Religious Right Watch: Waning influence, assigning blame and praising Palin
Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 10:11 am
- 15 Comments
Sarah Palin on the stump with John McCain, with Kenyan minister John Muthee and as speaker at the Master's Commission graduation ceremony. Photos: WDCpix.com, YouTube, Wasilla Assembly of God Church
The religious right had a bad day on Tuesday. The election of Barack Obama and Democratic gains in the U.S. Senate and House put support for religious right policies further out of reach, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Some say Republican John McCain coddled Obama on the issues, and others point to President Bush’s noncommittal attitude for issues the religious right cares about the most: gay marriage and abortion. The one bit of post-election hope seems to be the ascension of Sarah Palin as a religious right figurehead.
Here’s which way the fingers are pointing:
It was McCain’s fault.
“McCain gave Obama the free pass of the century by NOT talking about the Illinois Senator’s radical anti-DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) plan, his campaign promise to open up the military to homosexuality, and Obama’s pro-abortion extremism,” said Peter Labarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. “Most Americans have no idea how extreme Obama is on abortion and homosexuality, due to Obama’s clever obfuscations and McCain’s refusal to educate Americans on the Democratic candidate’s social record.”
LaBarbera offers this solution: “The GOP must return to its pro-family roots if it wants to start winning again.”
It was Bush’s fault.
“The conservative movement knows how to rise from the ashes, and we need to pick up the pieces of the movement, which was so badly dismantled and put in disarray by the George W. Bush administration. But we can do it. And we’ve got to get started immediately,” said Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum. “The disarray of the conservative movement is the fault of George W. Bush and his advisor Karl Rove. I guess it turned out that he was not a conservative after all. He was a big government, big spending, globalist, ‘New World Order’-type of Republican.”
Schlafly offers this solution: “Sarah Palin is certainly a rising star – she was a breath of fresh air, and a lot of excitement to the conservative movement. I think she is a genuine conservative.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land agrees that Palin could take the mantle as the face of the religious right. “I think there are several contestants for it,” Land told One News Now, a Christian news outlet affiliated with the American Family Association. “Sarah Palin is certainly going to be a prominent one. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell — who just won re-election [in Kentucky] — [and] Bobby Jindal from Louisiana.”
Land echoed LaBarbera’s call to make the GOP more socially conservative. “I think that we need to stay consistent with our message of family values and the sanctity of human life — and we need to find attractive and articulate candidates who will go out and make those cases.”
Some in the movement are frightened that they are not in the driver’s seat any longer. “We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. “We’re going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack.”
Perkin’s is to join other members of the religious right, fiscal conservatives and GOP insiders Thursday for an emergency strategy meeting, Politico reports. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society are also expected to attend.
Religious right watchers say that while the chips may be down for the religious right at the federal level, voters are sure to see their candidates crop up at the state and local level.
“The Religious Right is not dead,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, “but I’m happy that most Americans seem very wary of the movement’s reckless merger of religion and politics. Those of us who value church-state separation must remain on the alert to counter the Religious Right’s next gambit.”
He said they are down but not out. “James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Richard Land and Company did everything but declare Obama the Antichrist,” said Lynn. “In the end, they kept their own flock in line, but the majority of Americans were unmoved. On Jan. 20, the Religious Right’s eight-year run of the White House will come to a screeching halt.”
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter15 Comments
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 11:12 am
“On Jan. 20, the Religious Right’s eight-year run of the White House will come to a screeching halt.”
Amen.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
Ok did I just read Sarah Palin ‘s name in the same article with the word articulate.God help us.
My Mother in-law got a call from a religious right family family member too pray at 6:00 November for John McCain for president. Not to pray too God for the right president. But too pray too God for McCain for president
This is why the religious right are no longer relevant religiously or politically. First Politically. Bush was their boy. They bought it ,they broke it, they own it.2nd Religiously. It is their will be done not Gods. On their time schedule not Gods.
If you come along someone whom claims to know the will of God. Ignore them. Only God knows his will. It is he we should worship not them.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Morality is doing what is right no matter what one is told…Religion is doing what one is told no matter what is right.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 12:51 pm
“Religious right” is a contradiction in terms, it seems to me. Certainly the Christian’s I know could not conceive of blatantly lying day after day the way Sarah did. Palling around with terrorists, he’ll raise middle class taxes. The sort of person who would say those things are to Christianity what the Taliban is to Islam, a gross perversion of a beauitiful faith.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
If god wanted McCain as president, he would have answered all those prayers to him to get McCain elected. Looks like even god is sick of conservatives. I thought Palin said she was chosen for this to force, er, I mean PROMOTE, her religious agenda. She could have used god’s help, but he forsook her. Guess she’s not very important to god after all.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Check out this article on Alaskan elections:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/stolen-election-in-alaska_b_141704.html
It may be some of Sarah’s buddies will be sharing a cell with Ted Stevens in the near future.
Comment posted November 6, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
What the Religious Right seems to forget is that if they get too involved in government, government may start to get involved in religion. That is to create rules and regulations for things such as non-profit tax rules and what qualifies them for such; treasonous talk such as G…D… America if blatant and consistent, (this could be deemed political advocacy and they would lose the non-profit status); etc. etc.
I am sure that the RR does not want government interference with them, so they better be careful about their interference with Gov.
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 9:53 am
The ungodly are having their gloating day. Their man won so God- who is a joke to them- is on their side. Really.Just might be that Sarah was your last chance of grace and now He has more unpleasant plans for you. When God judges and destroys Nations ,He always makes sure the wicked are in power.Your going to have your showdown with the Almighty.Just be patient.
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 11:12 am
Hey, J – Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and go live your fear-filled life somewhere out of the public eye. We’ve got work to do around here.
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
so banning hate crimes is an attack on the religious freedom of Christians .. they must read a different Gospel in their churches than the one I grew up with
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
Palin is not just a garden-variety ‘religious’ conservative. She is apparently connected with a movement called the “New Apostolic Reformation” which advocates the overthrow of the Constitution, all ‘worldly’ governments, and all religions other than the movement. Headed by C. Peter Wagner, this movement claims to now have more member churches than the Southern Baptists, and says it has infiltrated many aspects of American life, including politics, finance, education, etc. to prepare for an eventual takeover. I’m not sure what to make of this myself– if these claims are true, we have a case of dangerous domestic terrorism. OTOH, it might just be a small bunch of delusional nutjobs.In either case, if Palin is palling around with this crowd, she’s simply off-the-charts wacko. Thank God she didn’t get elected.
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
#1 Obama won because the economy went in the dumper. Just about *any* Democrat candidate would have won under those circumstances with voters seeing the value of their 401K’s cut in half.
#2 The GOP is moribund because a) the religious political extremists took it over some years ago and drove away almost every reasonable party member. Barry Goldwater would be branded a “RINO” by those in charge of the party today, who only care about abortion and gays b) George W. Bush and the Congressional Republicans did not stay true to keeping a lid on spending and fixing, with free market solutions, the problems of the nation such as healthcare. McCain’s plan to decouple medical insurance from people’s jobs should have been done a long time ago, for example.
#3 The millennium is over. Jesus did not come back. People are tired of the Pat Robertson – James Dobson – and their ilk’s obsession with abortion and homosexuality.
#4 Still, people hunger for The Messiah. And the Democrats found Him. I just did not know that they hated Hillary and the Clintons so much. Hillary should be the VP-elect and had she been the P-Candidate she would have won by a larger margin than BHO
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
Man oh man! Do these religious wing nuts actually think that the people of this nation are going to allow them to have their way with the goverment? Especially in light of the likes of the Taliban, Al Qaeda religious /political mix? The more one hears from these consevative Christian groups the more they sound like the consevative Islamic groups,pretty much the same rhetoric, just wearing different hats.
Comment posted November 8, 2008 @ 7:57 am
The prank call gives insight into Palin’s judgment. She flirts with the prankster who she believes to be French President Sarkozy. This conversation provides proof that she does not have the qualities to lead America or serve in any public office. It’s alarming the religious right supports this woman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbEwKcs-7Hc
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