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Hit Them With Your Best Shot
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BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Bill Chickering
A word to fellow progressives: quit bellowing and raging at the Christian right. It won't get you anywhere. I've scanned most of the alternative websites over the past few years and there seems to be a common thread running through all the stories and editorials about the "God said it, I believe it, that settles it"; folks. That thread splits into two strands.
The first strand is indignation. The writing can be summed up by "How could they? Why won't they listen to reason?" The second strand is anger. The columnist regales the reader with a list of the lies and deceptions and cruelty the religious right propagates and can't for a moment understand how anyone with a brain could believe such things. You can almost sense the writer's face flushing crimson as fingers hammer at the keyboard.
Why don't they change? Why won't they understand? Can't they see where this is sending the country?
The three answers? First, they "know"; God has given them a specific calling. They've prayed about it, know God's confirmed their call, and nothing will turn them around.
Second, why should they understand? What's the point at looking at all sides of an issue when your God has already provided you with the answers.
Third, they know exactly where it's taking the country, and it's just fine with them. And God wouldn't have it any other way.
George W. Bush isn't interested in what you have to say. John Ashcroft isn't interested in what you have to say. They believe they have their marching orders and will do whatever it takes to follow them, no matter the consequences.
If anger and indignation could kill, the religious right would have been dead long ago. But they're alive and growing. Anger and indignation, while good starting points, won't make a difference once that rumble of righteousness gets rolling.
I was thrust into the religious right movement at age 14. Two members of my family were "born again"; and the rest of us, willing or not, had to follow. That was difficult since my natural political implications, even at that early age, leaned decidedly left. I even remember one of my family members asking me to park my beat up Chevy a block away from the church because I had a peace symbol on the rear windshield.
From there I was packed off to a premiere Christian college for re-education, then moved on to several evangelical organizations. Through all of this, I tried to shove the square peg of my political beliefs into a world of round holes. Seventeen years ago I walked away for good.
Now to say that everyone I encountered in the evangelical world fit the religious right mold would be a distortion. I discovered and still maintain friendships with a number of evangelicals who share my political views. And some who differ with me still respect my opinions. The evangelical leadership with whom I worked is another story. Most leaned decidedly to the right. A few tilted in Ashcroft's direction but remained reserved about it.
So as much as I enjoy reading the scribes who rightly profess anger and indignation at the religious right, I also feel frustration at the notion that any expression of outrage will change the far right's actions. It won't. You can't stop people who believe they are doing the work of God with angry screeds and howls. When proven wrong or chided in the court of public opinion, people like the John Ashcrofts and Jerry Falwells see it not as an indication that they are doing anything wrong; they see it as an attack from "the enemy" that's trying to thwart their work.
Remember this. The political right and the religious right need each other. The politicians can acquire the aura of spirituality. Religious leaders can get to hobnob with the big shots and push their agenda. It gives them opportunity to use the civil authorities to enforce the moral and spiritual tenets of their faith. They parrot the government's message to their congregations or television audiences and covertly imply that the ecclesiastical and political are on the same level and deserve equal support and recognition.
So what to do. Pat Buchanan got the ball rolling in 1992 with his speech at the Republican convention when he said that the country was engaged in a "cultural war"; While many on the left dismissed him as another bellowing extremist fool (which he is) and forgot about it, the right got busy mobilizing and preparing for war. But then Clinton won a first term and easily won a second. And we got lazy. The economy soared and it appeared the market had a never ending arrow pointing toward the heavens.
Then the attacks on Clinton started. And there was the theft of the election of 2000. With the inauguration of George W. Bush, the political religious right consummated their marriage and now look to reproduce around the globe.
You don't come at something like this with kid gloves. You have to go straight at it. First, and I already see this happening, you do not ever, ever, apologize for your position, no matter what the polls say or how hard you are badgered. You stay with the facts and keep pounding at them day and night. As we've already seen, that can get you called a traitor or get you accused of treason. But you stay with it. You stay on message. A recurring joke about liberals is that they're so open-minded they won't take their own side in an argument. Those days must end. And if the Democratic party won't do it and parse their criticisms to cover their collective asses, so be it. Those of us out here in the street cannot shut up or worry we might be upsetting someone.
Second, no matter what your faith, begin to speak out at your place of worship. If you hear a member of the clergy or someone in the membership telling you what to believe politically, or claim that the politics of the right has God's seal of approval, confront and challenge it. Let them know they do not speak for you. Be a thorn in their side and don't go away. Many of them are not accustomed to being challenged. You be the one to give them the pleasure of that experience.
Third, should anyone who represents you at the state or federal level appear to be knuckling under to pressure from the religious right, lean on them and lean hard. Let them know you are just one of many voices and that if they support legislation that threatens to strip any of your freedoms, you will make it your mission to see that they do not return to office.
Are these steps the complete answer? Not at all. But they're a good beginning. We have just as much, in fact more, power than the religious right. We just don't use it. The Religious right is a tenacious bunch. We must be even more so. We have to outwork them and we aren't doing that right now.
Anger and outrage alone don't make it. And while it's motivating to keep the fire burning, there comes a time when you just have to stand on the bully's foot and punch him square in the mouth.
Today would be a good day to start.
Bill Chickering
White Bear Lake, MN
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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