many black voters, it won the votes of Southern whites. Many conservative Democrats also changed sides and moved to the right. A firm distinction between the two parties was established.
However, in a landslide victory, Lyndon Johnson won the election. This “signaled the Republican Party’s need for reinvigoration and a long-term strategy,” says author Kathy Baldock. In her book, Walking the Bridgeless Canyon, Baldock says that Goldwater’s political strategist, Paul Weyrich, was looking for ways to unite the political right. He found it by tapping into the largest voting block in America: unregistered conservative and fundamentalist Christians.
Goldwater was opposed to the idea from the beginning. The New York Times reported a 1981 speech he gave to the U.S. Senate, which said in part:
On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs… The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout without wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
In spite of Goldwater’s warnings, Weyrich, over a 35-year period, “created or co-founded many of the most prominent conservative organizations in the political and religious arenas,” says Baldock. By 1976, the fundamentalist Christian giant began to wake up.
“When Newsweek declared 1976 to be ‘The Year of the Evangelical,’ the publicity helped to create a sense of potential among evangelicals, who began to think of themselves as a political force.”
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Many first voted for Jimmy Carter, who declared himself “born again,” a term that wasn’t often heard in mainstream society. Neither was the word “evangelical.” “When Newsweek declared 1976 to be ‘The Year of the Evangelical,’ the publicity helped to create a sense of potential among evangelicals, who began to think of themselves as a political force,” said author George Marsden.
The problem for Weyrich, however, was that evangelical’s were aligning with the wrong party. But as Marsden points out, conservatives were quickly becoming disillusioned with Carter because, “He supported the Equal Rights Amendment, he did not take a stand against abortion, and he was friendly to the Democratic Party agenda to guarantee rights for homosexuals and to broaden the definition of the family.”
Fortunately, for Weyrich, televangelism was taking center stage. Fundamentalist preachers, such as Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 and with his weekly television show, The Old Time Gospel Hour, he reached audiences of 15 million, said authors Robert Abelman and Stewart Hoover in their book, Religious Television: Controversies and Conclusions. Falwell, and his ilk, offered a new kind of religion, blended with politics and commentary that united and ignited evangelicals to get involved in government. In that same year, the National Religious Broadcasters reported audiences as large as 100 million, across all of their affiliated networks.
Jimmy Carter was not the right kind of Christian, and the conservative party was looking ahead. The fledgling gay rights movement was on the radar.
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Still, causes were needed to get people involved. Roe v. Wade had passed. Jimmy Carter was not the right kind of Christian, and the conservative party was looking ahead. The fledgling gay rights movement was on the radar.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. After years of research and debate, mental health professionals began to come to the conclusion that homosexuality was simply a variant in human sexual expression. The ex-gay movement, or conversion therapy, started in the same year, but remained primarily part of the underground of the fundamentalist church.
In 1974, Michael Bussee, co-founded EXIT ministries, which later became Exodus International, at Melodyland Christian Center, one of the first megachurches to exist. Melodyland Christian Center was founded by evangelist Ralph Wilkerson. The church frequently hosted well-known traveling evangelists who took the churche’s “ex-gay” message around the country and on the airwaves, spreading the idea that homosexuals could find freedom through Christ.
When the aids epidemic hit, it became the perfect opportunity to denounce the gay lifestyle. Falwell was quoted as saying, “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals, it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”
“Southern evangelicals celebrated with fellow conservatives the election of their favored son Ronald Reagan to the Oval Office.”
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By 1980, the religious right had found their man in Ronald Reagan. Formerly the governor of California, Reagan worked closely with the southern fundamentalist transplants in Southern California, while he was governor between 1967 and 1975. Historian Darren Dochuk noted, “Southern evangelicals celebrated with fellow conservatives the election of their favored son Ronald Reagan to the Oval Office.”
Writer Allen White notes of Reagan’s partnership with Falwell’s Moral Majority, “AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination.” White said, “Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is ‘nature’s revenge on gay men.’”
Throughout the ‘80s, ‘90’s and beyond, conservative Christian ideologies have dominated the Republican Party. Unabashed fundamentalists, such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Mike Huckabee, integrate and spread their brand of theocracy into the political scene, while fellow believers sign up in droves to propagate, proliferate and subjugate their religious point of view on the masses.
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The danger, as Barry Goldwater pointed out nearly 30 years ago, is that if politics are decided by religious affiliation, we are headed down a slippery slope. In the Middle East religious factions destroy the members of society who dare to disagree with their view and interpretation of God and his Word.
The culture war, largely led by the religious right in America, continues to divide the nation into two distinct groups, believing that human rights are only meant for those who agree with their position. Opposition to their point of view, as they see it, is nothing more than religious persecution. While it may seem like a noble cause, the religious right is really being used as a ploy for power by those who know how to work the system.
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“On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs… The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout without wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.” This reminds be of the LGBTQ advocacy today. No compromise. Suggesting that because some woman uses a clothes-hanger to beat… Read more »
Tim Warner, While there certainly are atheistic religions like Buddhism and some forms of Hinduism, atheism itself is not a religion. The typical atheist doesn’t have a guide book, doesn’t congregate, and doesn’t worship ANYTHING. You wouldn’t assert that not playing any sports ever is athleticism, would you? Well, this is no different. Now, you also assert that “the decline and decadence of America is due to a rejection of and an antipathy towards a conservative Biblical Christianity and its presence within our institutions.” But if you expect people to believe that, you need to be prepared to give examples.… Read more »
When one looks at the history of the world the development of societies and cultures and nations, it all comes out of the intersection of politics and religion, even when that religion is atheism. Although most will not admit it, the decline and decadence of America is due to a rejection of and an antipathy towards a conservative Biblical Christianity and its presence within our institutions. The global “war on terror” is due to a clash between muslims and Christians and Jews. The rise of the Soviet Union grew out of Lenin’s fomenting of a revolution against Tsar Nicholas and… Read more »
Can you easily synthesize the point of your article here Tim? I am not certain if you are condemning a particular form of Christianity which you view as right-wing fundamentalist neo-Christianity, or if you are arguing against the influence of all religious faiths which bears on political discourse. Thanks!
“”… the first president that sanctioned what the scriptures forbid,” This person went on and chastised politicians and clergy for hypocritically supporting gay marriage despite the fact that the Bible forbids it. ” … goes on to call out clergy who support gay marriage, saying they are placing society’s needs over God’s. He also ridicules Newsweek for mocking Obama with their magazine cover that referred to him as the “first gay president,” and attacked politicians who take their oath with their hand on the Bible. “If the book is no good,” he said. “What the hell are you using it… Read more »
“The culture war, largely led by the religious right in America, continues to divide the nation into two distinct groups, believing that human rights are only meant for those who agree with their position. Opposition to their point of view, as they see it, is nothing more than religious persecution. While it may seem like a noble cause, the religious right is really being used as a ploy for power by those who know how to work the system. ” You mention the “right” and “conservatives” often in your articles yet to date, you fail to include other religious denominations… Read more »
Tom – Your religion has not been in place for more than 2,000 years. The version of Christianity here in America today first began in the 1730s, but split into fundamentalism and modernists in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It has evolved further, becoming more divisive and hateful, merging with politics in the last 50 years. This version of Christianity is not found in other places in the world, unless America planted it there. I understand your defensiveness. I used to feel the same way. If you research this – outside of fundamentalist Christian apologetics – you will find a… Read more »
I’m Catholic, And I’m not defensive because I’m very grounded and comfortable in my faith and beliefs. “History of the Catholic Church. The history of the Catholic Church begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived and preached in the 1st century AD in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire. The contemporary Catholic Church says that it is the continuation of the early Christian community established by Jesus …” “Roman Catholic Church traces its beginning back to the original church which was established at Pentecost in AD 30. Christians started the church in Rome almost certainly by… Read more »