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The Religious Right, the Christian Coalition and Their Attack on
Religious Freedom
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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this page is to
expose the evil bigotry and false claims of the extremists of the religious right who
believe that the ends justify the means. Lies are told about Pagans and
Witches. Lies are told about Native Americans. Lies are told about almost
anyone and anything they don't agree with. They think it is OK to Kill physicians
who do abortions. Yet their Bible says thou shalt not Kill. They say it is OK
to Kill Witches because their Bible says "Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live (even
though the mistranslated Latin word valifactria means poisoner not Witch).
Their Bible is considered by them to be the unadulterated and inspired Word of God even
though it has been mistranslated and added to. They attack anyone who
disagrees with them. All for the love of power, money and greed. Those who we
expose seem to have a media empire of Radio/TV Networks, etc. But we will not go
away. We will call attention to all the evil that the Religious Right is responsible
for. - an associate
Founder Pat Robertson has taken back control
of the misnamed Christian Coalition, from director Ralph Reed, who until recently, was the
telegenic mouth piece for the closed-minded and selectively-interpreted religious views of
the reactionary broadcast evangelist.
Pat has kept the public relations strategy
of repackaging the Coalition's "Contract With the American
Family." It uses the reasonable and benevolent-sounding goal of
"strengthening the American family" to mask legislative proposals that would
threaten fundamental freedoms such as the separation of church and state and women's
rights to reproductive planning.
Pat has been attempting to make the most of
the Christian Coalition's growing publicity, a powerful lobbying presence, millions of
dollars in funding, and the deference of elected officials and presidential hopefuls. The
Coalition has been quietly trying to amass the power to see its agenda realized.
"Their agenda is rooted in elitism,
restricted only by what polls say voters are willing to accept. It is masked in
rhetoric that appeals to people's desire for a better society, but also uses their fears
to cast blame. It is an agenda we are working to unmask, to educate the public about and
to see brought to a halt before more real families are hurt," says NOW Action Vice
President Rosemary Dempsey.
The "common sense values"
that the Contract wants to "restore" include measures that would:
abolish the long-held Constitutional doctrine
of separating church and state;
endanger the quality of education for
low-income and special needs children by abolishing the Department of Education and
installing voucher programs that divert dollars from public to private schools, which can
reject students for numerous reasons;
threaten children's basic human rights by
rejecting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
end federal funding of the NEA and PBS,
thereby endangering educational and cultural exhibits, workshops, and programs;
return "Christian" prayer to
schools;
deny children potentially life saving sex
education under the guise of parental rights to regulate school curriculum;
endanger millions of families by transforming
the bureaucratic welfare state into a system of private and faith- based compassion;
make birth control, family planning and other
women's health services unavailable by denying funding to health clinics;
and undermine the right of all women to
choose abortion.
Some religious denominations have started
asking if it is appropriate to associate the word "Christian" with conservative
political agendas. One group of 80 ecumenical leaders
issued a "Cry for Renewal" that protested the actions of the Coalition and its
identification with the Republican Party. The statement also criticized religious
liberals who were affiliated with the Democratic Party for not showing, "moral
imagination or prophetic integrity."
If the Contract is "the first word, not
the last word," then where will the Coalition stop? A new, similarly unsigned
and more extreme contract could be taken seriously if the Coalition continues to gain
political power, if more religious-right supported candidates are elected, or if one wins
the presidency.
Pat Robertson and the Republican Party: How much influence does the Christian Coalition within the
GOP?
Pat Robertson and his Political Agenda: The Christian Coalition and Pat Robertson want to change the
way you worship by establishing a State Religion. They want to tell you how to
educate your children. They want to tell you what movies you can watch. They
want to tell you what TV programs you will have access to. And they want to tell you
what defines Art. Here, on this page, they tell you how they are going to do
it.
Pat Robertson and His Creative Finances:How does a televangelist get enormously wealthy?
Pat Robertson and his questionable friends: The strangest part of Pat's Character, is his support of
people who have been described by the News media as Criminals, Murderers, and totalitarian
Dictators.
Pat Robertson and Banking: Pat
and a Bank in Scotland decide to join forces.
Pat Robertson and his mouth: Pat
has strange ideas that can only be described as crazy. Let him tell you all about
it.
Links: Organizations
that oppose Pat Robertson and his organizations.
12/03/99 INTERVIEW: CARDINAL ARINZE- RELIGION
CANNOT
JUSTIFY ANY FORM OF VIOLENCE
AMMAN, DEC 1 (ZENIT-FIDES).- From November 25 to 29, more than 800 people took part in
the 7th general assembly of the World Conference for Religion and Peace,
which was held in Amman, Jordan. Religious leaders of a wide panorama of
faiths
discussed the role of religion in promoting peaceful coexistence among people.
In addition to peace, speakers addressed a number of topics including war, development,
human rights and disarmament.
- At the Conference, you spoke about the role of religion in society.
CARDINAL ARINZE: Religions are necessary in society because a change of heart is not
possible without religious motivation. War, violence, and violation of human rights
come from people's hearts, hearts which religions can convert to peace
and solidarity.
-- Many conflicts in the world appear to be caused by religion. Is this correct or is it
usually manipulation or misuse of religion?
CARDINAL ARINZE: Religion is never the only cause of conflict and, in my opinion, never
the main cause. Religion is often included to provoke the people to act: in
other words, it is exploited.
Authentic religion cannot promote violence: all the great religions teach the golden rule
'avoid doing to others what you would not want done to yourself.' When a follower of a
religion uses his religion for violence he betrays the religion itself.
-- Religious freedom, although listed as one of the rights in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, is still a 'dead letter' in many parts of the world.
Why?
CARDINAL ARINZE: Religious freedom is one of the rights most dear to the human heart,
because people are ready even to die for their religion. The human person must never
be pressured in matters of conscience: freedom of belief is an established right.
This principle is violated in countries with a large religious majority, and in countries
with authoritarian regimes.
In a country with a religious majority, minorities cannot be denied the right to practice
their faith. Religions fearing this principle must take a closer look at their
religion, because religious freedom is a sacred right of each person. On the
threshold of the third Christian millennium, humanity expects this right to be recognized
and put into practice.
12/03/1999 PAT ROBERTSON ADDS CANADA TO
HIS 'NAUGHTY' LIST
TV Preacher says 'Canada has lost its collective mind'
It looks like another country won't be getting a Christmas present from right-wing U.S.
televangelist Pat Robertson this year.
Robertson denounced Scotland as a "dark land" where "homosexuals are
riding high" earlier this year after the Bank of Scotland backed out of a business
deal with him. Now he's turned his sights closer to home with a new addition to his bad
list: Canada.
On his daily "700 Club" television program yesterday, Robertson denounced
Canada's leaders because of a report that a Canadian commercial printer was fined under
the country's civil rights laws for refusing to print stationery for the Canadian Gay and
Lesbian Archives. He urged his Canadian viewers to "throw out those crazies that are
now running the country." He said:
"A pastor, speaking out in the pulpit saying 'I believe that God's word says the
following: adultery is wrong, child molestation is wrong, incest is wrong' - if you say
that then there will be some coterie of people that say 'well we're the ones who committed
the
incest, and therefore we're a minority and should be protected.' And that pastor can be
put in jail. Now this is very serious! And Canada has lost its collective mind. And it
seems like to me that the Christians up there and those who believe in family values - I'm
talking about Roman Catholics, I'm talking about traditional Protestants, I'm talking
about Evangelicals and I'm talking about Orthodox Jews - anybody who believes in
fundamental moral values
should get together and throw out those crazies that are now running the country. It's
just that simple. And we should fight here in America for these liberties. They can be
taken away quickly."
"It's a small coterie. It's not a big group. It's a small group of way-out leftists
that are pushing this agenda. And they should be stopped."
In the same broadcast, Robertson also warned his viewers that the concept of tolerance for
homosexuals and religious minorities was being "pushed all over Europe." He
said:
"This is why it is so terribly important for Christians to get involved in politics
in the United States of America. You can't just sit in your pulpits and your pews and
think that everything's going to be all right. It's not all right! And what's happening is
the whole concept that's being pushed all over Europe, particularly, is 'tolerance.' It
means that you will be intolerant in anything you say against homosexuality, against any
kind of sin, against
pedophilia, against some Rastafarian that wants to sacrifice a chicken in the middle of
the Capitol building or what have you. You speak anything against that, then you're guilty
of a hate crime."
MORE INFORMATION ON THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT:
http://www.pfaw.org/issues/right/
6/18/99 LILITH FAIR'S LILITH: BAD
GRRL? by Joal Ryan
e-online.
The Lilith Fair can't wind down soon enough for Jerry Falwell. Sarah McLachlan's
landmark all-grrl music fest, making its final trek across the country this summer, is
under attack from the religious conservative's camp for celebrating a "pagan
figure" rife with "lesbian imagery." An article in the June issue of
Falwell's National Liberty Journal goes so far as to issue a Lilith "parents
alert." "Many young people no doubt attend the Lilith Fair concerts not
knowing the demonic legend of the mystical woman whose name the series manifest,"
senior editor J.M. Smith writes in the magazine.
Two other red flags, according to the
essay: The concert series (1) supports Planned Parenthood, and (2) makes a point of
distributing condoms at its events. (Smith does note that the [Lilith Fair] fest donates a
portion of ticket sales to "worthy" breast-cancer research. Lilith organizers
this year additionally pledged to earmark funds for local women's shelters.)
Sarah McLachlan, the singer/songwriter who put Lilith in
the Lilith Fair in 1997, meanwhile, isn't fessing up to any nefarious motives.
"It's about equality," McLachlan manager Terry
McBride says about the festival's name, in SonicNet. "That's it."
Falwell's National Liberty Journal, meanwhile, concedes
it's likely to draw fire for its Lilith alert, as it drew fire for its "gay"
Teletubby alert last winter. The seemingly benign, 40-date Lilith Fair kicks off
July 8 in Vancouver, Canada.
In addition to McLachlan, headliners include Sheryl Crow,
the Dixie Chicks and Monica.
3/12/99 CHRISTIAN COALITION'S 'GET OUT THE
VOTE' PROJECT IS DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO REGAIN MOMENTUM, SAYS AMERICANS UNITED
Washington, D.C. - Awash in legal and
public relations woes, TV preacher Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition today
attempted to turn the tide against them by announcing a "get out the vote"
strategy for religious conservatives in advance of the 2000 elections.
"Robertson is desperately trying to regain some
momentum after a year of disasters, blunders and defeats," said the Rev. Barry W.
Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
"Unless he can control his radical rhetoric and get his political machine running
smoothly again, Robertson risks losing his ringside seat in the Republicans' 'big tent.'
"Robertson is a rogue elephant in the GOP china
shop," added Lynn, a leading critic of the Religious Right. "Whatever happens,
he's likely to break a lot of dishes."
As evidence of the Religious Right group's troubles, Lynn
noted that the Christian Coalition has been beset by one crisis after another in the last
year.
Over the last twelve months:
- Christian Coalition President Don Hodel resigned,
apparently due to a complete inability to function under Robertson's reign. The Washington
Times quoted one source as saying that Hodel grew frustrated by the fact that the
Christian Coalition "was not consistently putting principle over politics."
- Former Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed has
resigned from the Coalition Board. In addition, CC National Operations Director Chuck
Cunningham also quit, taking two other key staffers with him.
- The Internal Revenue Service continued to give
Robertson fits. The Christian Coalition is under investigation by the IRS, which has
refused to grant the organization's request for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. Also,
Robertson was forced to pay a penalty to the IRS for illegal campaigning done by his
Christian Broadcasting Network, including a retroactive tax-exempt revocation for CBN for
1986 and 1987.
- The Federal Election Commission's lawsuit against the
Coalition for illegal partisan electioneering progressed. Documents released as a result
of the trial have been embarrassing for the Coalition as they detail close ties between
the Christian Coalition and the campaign operatives of incumbent candidate George Bush in
the 1992 presidential election.
- The Virginia Attorney General's office has also
continued its investigation of Robertson for alleged unethical business practices stemming
from accusations of misuse of Operation Blessing charity airplanes to benefit Robertson's
for-profit diamond mining operation in the Congo.
- Oklahoma State Senator Dave Herbert (D) has filed a
defamation lawsuit against the Oklahoma Christian Coalition. This suit, filed in District
Court of Oklahoma County, charges that the Coalition voter guide falsely reported that
Herbert supports "abortion on demand," "minors' access to pornography in
libraries," "increased federal control of education" and "socialized
health care" and wants to "decriminalize sodomy and beastiality [sic]."
- Robertson made Religious Right activists and Republican
allies in Congress angry by abruptly calling for an end to the impeachment trial, after
months of demanding Clinton's removal. In September, Robertson said getting Clinton out of
office was a top goal of the Coalition, dismissing resignation as too easy and demanding
that he be impeached. Then, in February, he reversed course and concluded that Clinton had
won.
- The Christian Coalition has continued to lose
visibility and movement leadership to other Religious Right figures including presidential
candidate Gary Bauer and his Family Research Council, as well as James Dobson of Focus on
the Family.
- Robertson has no clear candidate for the 2000
presidential election. While Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft was Robertson's early favorite,
his departure from the race leaves no apparent choice. Some candidates who are courting
the Religious Right appear unpalatable to Robertson, including Bauer, who is
associated with a rival organization.
- The Coalition suffered multiple failures in the 1998
elections, despite spending millions of dollars. Some of the group's favorite and most
sympathetic candidates went down in defeat, including high-profile incumbents such as
Govs. Fob James in Alabama and David Beasley in South Carolina.
- Churches began to turn away from the group. After an
election year campaign by Americans United to educate churches on the dangers of getting
caught up in the Coalition's political machine, many church leaders rejected the group's
materials out of fears that the "voter guides" are too partisan and may
jeopardize the church's tax exemption. Accordingly, the Christian Coalition's chosen
method of distribution for their campaign materials was severely hampered. University of
Akron Prof. John C. Green and other political science scholars said that the Religious
Right's electoral misfortunes were due in part to "more determined opposition"
from groups such as Americans United (The Christian Century, Dec. 23, 1998).
- Robertson himself was made the subject of national
public ridicule. In June, Americans United alerted the media to Robertson's announcement
that Orlando may be struck by a hurricane and "possibly a meteor" after flying
rainbow colored flags from city lightposts during the annual "Gay Days"
festivities. That was followed by AU's discovery in July that Robertson's Regent
University received funds from the National Endowment for the Arts while Robertson was
calling on Congress to shut down the agency.
Americans United is a church-state watchdog group based
in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000 members and allied
houses of worship in all 50 states.
Here is a Christian Coalition reading list which contains important books on Hate
Sites, Right Wing Extreme Sites, White Power, Etc. These are the best introductory texts
available:
Here is a Christian Coalition reading list which contains
important books on Hate Sites, Right Wing Extreme Sites, White Power, Etc. These are the
best introductory texts available:
CHRISTIAN COALITION WATCH ONLINE
RESOURCES
There are several sites related to watching the Christian Coalition and other
Right Wing Extremists who would take away all your personal rights in the name of their
idea of God. Some sites maintain excellent links to the best Anti-Coalition web
pages. Sites listed here offer information about the Christian Coalition,
historically or otherwise, and might be of interest to anyone pursuing the subject.
But, the contents have not been scrutinized in depth and cannot be vouched for. However,
it is felt that they have enough affinity to warrant a link to this site. We hope that
your explorations prove to be fruitful. If you know of other sites with relevant
information, please contact coalition@dynionmwyn.com
LINKS WHICH EXPOSE ULTRA RIGHT INDIVIDUALS AND
HATE GROUPS
HateWatch is an organization that monitors the growing and evolving threat of hate
group activity on the Internet. Started in 1995, HateWatch provides and on-line resource
for concerned individuals, academics, organizations and the media to keep abreast of and
counteract hate activity in our world. By acting as a resource for interested parties,
HateWatch catalogues hate groups home pages, tracks the use of these pages for recruitment
purposes and provides bibliographic information by and for leading scholars.
Political Research Associates is an independent, not-for-profit
research center which monitors the organizations, individuals, and activities of the US
political right. Our purpose is to serve as an information clearinghouse providing
archival information on the right wing, including links among right-wing groups, financing
behind right-wing activities, and analysis of right-wing movements, and to serve as an
"early warning system" for those who need to know about emerging trends and
developments.
Christian Reconstructionism is an extreme form of post-millenial, Calvinistic
Protestantism which holds that the Law of the Pentateuch continues as a standard of
righteousness even today for Christians, and that Christians must exercise dominion
through the power of God's Law over all the Earth before Christ shall come again. As part
of their theology, reconstructionists hold that, under the coming "kingdom of
God", which they are actively engaged in bringing about, that the Biblical penalty
for homosexuality (death) will be enforced, though they will always demur that they do not
advocate that the penalty be applied today.
Reconstructionism can be traced to the Cobb County, Georgia ordinance stating that
homosexuality is against community standards. Particularly, several of the county
commissioners of Cobb County are known adherents of the forms of Reconstructionism
advocated by Gary North and Gary DeMar.
The American Family Association, headed by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, headquartered in
Tupelo, Mississippi, serves as the "media watchdog" of the radical religious
right. Their primary activities have been the organization of boycotts and letter writing
campaigns targetted at businesses and media entities which promulgate soft porn (ex.
Playboy), or portray lesbians and gay men in a positive light. Secondarily, the
American Family Association targets violence on television. The American Family
Association publishes a monthly newsletter (the most recent edition of which is available
on their web site) listing those television shows, businesses, and advertisers who they
are currently targeting, as well as opinion pieces.
Pat Robertson is quite plausibly the best known of the Religious Right, through his
abortive 1988 challenge to George Bush for the Republican Presidential nomination, and
through his daily appearances on his television program - The 700 Club. Robertson survived
his own political demise, and the demise of the original religious right, centered around
Falwell's "Moral Majority". He retrenched, brought in Ralph Reed to head the
Christian Coalition, which he founded in 1989, pioneered the stealth campaign, and now
wields more raw political power than any other leader of the new religious right.
Pat Robertson has often been the victim of his own intemperate statements, perhaps
nowhere so evident as his 1991 book The New World Order, in which he espouses a
highly conspiracist point of view, one that would be quite at home in many of the extremist fringes of the far right. By contrast, Ralph Reed,
titular head of the Christian Coalition, has appeared considerably more moderate, reaching
out to Catholics and mainstream Jews in his efforts to build a broad base of political
power. Reed has masterminded the grassroots campaigning tactics, as well as the art of
advocating extremism with moderate language, which have gained the Christian Coalition
their present power base.
Concerned Women for America, headed by Beverly LaHaye, wife of evangelist and pastor
Tim LaHaye, is a leading religious right organization. The group has long opposed abortion
and women's rights, being originally formed to fight against the Equal Rights Amendment,
and has recently become much more vocally opposed to equal rights for lesbians and gay
people, and to the National Education Association, for it's support for a
Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual History Month. Concerned Women for America has also recently taken a
decidedly nativist turn in their pronouncements, opposing much United Nations
involvement by the United States, and several United Nations conferences on the rights of
women and children.
Focus on the Family, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and led by Dr. James
Dobson is a leader in the "pro-family", "traditional values" fight.
Focus on the Family disguises much of its anti-lesbigay work behind a facade of pro-family
rhetoric, but those who subscribe to it's "Family Issues Alert" fax service, are
treated to a double helping. Focus on the Family was very active in advocating the passage
of Colorado's Amendment Two, which denies equality to lesbian, gay and bisexual
Coloradans, while providing for special rights for heterosexual Coloradans, and in
advancing similar ballot initiatives in Maine. Focus has also extensively used the AIDS
plague to advance their abstinence-based views regarding sex education. Focus on the
Family has maintained a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship with the Family Research Council, and has also shown a great deal of support
for the Promise Keepers organization.
Paul Cameron is both the best known, and the least credible, of the various
psychologists, medical doctors, and associated professionals which actively collaborate
with the Religious Right, and attempt to lend a veneer of scientific respectability to the
Religious Right's anti-gay propaganda.
Phyllis Schlafly first broke onto the conservative political landscape with the
publication of her book A Choice, Not An Echo in 1964, which was an endorsement
of Barry Goldwater's campaign for the Presidency. She emerged as a leader of the Religious
Right's opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in the seventies. The Eagle Forum, which
she founded in 1972, has continued her fight against gender equality and feminism, and has
expanded their reach to also focus on homosexuality (one of the original bases for her
opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment), education, abortion and the United Nations.
Schafly's son, John was outed by the now defunct magazine Queer World in 1992.
The Lunatic Fringe - Militias, Conspiracy Theories,
Holocaust Revisionists and Neo-Nazis
This page explores some of the extremist fringes of the Religious Right. While many of
the more mainstream Religious Right will disclaim and repudiate many of the extreme views
herein contained, these views have consistently been propounded by some within the
Religious Right, albeit in somewhat watered-down forms. These fringe movements are also
where some of the influencing philosophies of the mainstream Religious Right --
particularly nativism and populism, can be seen most clearly. Many of these groups,
particularly the Identity Christianity, and neo-Nazi groups are also virulently
anti-homosexual.
Anti-abortionism, while not a directly queer-related issue, distinguishes itself as one
of the few issues other than gay / lesbian / bi equal rights that defines
the religious right. Not all anti-abortionists are per se part of the religious
right, but all of the religious right are necessarily anti-abortion.
The Rutherford Institute specializes in religious liberty issues, as well as maintaining
a strong presence in anti-abortion and anti-gay legal disputes. John Whitehead, the leader
and founder of the Rutherford Institute first made a name for himself (successfully)
defending Chuck McIlhenny, pastor of the First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in San
Francisco, against a lawsuit filed by a gay man, formerly the church organist, whom he had
fired for being gay.
In their own words: The Rutherford Institute is an
international, nonprofit, legal and educational organization that specializes in the
defense of religious liberty and human rights.
The Institute for First Amendment Studies profiles the Rutherford Institute, an activist
Religious Right organization that promotes their agenda in the courts.
