ddw (03/29/83)
As promised, here is a nice selection of quotations from members of the
religious right. These are excerpted from "The Astonishing Wrongs of the
New Moral Right" by Johnny Greene, \Playboy/, January 1981.
In answer to your next question, no, I don't often read Playboy; in fact,
the only thing that ever causes me to buy it is the monthly interviews, if
the person being interviewed is someone I want to know more about. I
bought this issue because of the John Lennon interview; the article I'm
using here I own strictly by coincidence.
I should probably state my own biases. I often have at least as much trou-
ble accepting statements by people on the left as I do by people on the
right. In addition, I don't want to get any mail about how "these people
aren't real Christians and \real/ Christians like me oppose them, but
you'll have to admit they have the right general idea." Phooey. Falwell is
taking in millions for his crusades, and his averages contribution is $20,
which suggests a large number of contributors.
Okay, to work. The quoted material will be indented; any non-indented
stuff can be assumed to be my comments or explanation.
The article opens by mentioning a private meeting that was held on Dec. 19,
1978 in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the meeting was to outline the
so-called "Family Protection Act", which was later introduced by Reagan's
buddy Sen. Paul Laxalt. (More on the details of the Act later.) Those
attending were members of the religious right, including the executive
director of Moral Majority, Robert Billings. In an interview several
months later, Billings said:
People want leadership. They don't know what to think themselves.
They want to be told what to think by those of us here close to the
front.
Also present at the meeting was Gary Potter, president of Catholics for
Christian Political Action. He later described the sort of country he had
in mind:
When the Christian majority takes over this country, there will be
no satanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no
more abortion on demand and no more talk of rights for homosexuals.
After the Christian majority takes control, pluralism will be seen
as immoral and evil, and the state will not permit anybody the
right to practice evil.
There are quite a few people to keep track of here. One of the better
known ones is Phyllis Schlafly:
In 1960, Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society,
described Schlafly as a "very loyal member" of his organization.
As Schlafly moved her Eagle Forum into the national political arena
to attack the Equal Rights Amendment, she identified as enemies of
America the same groups attacked by the Klan and the Birchers. But
the extent to which she wold go to expose Communist conspiracies
had been established years earlier, during the Korean War. Accord-
ing to a former resident of Schlafly's home town of Alton, Illi-
nois, she once mailed Christmas cards containing a poem about a
woman who purchased an imported Polish ham in the United States.
According to Schlafly, the money spent for the ham then went to a
Russian munitions plant, and from there to Korea, where the woman's
son was "killed in your kitchen by a canned Polish ham."
The article goes on to discuss the fact that the extreme right was the
comedy act of American politics for years, and nobody took it seriously
enough to make it a force. The rightist forces, capitalizing on southern
discontent with the Supreme Court and the civil rights movement, did manage
to nominate Barry Goldwater for president in 1964. They were particularly
pleased with the idea that they had a man to support their positions on
labor unions, communism, etc. Goldwater lost, of course,
But the crushing defeat of those positions in the 1964 Presidential
election had apparently gone unnoticed by the right wing. Follow-
ing its repudiation at the polls, it was only momentarily
paralyzed. It had not been defeated by the voters of America, the
right wing rationalized; it had simply been \betrayed/ by them.
The right would ...[wait to]...find another politician like Goldwa-
ter who would enable it to capture the votes -- if not the trust --
of the American people long enough to seize power and carry out its
plans.
...
"Secret kingmakers," Schlafly had written in 1964, "using hidden
persuaders and psychological-warfare techniques, manipulated the
Republican National Convention to nominate candidates who had
side-stepped or suppressed the key issues."
Greene goes on to discuss the fact that the right wing always suffered
under the handicap that it was numerically weak. In addition, while there
are a number of organizations that support the right on single issues like
abortion, there was no large group that could be relied on for \general/
support.
Then, in the Seventies, as American cable-television systems moved
across the nation, [the right] watched with undisguised fascination
as American viewers turned their dials and experienced their first
contacts with the hell-fire-and-brimstone preaching of evangelical,
fundamentalist, electronic ministers.
Such people had been around for a long time, of course, particularly in the
south. However, it was television that gave them nationwide exposure. The
most successful of them all, of course, is Jerry Falwell, although Pat
Robertson (the 700 Club, I think?) also has a large audience.
In a letter to his television followers, Robertson denounced ... "a
plague of abortion, homosexuality, occultism and pornography, [and]
widespread family disintegration." ... "We see a virulent humanism
and an anti-God rebellion of which blatant homosexuality, radical
feminism, the youth revolt and the Year of the Child, drug abuse,
free sex and widespread abortion are just symptoms."
Christian Voice, an organization made up of many representatives
from the electronic ministry, identified in its Statement of Pur-
pose "enemies" almost identical to those of the political right
wing. Christian Voice said: "The unmistakable signs of moral de-
cay are all around us: sexual promiscuity and perversion, pornog-
raphy, legalized abortion, the disparaging of marriage, family and
the role of motherhood -- all are rampant in our schools, our
government and even in many churches. Large segments of our people
... are no longer proud of America. We believe that America's ra-
pid decline as a world power is ... a sign that Satan's strategy is
on or ahead of schedule."
However, these attitudes by themselves are not dangerous. It's only when
the believers decide to \do/ something about it that life gets interesting:
In an undated fund-raising letter, Falwell wrote to his followers:
"In recent months, God has been calling me to do more than just
preach -- He has called me to take action. I have a divine mandate
to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will
save America."
Falwell frequently told viewers of his \Old-Time Gospel Hour/ that
abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, and "secular humanism" in the
public schools were violations of a "moral law." Although he never
defined that moral law, Falwell wrote when he established Moral Ma-
jority that he was helping "local communities fight pornography,
homosexuality, obscene school textbooks, and other burning issues."
After a discussion of the history of evangelical Christianity in the south,
Greene adds
Falwell ... would go to Washington and force the highest elected
officials in America to reckon with his isolated millions. From
their Southern pulpits, televised or on radio, Falwell and the oth-
er ministers had warned their followers and were now to warn
Congress that America and its system of free enterprise were
threatened not only by godless communism but somehow as well by
proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment, homosexuals, the Panama
Canal Treaty, pornography, abortion, the absence of prayer in pub-
lic schools, proponents of gun-control legislation and an apparent-
ly unmentionable plethora of evils and evildoers all vaguely iden-
tified as representatives of "atheistic, secular humanism."
It's important to remember that not everyone on the extreme right has any
particular religious pretensions. Since this is going out to net.religion
(although net.politics or net. flame might be just as appropriate) I'm
trying to avoid quoting people who don't have any special religious angles.
However, people like Falwell, Robertson, and Potter, who are either minis-
ters or heads of organizations making reference to religion (e.g. Potter as
head of Catholics for Christian Political Action) do seem to me to be legi-
timate subjects.
The Family Protection Act, one of the major works of the far right, is one
of the most frightening documents I know of. It
would force the restoration of prayer in public schools, undermine
the American public education system by making Federal funds avail-
able for the creation of private, racially segregated schools and
drastically reduce the social-service programs of the Government
that provide aid to millions of Americans. The bill takes direct
aim at the American labor movement, denying Federal funds to public
school systems where teachers are unionized and exempting from the
jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board private, segre-
gated schools.
Other provisions ... would deny food stamps to college students;
prohibit legal-services money from being used for school-
desegregation litigation, divorce litigation, homosexual-rights li-
tigation or litigation seeking funding for abortions. The bill
would also deny Federal money to any organization presenting
homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle and would en-
courage employers to discriminate against it.
"Certain things like abortion, pornography and rights for homosexu-
als will not be tolerated in a Christian society," said Potter.
"If the open homosexual begins to thrust his homosexuality forward,
he's going to be in trouble. He will be put in jail or similarly
punished."
Several right-wing types like Richard Viguerie (publisher of Conservative
Digest) emphasized the power of the right to "punish" those who disagree
with them. Terry Dolan, chairman of NCPAC, also mentioned that with the
kind of high-powered moral smear campaigns NCPAC likes to run, "we could
elect Mickey Mouse to the House or Senate under the right circumstances."
It's nice to know that the merits of your candidate are secondary. One
NCPAC fund-raising letter signed by Jesse Helms urgently solicited dollars
Because your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade school
courses that teach our children that \cannibalism/, \wife-swapping/
and the \murder/ of infants and the elderly are acceptable
behavior.
I'm not entirely sure what this one is all about; the latter part sounds
like a description of pre-Columbian eskimos, but the cannibalism is a mys-
tery.
I got some inquiries about Falwell lying to help his cause. Here's the
example I had in mind. It took place during his speech at a Moral Majority
rally in Alaska.
"We had breakfast with the President [Carter] about a month ago,"
said Falwell, "and we were discussion national defense and all
those things and I asked the President, 'Sir, why do you have prac-
ticing homosexuals on your senior staff at the White House?'
"'Well, I am President of all the American people and I believe I
should represent everyone,'" Falwell said, apparently quoting
President Carter.
Then Falwell said "I said, 'Why don't you have some murderers and
bank robbers and so forth to represent?'"
At that point, Falwell's Alaskan audience went wild with applause.
But he did not bother to tell them that the conversation he was
quoting had never taken place.
Falwell had, indeed, met with Carter. But a White House transcript
of the meeting reveals a totally different transaction from that
depicted by the evangelist. The transcript indicates that Falwell
asked Carter if he were correct in assuming that two homosexuals
living together would not fit Carter's definition of a family. The
transcript revealed no reponse from Carter, who is said to have
nodded in agreement with Falwell's statement. And according to the
transcript, Falwell then said, "Thank you -- thank you very much."
When he was questioned about the incident, Falwell issued the fol-
lowing bizarre explanation: "I have stated as emphatically as I
know how that my recent statement was not intended to be a verbatim
report of our conversation with President Carter.
"Instead, my statement was intended to be, and was, an honest por-
trayal of President Carter's position on gay rights. It was an
anecdote, intended to dramatically get the attention of the audi-
ence. It was an accurate statement of the President's record and
position on gay rights. It was intended to be nothing else."
Finally, Falwell has expressed the following positions in his "95 theses":
That all able-bodied U.S. male citizens are obligated to fight to
the death, if necessary, to defend the flag.
That the free-enterprise system of profit be encouraged to grow,
being unhampered by any socialistic laws or red tape.
That all ... unproductive governmental financial programs [welfare
and social services] be terminated, harmful [sic] programs which in
themselves perpetuate poverty and laziness.
That new laws be introduced providing for the immediate deportation
of troublemaking noncitizens in this country.
That no law be introduced to force private schools to hire indivi-
duals solely to achieve minority-group balance.
That any and all efforts to bring about a central world government
be unceasingly opposed.
That in the spirit of true education, both prevalent theories of
origin be impartially taught in the public school system. These
two models are special creation and evolution.
This is a longer article than I had originally imagined. The one I'm quot-
ing from is longer still, and I refer you to it if you want to see more.
At any rate, this ought to generate enough flames to heat Chicago for years
of hard winters. My own personal position is in agreement with Greene.
These ultra-rightists are a real danger, and one of the few good signs I've
seen lately is that all but one of NCPAC's candidates lost this year, and
Jesse Helms's own PAC had similar success. Also, the messages of the elec-
tronic evangelists these days are loaded with "send money" pleas, and a lot
of the literature you used to be able to get free you now have to pay for.
If I've offended any Christians out there, I'm sorry; it wasn't my inten-
tion. If I've offended any members of the far right, I couldn't care less.
David Wright
{vax135|decvax|purdue}!cornell!ddw
ddw@cornellhutch (03/30/83)
Thanks, David, for posting that terrifying document. As a Christian I am often appalled to see the sort of nonsense that people will engage in under the pretense of Christianity. As a Christian I offer the following test to other Christians, which I use to determine the value of other religions (cults, in specific) and any other activity that makes the pretense of being Divinely Sent. This test can be applied to the Falwell movement as easily. If the principal figureheads in the movement are primarily using their own charismatic, emotional preaching to try to get you to do something that is not explicitly described in the Bible, especially when it has to do with giving them money or property, then stop immediately and investigate the background of this person or movement. If there is any trace of deception, as in the Reverend Moon's "Divine Deception" notions, then the movement is clearly not sent by God. Falwell lied knowingly, and would not confess to that fact, therefore he is not in the state of Grace which is necessary for his activities to be the Divinely Mandated actions he claims they are. Whenever such a movement occurs, before getting involved in it, be sure to find out about it from as many people who are not members as you can. Also, check what they say against the Bible. God gave you all brains to use, and He insists that we must be able to judge whether the people who claim to come in His name are from Him or from the adversary. In Christ. Steve Hutchison