THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December 12, 1980 69
A Critical Analysis of the New Christian Right
NEW YORK (JTA) —
The current emergence of
"the New Right Evangeli-
cals" or "the New Christian
Right" has elicited wide-
spread interest and concern
among millions of Ameri-
can citizens, among them, a
great many Jews.
No responsible and fair-
minded American ques-
tions the right of fellow
Americans of Evangelical
Christian or any other reli-
gious or moral persuasion to
participate fully as citizens
in the political process nor
to advocate the adoption of
lic policy positions
.11 reflect their ideologi-
bent.
During the past 15
months, however, there
have been a number of
actions and statements
by spokesmen of this
newly-forged alliance of
several Evangelical
Christian leaders and
ultra-conservative politi-
cal organizers which
have become deeply
troubling to many of us.
• A number of major
spokesmen of "the new
Chiistian Right" assert that
their primary purpose in
the recent national elec-
tions, and through related
political activity on the
local levels, was "to Chris-
tianize America," and to es-
tablish "a Christian repub-
lic."
It is both ironic and sad
that some of the spiritual
heirs of the Evangelical
Christians in colonial -Vir-
ginia and elsewhere have
chosen either to forget or to
ignore that historic
achievement of American
democratic pluralism.
• A number of "New
Christian Right" spokes-
men regularly speak of the
"Golden Era" of "Evangeli-
cal Christian America"
when our forebears were
supposedly deeply religious
and highly moral people,
and by contrast, we today
are convicted of religious
and moral inadequacy.
As every major church
historian documents, the
great majority of Ameri-
cans in the 18th Century
were outside any church,
and there was an over-
whelming indifference to
religion. Dr. William
Warren Sweet wrote
("Revivalism in
America") that "taking
the colonies as a whole,
the ratio of church mem-
bership was one to 12.
Unit Recognized
OS ANGELES (JTA) —
Tzedek Legal Services
has been voted full con-
stituent status by the
Jewish Federation Council.
Lawrence Irell, Federa-
tion 'president, said the
agency "has established it-
self as an indispensable re-
source in the protection of
the rights of the elderly and
poor and in the preservation
of the Jewish community
and its values."
Founded in 1973, Bet
Tzedek served about 3,000
poor, elderly clients last
year from its two offices.
Dr. Robert Handy states,
"No more than ten percent
of Americans in 1800 were
members of churches" ("A
History of the Churches in
the United States and
Canada").
There are more people
affiliated with our churches
and synagogues today than
any time in the past. And
while we face real and seri-
ous moral issues in contem-
porary America and in the
troubled world, it serves no
useful purpose to imply that
we are a generation of moral
pygmies when contrasted
with our forebears who were
supposedly moral giants.
Precisely because there
are more Americans who
are religiously committed
today than in the past we
are in a far better position to
mobilize conscience and
moral will to cope construc-
tively and realistically with
our many problems. That
means that religious and
civic leadership needs to
speak to our better selves
rather than evoke paralyz-
ing images of our worst
selves.
A vital lesson that
should be derived from
our past is that when con-
fronted with the massive
moral challenges of the
frontier societies,
evangelical leaders — to
their everlasting credit —
launched a wide range of
moral reform movements
as voluntary expressions
of the churches. Or-
ganized benevolence
("The Benevolence Em-
pire" these efforts were
called) were created for
the poor and downtrod-
den, anti-slavery groups,
temperance societies, aid
to youth, and the mili-
tary.
• Several "New Christian
Right" spokesmen have-as-
serted or implied that "the
Founding Fathers" of our
nation perceived America
as "a Christian Republic." If
you check your writings,
you will find that such as-
sertions contradict every-
thing- Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, and others stood
and fought for.
Thus, Thomas Jefferson
wrote in his Virginia Sta-
tute for Religious Freedom
— which became the basis
for the First Amendment —
"Almighty God hath
created the mind free, and
all attempts to influence it
by attempt or punishments
or burns or by civil in-
capacitations tend only to
beget habits of hypscrisy
and meanness, and are a
departure from the plan of
the Holy Author of our reli-
gion.''
I would commend such
writings to the Rev. Bailey
Smith and others who share
his views about uniformity
of conscience and religion.
Smith's utterance about
"God not hearing the prayer
of a Jew" is not only reli-
giously presumptuous and
morally offensive; it is
dangerous to the future of
our democratic pluralistic
society.
civil debate in an open
democracy requires an-
other, higher order of dis-
course.
One has a sense that some
"New Right" advocates per-
ceive America as if it were a
vast camp revival meeting
whose characteristic
method .was to plunge into
anguish the sinner over the
state of his soul, then bring
about a confession of faith
by oversimplifying the deci-
sion as a choice between a
clear good and an obvious
evil.
The Civil War was ren-
dered all the more in-
transigent and destruct-
ive by each side claiming
that God was on their
side, and by portraying
the other side as "infidel"
and "atheist."
A mature America de-
serves a far more balanced
and thoughtful method to
analyze its problems and to
formulate itsreponses; any-
thing less than that is an
insult to the intelligence of
the American people.
RABBI TANENBAUM
It is encouraging to us
that literally hundreds of
Baptist pastors, Chris-
tian seminary faculties
and lay people have is-
sued statments repudiat-
ing his narrow views as
un-Christian and un-
American.
The campaign by some
members of the "New Chris-
tian Right" to elect "born-
again Christians" only to
public office is anathemaing
to everything American
democracy stands for. It vio-
lates Article 6 of the United
States Constitution which
forbids the exercise of "a
religious test" for any citi-
zen running for public
office.
The most effective
critique of "single politics"
campaigns and candidates
is provided by the leading
Evangelical journal,
"Christianity Today" (Sept.
19, 1980):
"Moral Majority and,
Christian Voice appear to
emphasize the first three
principles of Evangelicals
for Social Action more than
the others (that is, the fam-
ily; every human life is sac-
red — abortion; religious
and political freedom are
God-given inalienable
rights). . .
"The concerns of the
religious lobbies will ap-
peal to a broader range of
Christians to the extent
that they emphasize
these other equally bibli-
cal principles of justice,
peace, stewardship of
our resources, and care
for the poor, as well as
profamily and prolife is-
sues. It is a case of 'these
ye ought to do but not to
leave the others undone.'
"Too narrow a front in
battling for a moral
crusade, or for a truly bibli-
cal involvement in politics,
could be disastrous. It could
lead to the election of a
moron who holds the right
view on abortion."
Much of the present "New
Right" public discussion of
issues seems to be char-
acterized by that traditional
scenario of political conflict
between "the children of
light" and the "children of
darkness." There is too
much demonology in the
current discussion which
appears to consign political
candidates to being de-
molished as "satanic" —
the moral hit lists with
"zero ratings," "secular
humanists standing at the
side of Satan." Reasoned,
these are only a few of the
features you'll find weekly
in The Jewish News
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