Freedom Writer - October 1994 [ref001] Why we are concernedabout the Religious Right By Re

Freedom Writer - October 1994

[ref001]

Why we are concernedabout the Religious Right

By Rev. David Heckenlively

Every citizen of this country has the constitutionally guaranteed 
right to free speech and to support ideas and movements of their choice. 
So why have we become so concerned by the political activity of those 
who are politically and theologically conservative? Summed up, we 
are concerned about their intolerance to the ideas (and rights) of 
all those who disagree with them. Below are some of the reasons why 
we are concerned.

They have taken the term Christian and appropriated it as their own. 
They have made the term into a political code word, meaning someone 
or something that agrees completely with their political point of 
view. The term was never theirs to take. They ignore the fact that 
there are tens of millions of Christians (even using their definition 
of the term) who disagree with some or all of their political views. 


The founders of this country went to great lengths to take religion 
out of politics and politics out of religion, because they had personally 
seen the results of hundreds of years of war in Europe with Christians 
killing Christians in the name of Christ. The worldwide Church of 
Jesus Christ is very diverse and no one person or group has the right 
or privilege to speak for all Christians, but that doesn't stop the 
Religious Right from trying.

They are absolutists. They know with absolute certainty that they 
are right on every issue. This largely comes from their belief in 
Biblical inerrancy (meaning that the Bible was written, word for word, 
directly by God). In practice, it means “the Bible, as we choose to 
interpret it.” Therefore they assume that they are literally speaking 
for God on every issue. 

When you read their literature, you can see they view the political 
struggle as a kind of holy war for the salvation of mankind. They 
often characterize their opponents in religious terms, e.g. heretics, 
Satan, anti-Christ. They feel justified in being totally intolerant 
of the views of others because if they are right, then all others 
have to be wrong. 

The whole democratic process is based on open and honest dialogue 
about the issues, trading ideas and solutions, and arriving at a final 
solution that is a compromise — a meeting in the middle that most 
people can support. But they can't compromise, because that would 
mean making deals with Satan. That means their negotiating terms are 
always the same: unconditional surrender.

Absolutism short-circuits the political process and is the basic reason 
why there has been so much religious persecution and so many religious 
wars in history. The Bible points out that there are dangers to crying, 
“Thus saith the Lord” (cf. Matthew 7:21-23). 

They have a double standard: they love to play hardball when they 
are dishing it out but cry foul if anyone criticizes them. They are 
mean-spirited in their tactics with political opponents. For example, 
Jerry Falwell has been openly spreading vicious lies about President 
Clinton being responsible for murdering Vince Foster and also being 
the kingpin of a murder ring in Arkansas that has killed dozens of 
people. When Clinton objects to this and many, many other gratuitous 
insults, Cal Thomas accuses him of McCarthyism. Their tactics go way 
beyond fair comment; they are character assassination. 

Their favorite theme right now is that all of their critics are guilty 
of Christian bashing and religious intolerance. It's ironic they should 
accuse others of being intolerant when it is their own greatest fault. 


Jesus proclaimed a gospel of acceptance and love, willing to hate 
the sin, but to love the sinner. Listen to Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, 
Pat Robertson, and the others. I've heard many things, but love, forgiveness, 
and tolerance are not among them. Most of what I've heard has been 
name calling, finger pointing, and abuse heaped on those they consider 
their enemies. So much for “love your enemy.”

So how should we respond to all of the above? I have some suggestions.

Be sure we take the high road. While inflammatory rhetoric is their 
stock in trade, if any of their opponents reply in kind, they love 
it because it proves they are being persecuted for their religious 
beliefs. So for practical reasons (if not because we are ethical, 
moral, religious people), we need to take the high road and deal with 
the issues only. We must speak out aggressively when we believe they 
are misrepresenting or distorting the facts, but we must scrupulously 
avoid any and all personal attacks. The public is getting fed up with 
politics and politicians wallowing in the gutter and we will do our 
cause more good by not joining them down there.

Remember that they are us. The basic beliefs of people in the Religious 
Right are the same things we believe in: honesty, integrity, hard 
work, and a moral lifestyle. We all have relative and friends who 
are conservative and who are either members of the Religious Right 
or are sympathetic to their ideas. So they are us. These people are 
morally upright and want to do the right thing. The problem is that 
they are the new Pharisees. Their idea of the road to the salvation 
of humanity (both literally and figuratively) is to enact rigid laws 
and then rigidly enforce them. Therefore they are always long on punishment 
and short on prevention. While hardcore advocates are not going to 
budge on their hardcore issues, that doesn't mean that our chief operating 
tactic shouldn't be sweet reason. They honestly want to do what is 
right and Christian, so we need to give them other options that meet 
those criteria.

We need to watch what they do and say. Since they are convinced that 
they are in a holy war and that the ends justify the means, they are 
not adverse to stealth maneuvers. Like suddenly controlling a majority 
of the nation's school boards and many of the state Republican Party 
organizations. In this case, for us knowledge really is power. 

David Heckenlively is a minister at Faith United Methodist Church 
in Racine, Wisconsin.

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