Religious right

Overview

"The religious right" is shorthand for an informal alliance of conservative and evangelical/"fundamentalist" groups in the United States.

They claim to be working towards the improvement of morality in American society, but their idea of what constitutes "morality" seems to be extremely poor; of all the religious groups and all the right-wing groups, the religious right seems to have the very worst grasp of morality. Religious right groups have shown that they are willing to use virtually any form of rhetorical deception – up to and including outright lies – in the service of this supposed morality; current examples include the religious right's ongoing fights against evolution and homosexuality.

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Many (though perhaps not all) members of the religious right could also be described as Christofascists.

Related

• Quiverfull "is a movement among conservative evangelical Protestant Christian couples chiefly in the United States, but with some adherents in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and elsewhere. Its viewpoint is to eagerly receive children as blessings from God, eschewing all forms of birth control, including natural family planning and sterilization." -- sort of the ultimate pro-life position: quantity at any cost.

Groups

there are many more groups than listed here

• Campus Crusade for Christ, founded(?) by Bill Bright
• The Council for National Policy, founded by Tim LaHaye
• Focus on the Family, founded(?) by James Dobson
• The Moral Majority
• WallBuilders
  • Right Wing Watch

Links

Reference

• Crooks And Liars

Projects

• Bay of Fundie "Keeping the Radical Right at Bay" (punning reference to "Fundies", i.e. religious fundamentalists, and the Bay of Fundy)

Books

• Liars for Jesus (partial content online)

Filed Links

version 3

• 2012-09-12 [L..T] Craft Store Chain Sues For Right To Deny Their Employees Contraception Coverage Hobby Lobby, a large chain of craft stores owned by conservative evangelical Christians, filed a federal lawsuit against the contraception mandate today, claiming they should have the right to deny coverage for emergency contraception to over 13,000 employees across 40 states. Hobby Lobby's owners, the Green family, claim the Obamacare requirement to provide employer-based coverage for that contraceptive service violates their freedom of religion and speech...

version 2

• 2009-09-16 [Talk|Index] Teen Birth Rates Higher in Highly Religious States § “U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.”
• 2009-09-01 [Talk|Index] "Hooking Up" at College: Does Religion Make a Difference? § “Catholic college women are more likely to have "hooked up" while at school than college women with no religious affiliation. ... women who attend colleges and universities with a Catholic affiliation are more likely to have hooked up while at school than women who attend academic institutions with no religious affiliation...”
• 2008-11-02 [Talk|Index] Freedoms Will Be At Risk Under President Obama § “We have been clearly warned by [ Obama's ] running mate, Joe Biden, that America will suffer some form of attack within the first 6 months of Obama’s administration.”
• 2008-10-15 [Talk|Index] Homeschooling Hints § “If we were living in a biblical society, homosexuality would be punishable by death ... With any luck, some radical will blow up the gay school. No, I'm not condoning vigilantism--I'm merely saying that it would be poetic justice.”
• 2008-05-08 [Talk|Index] Terrifying religious insanity § [2]“Watch this heartwarming display of inter-faith unity, in which crazy Jewish nationalists and crazy Christian fundamentalists overcome their differences and get in bed together over their common religious insanity. Featuring Tom DeLay, John Hagee, and Joe Lieberman.” Includes many believers stating passionately that they are looking forward to Armageddon. (In one scene, Lieberman praises Rick Santorum, in the audience.)
• 2008-03-23 [Talk|Index] PZ Myers: The Elvis Presley of atheism? § [2]“The Information Age must be frightening to parents who wish to keep their children insulated from the scary outside world. All a child has to do is type the word “atheism” into a search engine, and they’ll find millions of pages dealing with the subject. For young people who subscribe to the stereotype of the atheist as the unhappy, god-hating local crank who tries to get nativity scenes removed from people’s lawns, the internet probably does a lot to shatter some myths about atheism. .. To counteract all this information, some religionists have taken to Defending the Faith by shooting the messenger, so to speak. Why bother refuting atheism or providing evidence for Intelligent Design when it’s so easy to attack a biology professor in Minnesota?”
• 2008-01-22 [Talk|Index] A Stealth Campaign to Help Huck: Uncovered § “...the Patriot Pastor model was exported to Texas -- where the Texas Restoration Project is not only thriving, but serves as a national model of organizing... Their effort ... appears to be a stealth campaign on behalf of Mike Huckabee...”
• 2008-01-08 [Talk|Index] Appealing Apostate: Prodigal Son Frank Schaeffer Roasts Religious Right § [2]“Consider Frank Schaeffer. The name may not be familiar to you, but Schaeffer’s father, theologian and Presbyterian pastor Francis Schaeffer, was pivotal in the creation of the Religious Right. .. Frank Schaeffer shared his father’s opinions and, as an adult, worked alongside him. He had an insider’s view of the rise of the Religious Right. Father and son were there at the movement’s birth and worked with some of its biggest names. .. What does Frank Schaeffer think about the Religious Right these days? Let’s just say he’s not a fan. He refers to Robertson as “a lunatic” and says Dobson is “a power-crazed political manipulator cynically abusing his followers.” He calls the late Jerry Falwell an “unreconstructed bigot.””
• 2008-01-08 [Talk|Index] Huckabee's New Baptist Vision § “Huckabee sees his calling as a higher mandate than merely being a Christian minister. The modern Baptist church has evolved to such a stance. Now the Southern Baptist Convention has shifted its model of Christian activism that once centered on mission work”
• 2007-12-18 [Talk|Index] Day Of The Undead: Religious Right Plots Strategy For 2008 § [2]“The big prize is the Supreme Court. .. "Think of it!" Minnery writes. "For years, we've been working to outlaw the heinous practice of abortion, and though the liberal courts have stood in the way, that could be about to change! By all indications, we are one Supreme Court vote away from being able to overturn Roe v. Wade – and to begin protecting innocent life in state after state." .. He goes on to say "And that would just be the beginning with a Supreme Court that strictly interprets the Constitution! Imagine a day when the Court would finally uphold limitations on Internet pornography – so we can protect the innocent eyes of our kids and grandkids. And the day is soon coming when that same Court will be asked to decide for our nation what the definition of marriage will be."”
• 2004-11-08 [Talk|Index] Paula Zahn Now § [2]this report touches on a lot of issues, including gay marriage and Bob Kerrey's claim that the 9/11 Commission "took an oath" not to talk, during the 2004 US presidential race, about the issue of Bush ignoring pre-9/11 warnings. Jerry Falwell says "I believe the war in Iraq was as just a war as World War II with Adolf Hitler was." Reverend Pat Robertson "said that he warned the president that this was going to be a war we shouldn't enter, the there were going to be tremendous American casualties. He said the president didn't think there would be any casualties."

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Quotes

• Quotes From the Religious Right (mostly from Pat Robertson but including a few others such as Ralph Reed): a good example of the bad religion found far too much within the religious right