Posts on Culture War

Last month, I wrote a couple of posts highlighting the Religious Right's claim that our current economic mess was due to a collective loss of morality that could be traced back to abortion, homosexuals, and an overall breakdown in the family.

But, as Think Progress discovered, those weren't the problem at all. What really caused the economic meltdown was people not saying "Merry Christmas":

Notwithstanding the cardboard Santas who seem to have arrived in stores this year near Halloween, the holiday season starts in seven days with Thanksgiving. And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say "Merry Christmas" and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.

This year we celebrate the desacralized "holidays" amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin -- fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed. People wonder, What happened? One man's theory: A nation whose people can't say "Merry Christmas" is a nation capable of ruining its own economy ...

It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.

The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.

Keep in mind that this appeared in the Wall Street Journal and was written by the deputy editor of its editorial page.

If you want to know what went wrong with the economy, perhaps the fact that "the leading provider of business and financial news and analysis" has people like this running the show might have something to do with it.

We’ve written before about the Right’s plan to unleash the “biggest culture war battles ever” should Barack Obama become president and now we have Matt Barber urging right-wing activists to be like Christ and storm “into a temple and started kicking over some tables and throwing some people out of there”: 

A pro-family activist is encouraging Christians to become and stay involved in the culture war no matter the outcome of the presidential election …

"We have too many Christians who are kind of sitting on their hands, being in the world but not of the world. Well, that doesn't mean that you don't get involved in the process and that you don't stand up for your religious liberties," he contends.

"We have this notion of Christ as being kind of passive and allowing himself to be pushed around. Well, as I recall, Christ at one point went into a temple and started kicking over some tables and throwing some people out of there....I'm not advocating violence -- but it's time for people to start standing up for their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms."

The interesting thing about this OneNewsNow article is how it describes Barber.  Noting that his claim to fame is having been fired from Allstate Insurance after penning anti-gay screeds for right-wing “news” outlets, Barber landed a gig at Concerned Women for America and recently became “director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel and also the associate dean of the Liberty University School of Law.”  As ONN put it, he “now serves full-time on the front lines of the culture war.”

Imagine that?  Someone who makes their living serving on the “front lines of the culture war” and ginning up right-wing outrages is planning on continue to do just that regardless of who wins the next election.

Just yesterday I was writing that the GOP's right-wing base was planning on launching an all-out culture war in an effort to rebuild their party in the wake of an Obama victory. 

And today the LA Times reports that social conservatives are already maneuvering to take control of various elements of the party, especially the Republican National Committee:

The social conservatives and moderates who together boosted the Republican Party to dominance have begun a tense battle over the future of the GOP, with social conservatives already moving to seize control of the party's machinery and some vowing to limit John McCain's influence, even if he wins the presidency.

In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party's national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party.

Apparently, it is going to come down to a decision about whether the RNC will be chaired by a more moderate figure aligned with Florida Governor Charlie Crist, someone like Michael Steele, or someone like South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson who believes that "moderating our party is what caused us to lose power" in the 2006 elections.

According to the Times, the Right has already won a number of seats on the national committee and is intent on putting someone in power that will make their culture war agenda into the foundation of the party's future:

It was frustration with the Bush-led Republican National Committee that prompted a number of conservatives this year to try to upend the system. Conservatives won seats representing California, Iowa, Alaska, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Michigan. One new member is a popular black preacher from Detroit, Keith Butler, who presides over a mega-church.

"There is a new blood in the party that is interested in communicating the message of the party -- the conservative message," said Kim Lehman, executive director of the antiabortion group Iowa Right to Life, who in July defeated a state legislator for one of the state's seats on the national committee.

For those hoping that a victory by Barack Obama might somehow restrain or moderate the Religious Right … well, you are going to be disappointed since the Right is already looking ahead and planning on reconstituting itself by rallying around Sarah Palin and launching an all-out culture war: 

"An Obama victory will galvanize social conservatives for 2010 and 2012 and they will look for a standard bearer they can rally around," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of America's largest evangelical group.

Land told Reuters the candidate most likely to "rally the troops" under an Obama administration looked to be McCain's running mate Sarah Palin.

The Alaska governor has excited the evangelical base but her strident opposition to abortion rights and other hard-core conservative positions have alienated more moderate voters.

William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League which opposes abortion rights, said religious conservatives were bracing for a new phase in the "culture wars."

"I've been on the phone the last couple of days with some of my friends ... and we're getting ready for the biggest culture war battles ever," Donohue said.

"There is nobody in the history of the United States who has run for president who is a more enthusiastic supporter of abortion rights than Obama," he said.

It is just me or is the bogus "War on Christmas" starting earlier every year? 

Here it is, not even Halloween yet, and the American Family Association is already trotting out its "help us save Christmas" merchandise:

It's hard to believe that there are companies and individuals who want to ban "Merry Christmas" and replace it with "Holiday Greetings" because, they say, they don't want to offend anyone.

Christians can take a stand and proclaim to our communities that Christmas is not just a winter holiday focused on materialism, but a "holy day" when we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We can do it in a gentle and effective way by wearing the “It’s OK to say Merry Christmas” button.

You can help preserve our tradition of greeting others with a “Merry Christmas” by taking a vital leadership role in AFA’s "Project Merry Christmas."

Here's how. AFA is making available an attractive button and Glossy Sticker that carry on our tradition of saying “It's OK to say Merry Christmas."

Purchase enough buttons for each member of your church and enough Glossy Stickers for each family to have one to go on their automobile. Urge your fellow members to wear their buttons and display the Glossy Stickers during the entire Christmas season.

There have been several articles recently suggesting that with John McCain’s decision to name Sarah Palin as his running mate, the focus of the election was shifting toward wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage and that the so-called “culture war” was about to be reignited, to the benefit of the Republican Party.

But that was before the economy went into a meltdown and became the primary issue in the campaign.  Of course, just because the focus has shifted away from their issues doesn’t mean that the Religious Right isn’t desperately trying to find ways of exploiting the current economic crisis to further their own agenda:

While the economy clearly is at the forefront of voter priorities, conservative Christians also draw a connection between traditional social issues like abortion and gay marriage and the economy, said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

"As there's a breakdown in the family and the family weakens, it's only logical it will hit Wall Street," Perkins said. "A nation cannot be strong just because of a financial structure alone. It has to have strong families and values."

Obviously, as soon as women stop having abortions and gays stop trying to get married and adopt children everything on Wall Street will turn right around.  It’s as simple as that.

Addressing faculty and students Ave Maria University late last month, Former Senator Rick Santorum hailed the right-wing school for producing class after class of warriors for God who are desperately needed in order to win the “spiritual war” that is threatening to destroy America:

As the guest speaker at Ave Maria University's fall convocation August 29, Sen. Rick Santorum described the sources of what he called a "spiritual war" currently engulfing America. He told faculty and students at the Catholic college in Naples, Fla. that corruption is all around us, from our academics and culture, to politics and government. Even our nation's religious heritage and material prosperity have been corrupted to undermine the values on which America was founded, and "exterior attacks from radical Islam" complete the assault. Observing the current political climate he said, "This is not a political war, it is not a cultural war; it's a spiritual war."

…

Explaining what he calls a "spiritual war," Sen. Santorum said, "The Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on - a good, decent, powerful, influential country: the United States of America."

Among the institutions under spiritual attack, Sen. Santorum identified academia as the "first to fall." Our university students are being taught to "pursue no truths, or to deny the existence of [objective] truth," he said. Mr. Santorum said American has abandoned the Judeo-Christian ethic it was founded on. Consequently in his view a culture in which "poor behavior is made fashionable," has been Satan's subsequent success.

…

"Things are so bad and you are here," he said triumphantly. "God has chosen you to be here in a time when he needs soldiers the most; congratulations!"

"The greatest thing is, signing up for His army is easy," he said, "but, the money's lousy, you'll be unpopular, you'll be ridiculed and you'll lose most if not every one of your battles."

With still elevated speech, he ended, "But you know who's going to win in the end, so you warrior on happily."

The Illinois Family Institute, former stomping grounds of militant homophobe Peter LaBarbera before he launched his own Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, has unveiled its new Division of School Advocacy program designed to ensure that public schools do not teach anything about homosexuality, religion, socialism, abortion, or any “immoral, unhealthy, and dangerous ideologies” that might conflict with what the IFI considers “biblical truth”: 

The Illinois Family Institute helps to fight against pervasive secular humanism that exists in our public schools. Through the newly developed Division of School Advocacy, parents will be able to find answers and resources to help identify areas where the school curriculum strays from Biblical Truth and to recognize the influence from outside organizations such as Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which pressures administrators and educators to present this organization's views and agendas.

The purpose of the Illinois Family Institute's (IFI) new Division of School Advocacy (DSA) is to protect children from immoral, unhealthy, and dangerous ideologies and agendas in public schools. In the service of that critical goal, the DSA is committed to assisting Illinois residents to address issues related to the breakdown of Judeo-Christian family values and community standards in public education.

In addition to assisting each citizen who contacts IFI regarding school issues, Illinois Family Institute's Division of School Advocacy will continue to work tirelessly toward affecting morally sound legislation in Illinois public schools.

The DSA will provide constituents with the training, resources, and counsel needed for positive changes in public schools. Through this training, resources, and counsel, taxpayers will become better equipped to address administrators, faculty members, and school board members in appropriate and effective ways. The Division of School Advocacy will address such public school problem topics as Human Sexuality, Religion/Atheism, Race/"Social Justice", Marxism/Socialism/Income Redistribution, Gender/Feminism, Environmentalism, Abortion, Fetal Stem Cell Research, Population Control, and Miscellaneous Political Topics.

The Sun Journal reports on a brave Maine woman who has declared that she would rather go to jail than return a book about sexuality to the public library:

A local woman said Wednesday she's prepared to go to jail rather than return a library book about sexuality that she calls "dangerous" to children.

JoAn Karkos, 64, was confined to a courtroom at 8th District Court for about an hour after she was ordered by a judge to hand over the borrowed book: "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health."

Judge Valerie Stanfill revised her order shortly after noon, giving Karkos until the end of the week to produce the property of Lewiston Public Library. Karkos also was ordered to pay a $100 fine within a month.

Talking with reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday, Karkos said she had no intention of giving up the book she claims violates the city's obscenity ordinance. She said the library needs to change its book selection policies to conform with the city's ordinances. She called her actions "civil disobedience."

...

The book, written by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley, was published in 1993. It features frank but cartoon-like pictures of naked people in chapters on topics such as abstinence, masturbation and sexually transmitted diseases.

Championed by Planned Parenthood and criticized by conservative groups such as Concerned Women for America, the book has been sold in 25 countries and translated into 21 languages.

In her closing arguments, Karkos accused the public library of contributing to an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases by disseminating prurient information.

"Children are not meant to be sexually active," she said.

Following up on our earlier post about the release of a line of Hallmark cards for same-sex weddings, Concerned Women for America is out with a release of its own – one decrying Hallmark’s efforts to endanger children and destroy the family:  

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "Hallmark is jeopardizing its brand as a family-friendly company.  Customers used to be able to trust Hallmark to produce quality products that were safe for all ages.  Now parents will need to steer their kids from Hallmark's section of the greeting card aisle and away from its previously heartwarming movies for fear that they too will push homosexual messages."

Janice Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute, said, "By latching onto the latest fad generated by the homosexual special interest groups, Hallmark is negating its image as a wholesome company that promotes American values and pro-family principles in its products.  American businesses have a corporate responsibility to the public that buys their products.  Instead of bolstering campaigns by special interest groups like the homosexual activists, corporations like Hallmark should be protecting American culture from those forces that would destroy the family and create a public environment that is detrimental to general well-being, especially children's well-being."

Last month, the Washington Times debuted a new weekly column by NewsBusters editor Matthew Sheffield.  Fresh off his latest scoop that “liberals [are] more profane than conservatives,” he returned to the pages of the Times to exhort conservative activists to realize the dangers of Wikipedia and work to counter it by spending more time editing entries to better reflect their right-wing views:

Conservatives seems to be making another critical error regarding the online encyclopedia on the question of political bias. You can't entirely blame them either, considering that Wikipedia seems to have tilted leftward in a number of cases.

…

The reason for this is in the editing. Anyone can alter Wikipedia's entries, in most cases without even bothering to register for an account. What this means in practical terms is that people with enough determination to force their viewpoints on Wikipedia can do so.

Sheffield urges conservative activists not to retreat to the safety of Conservapedia because, well frankly, it’s a joke, and instead head once more into the breach by dedicating hours of their lives online to editing articles until they finally gain control:

Faced with such bias, many people on the right seem willing to retreat from the Wiki Wars, resorting to legal maneuvering to block particularly noxious entries and crying foul about Wiki unfairness. Still others on the right have withdrawn to their own site, Conservapedia.

There is nothing wrong with such efforts, but they are incomplete - incomplete because they fail to recognize that liberal bias at Wikipedia isn't like bias at ABC or CBS. These institutions are dominated by liberals, true, but their systematic structure is such that the ability for people on the right to push for fairness is severely limited.

That is not the case with Wikipedia, a participatory medium in which those who are most active enjoy the most influence. It's time for the right to dust off its hands and engage in some old-fashioned activism.

All of those potential right-wing candidates out there who are searching for a ready-made agenda to run on are in luck, because today the Family Research Council unveiled a report entitled "25 Pro-Family Policy Goals for the Nation."

As FRC explains, the report is designed to serve as a blueprint for candidates, though it'll work for pastors, voters, and plain-old citizens as well:

The document you hold in your hands can serve as a model for the platforms the Republican and Democratic parties will write this summer. It can also serve as a blueprint for how those we elect can promote and protect the family and its values in 2009 and in the years to come.

The 25 goals we put forth here are grouped into eight main subject areas, ranging from Human Life to Marriage and Family to Religious Liberty to Culture and Media. Each page features a brief analysis of the issue, followed by one or more specific policy proposals which can help America meet that individual goal. Some involve action by Congress, some by the president, and some by state legislators or executive officials.

If you are a candidate for office or an elected official, please consider adopting these proposals as your own. If you are a values voter, challenge those running for office as to their position on these issues, and weigh their response as you consider your vote. If you are a pastor or leader of an organization, consider making copies of this booklet available to your members. If you are simply a citizen who cares about the family in America, write to your elected officials and urge them to pursue these goals with vigor.

As one would expect, the FRC then proceeds to lay out its policy priorities on everything from marriage to abortion to judges. If you are looking for a concise collection of the issues that make up the Right's current political agenda, this new FRC report is one-stop shopping:

The Parents Television Council, the right-wing television watchdog group founded by Brent Bozell, is dedicated to “documenting the dramatic increase in sex, violence and profanity in entertainment.”  With that as its mission, it was not much of a surprise when they released a new report saying that they don’t like what they see:

Today’s prime-time television programming is not merely indifferent to the institution of marriage and the stabilizing role it plays in our society, it seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light. Nowhere is this more readily apparent than in the treatment of sex on television. Sex in the context of marriage is either non-existent on prime-time broadcast television, or is depicted as a burdensome rather than as an expression of love and commitment. By contrast, extra-marital or adulterous sexual relationships are depicted with greater frequency and overwhelmingly, as a positive experience. Across the broadcast networks, verbal references to non-marital sex outnumbered references to sex in the context of marriage by nearly 3 to 1; and scenes depicting or implying sex between non-married partners outnumbered scenes depicting or implying sex between married partners by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1.

How exactly does the PTC quantify such things, you ask?  Good question:

Organizers of “The Call,” a kind of youth-oriented spin-off of the Promise Keepers on the National Mall in 2000, said the D.C. location wasn’t about influencing politics but about “fasting and prayer for the benefit of the nation.” But as “The Call” continued over the years as an itinerant stadium show, that apolitical evangelism attitude apparently wore off. Founder Lou Engle described his goals for an August 16 rally on the National Mall to OneNewsNow:

There is good reason to make a plea for heaven's intervention, he says. "Just to see what's taking place in California: redefinition of marriage -- [and] the next thing is transgender marriage," Engle laments. "This is part of what's going on, let alone with DC and the elections coming up."

He includes an election-related issue that surfaces now and then -- judicial appointments. "I believe it's a defining moment of who the next judges are," says Engle. "Those judges are going to help shape the future of America unless something happens. We desperately need heaven right now."

Engle told the Christian Post that he’s not making any endorsements, but he made clear what the presidential election boils down to:

We don’t purposely hold gatherings before elections, but this one I felt was so critical because the ideologies that are being promoted through different candidates have the implications just like in 2000.

The implications are huge for the issues of abortion, issue of marriage, or the kind of judges that don’t keep opening the door to the legality of every kind supposed freedom – which is really no freedom. It is really licensing to break away from the foundational moral principle upon which society will really flourish.  …

We will not be praying for any candidate or against any candidate. But our declaration is that abortion is not a political issue, it is a moral issue and we are praying that God will raise up candidates that will hold high values on the life of the unborn. And so we will cry out, “Give us judges, give us a candidate, give us a president who will stand for life.” And obviously some of the statements that these candidates have made really are…we are really in a defining moment.

While Engle is unlikely to come close to the 400,000 people organizers claimed attended the 2000 rally, he will have the help of Mike Huckabee, as Sarah Posner reported. Posner also noted that Engle is taking his act on the road with a 40-day fast in California culminating in another stadium rally days before the election. Engle told the Christian Post that this will be about “the salvation, for the deliverance, and healing of the homosexuals”:

We are not coming pointing the finger with anger at the homosexuals, but we do believe that what is taking place here with these bills is fueled by another realm. It is a spiritual realm of power of darkness.

Spiritual power of darkness seeking to release ideologies that destroy lives, families, nations, [sic] and on that day, Nov. 1, we are going to pray and resist with the power of the cross – God hold back these power that’s seeking to be released. We are standing and saying God have mercy, hold these things back so that the definition of marriage can be sustained in this nation for our children and our children sake.

John Hagee’s relationship with presidential candidate John McCain ended after the media attention given to the televangelist’s words on Catholics and Jews, communities Hagee has since tried to reconcile with. We can take McCain at his word that he didn’t intend to align himself with such seeming bigotry against other religions—indeed, it’s far more like McCain sought out Hagee for his views and influence on the Religious Right’s political “culture war.”

In a sermon on “God’s Plan for Wives and Mothers” that aired last week, Hagee outlined the “ideal woman”—along with her antithesis, the “secular humanist” woman:

If the secular humanist of the 21st century took his brush to paint the portrait of the thoroughly modern Millie, it would be with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth, smoke twirling out of her nostrils, language that would make a sailor blush—even Rosie O’Donnell. [Laughter]

Her breath would smell like a brewery; a condom in one hand, and the feminist manual in the other, listing the local abortion clinics to snuff out the life that was within her body. Her allegiance is always to her career. Her children are latch-key children who come home and live alone until mother and daddy finally arrive after dark.

Women can render service in many secular fields, but God says her highest and best field, in God’s opinion, is that of being a mother.