Never Again? by Abraham Foxman

Author:Abraham Foxman [Foxman, Abraham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Holocaust, World History
ISBN: 9780062016775
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

TODAY’S CONTINUED ASCENDANCY OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

In terms of press coverage, the Christian right probably was at the apex of its fame in the mid-1990s. But its political power and social influence today may actually be greater than ever. The election of George W. Bush in 2000 brought back into Washington a Republican administration with strong ties to the religious right. Thus continued scrutiny of the most powerful forces in the movement remains vitally necessary.

The Christian Coalition remains an important player in electoral politics. The group claims nearly two million members nationwide and is affiliated with a wide array of media outlets and other institutions, including the Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University.

The coalition publishes voter guides that are nominally nonpartisan but clearly slanted toward hard-line conservative positions. (For example, they describe candidates who support funding for the National Endowment for the Arts as favoring “tax-funded obscene art.”) In fact, the partisan nature of these guides led to the group’s losing its tax-exempt status in 1999. In 2000 the coalition conducted its biggest-ever election campaign, distributing seventy million voter guides through conservative churches and its own members in every state of the union.

The coalition’s ties to Washington are among the strongest of any lobbying group. Its annual “Road to Victory” conference draws all of the most prominent conservative Republicans; for example, speakers in 2000 included Senate majority leader Trent Lott, House majority leader Dick Armey, speaker of the house Dennis Hastert, majority whip Tom DeLay, Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson, and presidential candidate George W. Bush (on videotape).

Pat Robertson himself continues to do mischief. For example, he has not moderated his desire to undermine the doctrine of separation of church and state in pursuit of a theocratic America. On his 700 Club television program on October 5, 2000, Robertson remarked:

The concept that one God, “Thou shall have no other gods before me,” will somehow upset a Hindu, that’s tough luck! America was founded as a Christian nation… And the fact that somebody comes with what amounts to an alien religion to these shores doesn’t mean that we’re going to give up all of our cherished religious beliefs to accommodate a few people who happen to believe in something else.

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