Research On Religion » Russel Moore

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.

Jeremy Lott on the Religious Newsmakers of 2013

tonygill — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 09:00:10 +0000

Jeremy Lott of the RealClear world (now an editor-at-large at RealClearPolitics) joins us to discuss his list of the top religious newsmakers of 2013. Unlike a list that focuses on events, his recounting of the year focuses on personalities. The usual suspects, namely Pope Francis, make the list, but so do some other folks that you may not have remembered or even heard of.

We start off the coversation with two leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention — Fred Luter and Russel Moore — who have started to reshape the direction that their denomination is heading. Many of their policy moves represent a softening of the Southern Baptists on the political front and we discuss why this is. Next up, we do cover an “event” that was associated with two individuals — the Boston Marathon Bombing. Jeremy gives his perspective on that event and we speculate to what effect this will have on how we view terrorism in the United States.

On a less serious note, we turn to our third “newsmaker/event” of the year, which was the “Tips for Jesus” trope that strung out over several months. Starting with the actions of a pastor who refused to give 15% to a waitress back in the summer and then to another waitress who faked a similar incident, we track how this has led to a number of “anonymous” big tippers for Jesus in the month of December.

Following our gratuity controversy, we turn then to a series of three megachurch pastors that have all stirred up the religious soup pot in one way or another. Mark Driscoll is first on that list based not only upon his “in-your-face masculine” Christianity, but because of a recent plagiarism controversy that has arose around him. The next megachurch newsmaker was Joel Osteen, not for any action on his part but rather because of a hoax that someone perpetrated claiming Osteen has left Christianity behind. Given that so many people fell for this hoax might have something to say about the state of Christianity in the U.S. today, and we chat a bit about this. Finally, Rob Bell makes the list not for his acceptance of same-sex marriage. which became common fare for many religious notables this year, but rather for what happened to his own congregation following the release of his book, Love Wins. Apparently, there was a dramatic drop in membership following the publication of that work and this leads us to a brief discussion, once again, of “nones,” a topic that both Jeremy and I believe has been exhausted and/or needs a whole discussion unto itself.

Not all well-known ministers made the news because of controversy. We finish off the podcast with reflections on Billy Graham and Pope Francis. Graham makes this list because he gave his final sermon in the past year, prompting many people to reflect upon his amazing ministry and his impact in the future. Jeremy then shares his perspective on arguably the most talked about religious figure of the year, Pope Fancis. This perplexing pontiff seemed to both exhilarate and anger progressive and conservative Catholics alike, all the while garnering immense admiration all around the world. Finally, Tony asks Jeremy for trends to be looking for in the year ahead, which allows us to wrap around with some of the things from the year behind. Recorded: January 2, 2014.