Tag Archives: religious right

Jim & Tammy Faye Baker

Well there’s the textbook version and there’s the bigger picture.  The textbook is not inaccurate by any means but I’d argue it’s not necessarily complete.

Religious fundamentalism sees a surge in the 1970s as a response to the excesses and immorality of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.  Evangelical Protestantism expanded greatly during this time and sought to overturn Supreme Court decisions banning prayer in schools, protecting pornography as free speech and legalizing abortion.  To be an evangelical christian, one must go through some process of being born again and subscribe to the bible’s teachings.  Jimmy Carter is noted as being the first evangelical President, but there is no explanation about how that affected his Presidency.  It does note that most evangelicals enter politics as conservatives (Republicans) but Carter was a democrat.

[My opinion follows.] The problem with the Religious Right not identified in the text is that there is a refusal to accept the separation of church and state as a fundamental and inalienable part of American society.  This makes America a secular (non-religious) state/country/government.  When I learned about why America was settled, it was in large part due to people wanting to be free to practice their religion of choice.  I thought everyone learned this in school.  Now I find it so mind boggling that it is so important for Americans to impose their religious beliefs on others, and that it doesn’t occur to them that if it’s being preached to them by their Pastor on a Sunday in a church, then it falls under the umbrella of “religious beliefs.”

The other problem with the text regarding the Religious Right is that it doesn’t mention how Jerry Falwell was he would say crazy and bizarre things like blaming 9/11 on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the American Civil Liberties Union and People For The American Way.  The text doesn’t mention Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s embezzling money from the nonprofit ministry (with a weekly broadcast for donations) to furnish a lavish lifestyle.  The text doesn’t mention the preacher who says that God came to him and had a detailed discussion with him.  The text also doesn’t discuss how Bush and Karl Rove courted the Religious Right in order to win their elections, and then were made out to be fools when 60 Minutes did interviews of former White House staffers explaining how they laughed at these crazies behind their backs and had no intention of doing most of what they promised them.