5stringJeff
Senior Member
A good piece regarding the differences in the thinking of conservative Christians.
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what is this "religious right" in America?
To many thoughtful overseas observers, the "religious right" in America seems to be a dark, nefarious force threatening not only the political landscape of the US, but also to denigrate authentic christianity. Some friends of mine from the UK were quite concerned last fall why Christians seemed to be overly supportive of George Bush, with no concern for his questionable, or even wrong-headed, policies. The Singapore Straits Times newspaper regularly serves as a reminder that for many people, their only experience of the religious right is what its rivals (typically the secular left, but often including secular conservatives) say about it. I find that even many Asians who go to live in the US, because they tend towards universities or other centers of more liberal views, pick up most of the same conclusions about the religious right as my faculty colleagues have.
So, it might be helpful to try to provide a better sense of what the religious right is and is not. I won't make an apologia for the movement, but rather try to give an accurate outline of what the movement is, and its role in American politics, in as few words as possible. There is definitely a religious right, but it is both far more diverse and far less threatening than media portrayals, and certainly not even close to the most apocalyptic versions, such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Of course, one could start with Time Magazine's feature on the 25 most influential evangelicals, but that doesn't tend to portray that internal divisions within the religious right.
http://postmodernareopagus.blogspot.com/2005/04/what-is-this-religious-right-in.html
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what is this "religious right" in America?
To many thoughtful overseas observers, the "religious right" in America seems to be a dark, nefarious force threatening not only the political landscape of the US, but also to denigrate authentic christianity. Some friends of mine from the UK were quite concerned last fall why Christians seemed to be overly supportive of George Bush, with no concern for his questionable, or even wrong-headed, policies. The Singapore Straits Times newspaper regularly serves as a reminder that for many people, their only experience of the religious right is what its rivals (typically the secular left, but often including secular conservatives) say about it. I find that even many Asians who go to live in the US, because they tend towards universities or other centers of more liberal views, pick up most of the same conclusions about the religious right as my faculty colleagues have.
So, it might be helpful to try to provide a better sense of what the religious right is and is not. I won't make an apologia for the movement, but rather try to give an accurate outline of what the movement is, and its role in American politics, in as few words as possible. There is definitely a religious right, but it is both far more diverse and far less threatening than media portrayals, and certainly not even close to the most apocalyptic versions, such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Of course, one could start with Time Magazine's feature on the 25 most influential evangelicals, but that doesn't tend to portray that internal divisions within the religious right.
http://postmodernareopagus.blogspot.com/2005/04/what-is-this-religious-right-in.html
