Hunter Baker on the Past and Future of the Religious Right

tonygill — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 08:00:01 +0000

The Religious Right has been a force to be reckoned with in American politics over the past four decades, but is its influence on the wane as many of its initial leaders and intellectuals pass from the scene? Prof. Hunter Baker, associate professor of political science and Dean of Instruction at Union University, talks about the past, present, and future of this movement based upon his most recent book The System Has a Soul.

Following some light banter about puppies, Prof. Baker provides us with a definition of what the Religious Right is, noting that it has been a term that has been ill-defined and often used to refer to poor and uneducated religious voters. Hunter points out that this movement has some deep and surprising intellectual roots. While religious involvement in American politics has a long history, he dates the current movement back to William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes Monkey Trial and then picks up the story in the mid-20th century with the emergence of a number of “neo-evangelical” thinkers such as Carl F.H. Henry and Frances Schaeffer. We review the interesting influence these thinkers had and note the surprising activist background of these individuals, including Schaeffer’s willingness to “listen to hippies” and pro-labor attitudes (things that are not normally associated with the media caricature of the Religious Right).

We then talk about the emergence of the movement in the 1970s with individuals such as Chuck Colson arguing for religion to take on a more public profile and events such as the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision playing an important mobilizing effect. This is where Hunter explains how Christians began to reject “functional differentiation” and helps Tony understand what that social scientific-sounding terms means. While many neo-evangelicals supported Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976 and that many Democrats were supporters of the pro-life movement that was gaining ground, Hunter points out the shift that occurs to the Republican Party in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s embrace of these individuals with his famous quote, “I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.” Our conversation also covers the extent to which this movement was merely an evangelical Christian movement or whether it entailed non-Protestant thinkers such as Richard John Neuhaus.

We review the public rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s with reference to Falwell’s Moral Majority and Robertson’s Christian Coalition, but Hunter points out that it was James Dobson’s Focus on the Family that probably had the bigger and more lasting impact on the movement. Again he points out that Dobson, who has a Ph.D., is indicative of the scholarly grounding of the movement contrary to a media opinion that paints the movement as anti-intellectual. Although the demise of the Moral Majority and the election of Bill Clinton as president are often seen as indications of the waning of the Religious Right in the 1990s, Hunter asserts that the movement took on a more grassroots approach and was able to develop a “deeper bench” by electing adherents to office and placing them in the Academy. He makes the claim that the real peak of the Religious Right movement was around 2005. Disillusionment with the presidency of George W. Bush and the apparent failings of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aided in eroding the influence of Christian conservatives during this time. We also discuss the politics surrounding same-sex marriage and how losses in the battle to ban gay marriage have also chipped away at the movement’s strength.

We finally turn our attention to the future of the Religious Right. Tony asks to what extent the Tea Party represents a revitalization of the Christian conservatives, but Prof. Baker notes that the Tea Party represents a distinct social movement. Nonetheless, he raises the issue of religious liberty and how Christians are now seeing this as a major issue that may allow them to align with the more libertarian leanings of the Tea Party. We also chat about the recent writings of Jonathan Malesic and James Davison Hunter who argue that it may be a time for Christians to embrace secularism and perhaps take a “season of silence.” Hunter provides his thoughts on this topic and we ruminate about the future of Christian political activism in the United States noting that there have been periods of waxing and waning throughout the long course of history and we may be witnessing one of those waning moments. Recorded: July 23, 2014.

Jon Shields on Democratic Virtues & the Christian Right

tonygill — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:00:15 +0000

Prof. Jonathan A. Shields (assistant professor of government, Claremont McKenna College) talks about about his latest book, The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right, with Tony. Whereas popular media accounts of the Christian Right during the 1980s portrayed this loosely knit movement as belligerent, Prof. Shields finds that Christian activists are often trained to press their issues in the public arena in ways that facilitate deliberative democracy. Taking the pro-life movement as his primary test case, he examines how this movement has evolved over the past four decades. Jon interestingly notes that the anti-abortion movement had its roots in Catholic progressivism and the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s. During the 1970s, evangelical Protestant Christians became increasingly involved in promoting a pro-life agenda. We examine Operation Rescue, one of the more confrontational groups within this movement and explore why it eventually fizzled out as a major organization, and what strategies and organizations played a more prominent (albeit quieter) role, including the National Right to Life Committee. Jon covers some of the strategies and training methods activists use that promote democratic norms and enhance issue deliberation. We broaden our discussion to examine the rise and decline of the Moral Majority and what groups such as the Christian Coalition have done in its place. Contrary to what one might glean from media reports over the past several decades, evangelical Christians have become more politically active in the 1990s and continue to be in the first decade of the 21st century. We finish off with some thoughts about the future of the Christian Right and the role it may be playing in the Tea Party movement. Recorded: November 2, 2010.

Research On Religion » Christian Coalition

Hunter Baker on the Past and Future of the Religious Right

Jon Shields on Democratic Virtues & the Christian Right