#religiousright

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The Religious Right | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

The untold story of how Christian conservatives went from politically inactive to never shutting the hell up. #NotAllChristians Watch Full Frontal with Saman...

History on the rise of the religious right. In the 1950’s and 60’s, evangelicals weren’t interested in politics. Then in the 70’s, several leaders decided Christians were an untapped voting force. Their first issue: opposition to school desegregation. 

Losing that battle, they switched to abortion. Before 1972, the GOP platform didn’t contain a single reference to God or to religious issues. Then these two groups joined. 

content note: this episode contains a cartoon image of elephant being sexually violated.

Part II: The Religious Right and Abortion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPsderlzd6c

Excellent history of how the religious right chose abortion as their #1 issue, several years after Roe v. Wade (1973). Protestants, at the time, weren’t interested in the abortion issue and considered it a private matter. 

This led to “pro-life” terrorism against abortion clinics:

So this is the historical foundation of why many conservatives think abortion should be their #1 issue. 

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The Real Origins of the Religious Right

They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.

In May 1969, a group of African-American parents in Holmes County, Mississippi, sued the Treasury Department to prevent three new whites-only K-12 private academies from securing full tax-exempt status, arguing that their discriminatory policies prevented them from being considered “charitable” institutions. The schools had been founded in the mid-1960s in response to the desegregation of public schools set in motion by the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. In 1969, the first year of desegregation, the number of white students enrolled in public schools in Holmes County dropped from 771 to 28; the following year, that number fell to zero.

In Green v. Kennedy (David Kennedy was secretary of the treasury at the time), decided in January 1970, the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction, which denied the “segregation academies” tax-exempt status until further review. In the meantime, the government was solidifying its position on such schools. Later that year, President Richard Nixon ordered the Internal Revenue Service to enact a new policy denying tax exemptions to all segregated schools in the United States. Under the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbade racial segregation and discrimination, discriminatory schools were not—by definition—“charitable” educational organizations, and therefore they had no claims to tax-exempt status; similarly, donations to such organizations would no longer qualify as tax-deductible contributions.

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#sundaythoughts the #evangelical #support of #trump will be an #indictment against its #validity as a #christian #movement for #generations to come. #richardrohr #religiousright #conservativechristians #immoral

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The rise of what used to be known as “the religious right” did not begin with the legalization of abortion. That’s a nice story that the various Bible-banging charlatans would like you to believe. No, the institutions that would nurture and produce the religious right were the white-only Christian academies and universities that sprang up in the South as part of the massive resistance to desegregation—the churchgoing end of that strategy. The religious right was not born out of opposition to Roe v. Wade. It was born out of opposition to Brown v. Board.

Trump Federal Judge Nominee Has Never Tried a Case

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In 2015 Pence, like Drollinger, was still a deep-bench reserve for the right wing, someone isolated by his fringe views and his track record of scandal and failure. But 2016 changed all that for Pence when he hitched himself to the Trump wagon and brought his old buddy Drollinger along for the ride. That’s a pretty good snapshot of what Trumpism is doing to the religious right and to conservative white evangelicalism in general. You may be previously proven as “not biblically qualified for spiritual leadership,” but if you can just touch the hem of Trump’s garment, you will be transformed into the herald of a “spiritual awakening.” It’s miraculous.

From deep on the religious right bench to Trump's all-star team

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Perhaps it’s not your intention—that is, the true message your continued support of President Donald Trump is sending to the world. In your mind, you’ve been innocently choosing between lesser evils, seemingly caught in a no-win conundrum. Initially, your vote for Trump to become President was birthed with an underlying hope that he would shed his campaign antics and mature into a more solid presidential leader that supports your values with integrity and poise. Yet, despite consistent clear evidence to the contrary, as neither his character nor his leadership competencies have improved whatsoever, still to this day he retains your allegiance. Twittering like a middle schooler, bullying his disagreers, lying blatantly, harboring serious duplicity, and exuding strong levels of narcissism and greed still don’t seem to phase you the least. In all the ways that Trump and Jesus clearly and undeniably don’t mix, your continued loyalty is sending a deafening, disturbing, and revealing litany of messages to the world that you may not fully realize.

Christian, What Your Continued Support Of Trump Is Screaming To The World

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On the surface it appears to be incongruous that the Christian right would rally behind a slick New York real estate developer who is a very public serial philanderer and adulterer, has no regard for the truth, is consumed by greed, does not appear to read or know the Bible, routinely defrauds and cheats his investors and contractors, expresses a crude misogyny and an even cruder narcissism and appears to yearn for despotism. In fact, these are the very characteristics that define most of the leaders of the Christian right. Trump has preyed on desperate people through the thousands of slot machines in his casinos, his sham university and his real estate deals. Megachurch pastors prey on their followers by extracting "seed offerings," "love gifts," tithes and donations and by selling miracle healings along with "prayer clothes,”"self-help books, audio and video recordings and even protein shakes. Pastors have established within their megachurches, as Trump did in his businesses, despotic fiefdoms. They cannot be challenged or questioned any more than an omnipotent Trump could be challenged on the reality television show "The Apprentice." And they seek to replicate their little tyrannies on a national scale, with white men in charge.

Trump and the Christian Fascists

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The personal piety of most of the ministers who lead the Christian right is a facade. Their private lives are usually marked by hedonistic squalor that includes mansions, private jets, limousines, retinues of bodyguards, personal assistants and servants, shopping sprees, lavish vacations and sexual escapades that rival those carried out by Trump. And because they run "churches," in many cases church funds pay for their tax-free empires, including their extravagant lifestyles. They also engage in the nepotism found in the Trump organization, elevating family members to prominent or highly paid positions and passing on the businesses to their children.

Chris Hedges