Freedom Writer - October 1995 _The_rights_and_wrongsof the Religious Right_ Paul Weyrich i

Freedom Writer - October 1995

_The_rights_and_wrongsof the Religious Right_

Paul Weyrich is one of the top strategists of the Radical Religious 
Right. He is credited with persuading the Rev. Jerry Falwell to become 
politically active through the Moral Majority and convincing the Rev. 
Pat Robertson to enter politics. Weyrich was probably the first conservative 
schemer to realize the political potential of the abortion issue. 
Abortion, more than any other issue, pushed Christians into the conservative 
political movement. A compelling speaker, Weyrich imparts to the careful 
listener the real essence of the Radical Religious Right. Weyrich 
told _The_Freedom_Writer_ that the one thing the Religious Right must 
do to stay on course is to "never compromise." Here is an abridged 
version of Weyrich's talk:

"Amid all the glitter, we forget the essence of what this fight is 
all about. It has progressed extraordinarily well from the days of 
its first incarnation in the 1970s until the present time.

"We are in an eternal battle. The battle is between right and wrong, 
between truth and lies, between life and death. And if we ever forget 
what it is about, if we think we are in a battle for electing people 
to hold office, simply controlling political parties...then we will 
not accomplish what we are to achieve. We need to hold to our principles, 
and stick to them regardless.

"I know that not everyone at this conference agrees with a theological 
interpretation of things. However, that is the perspective of the 
majority of us here. Conservatism based upon the Scriptural tradition 
is the only kind of conservatism which works. There is no reality 
apart from God.

"The real enemy is the secular humanist mindset which seeks to destroy 
everything that is good in this society. The fight that we are fighting, 
the battle we have joined, is one that encompasses our entire life 
span.

"We can't put our faith in political saviors. This is one of the biggest 
mistakes that was made in the previous incarnation of the Religious 
Right.

"We are in a war, and when you are in a war you must have trained 
armies to fight a war. We are killed when we go into the political 
process and get elected, then have no idea what to do once we are 
elected; when we have no idea of who it is that is opposed to us; 
what their tactics are going to be; how you handle these people; how 
you seize the moral high ground; how you frame the issues in such 
a way to put them on the defensive instead of us on the defensive; 
and all the sorts of things you need to understand if you are going 
to be involved in the political process.

"The secular humanist state is very similar to the Soviet state, in 
the sense that it is based on lies, therefore it is internally weaker 
than it appears to be outwardly.

"Just as the communists are clinging to power wherever they can do 
it, even though communism has collapsed, so also will the secular 
humanists cling to power, because, for them, that's all there is. 
Remember, you have God. You have your families; you have your community, 
your church community, your neighborhood, and all the things you are 
concerned about. They only have power. That's all that matters to 
them. They will fight with everything that's in them to keep that 
power."

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Copyright 1995 IFAS
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