Frederick Clarkson

101: Dominionism

Dominionism is one of the most significant, yet little-known ideological forces in the U.S. and increasingly, globally. This theological idea has been gathering strength for a half century and is transforming conservative evangelical Christianity…

101

Christian Right Denialism is More Dangerous Than Ever

A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation

An illustration of mountains with the seven mountains described.

While the Christian Right has been an increasingly powerful factor in American politics for decades, it has benefited from a strangely persistent culture of denialism. We needn’t review the …

Report

He's on a Mission From God: Pennsylvania GOP Candidate Doug Mastriano's War With the World

Exclusive: Pa. GOP candidate closely linked to Christian extremists who want "spiritual warfare" against America

A bald man in a suit, standing in front of an American flag, talking into a mic.

An animating element of politics in the age of Trump is that some people are increasingly living out religious metaphors. These metaphors are derived from contemporary understandings of the Old Testament by new elements within Christianity. This has…

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Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz Hasn't Gone Away

It's Just Gotten More Secretive

Older woman standing in crowd with both hands raised

In the Fall of 2019, the secretive Christian Right state legislative campaign, Project Blitz, became even more of a secret. When RD first reported on Project Blitz in April 2018 the website featured…

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Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation

Black and white circle with text in middle reading "Seven Spheres of Society"

The city of Spokane, Washington sits at the eastern edge of the state—a mountain range and a cultural world away from the Pacific coast. It looks eastward to Idaho and Montana, and south to Eastern Oregon, where far-right secessionist movements have…

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Still Here

The Christian Right in the 2020 Election

A white woman with blond hair, kneeling with her arms in the air, a Trump flag tied around her neck and hanging down her back

Even amid Trump’s defeat, the 2020 election proved that the Christian Right may still be the most powerful, best-organized faction in American politics. The popular stereotype notwithstanding, the election demonstrated that the Christian Right is…

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An Annotated Directory of the Prochoice Religious Community in the United States

This directory lists the current prochoice and reproductive justice elements of organized religion in the United States. It is intended primarily as a resource for those seeking to support these values in light of contemporary legislative and…

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The Prochoice Religious Community May Be the Future of Reproductive Rights, Access, and Justice

There is a vast prochoice religious community in the United States that could provide the moral, cultural, and political clout to reverse current antiabortion policy trends in the United States. Most, but not all, of this demographic are Christians…

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A Crumbling Cornerstone of the Christian Right

The Family Research Council (FRC), a leading organization of the Christian Right has long featured Christian nationalist ideology in its materials and events — including speakers at its annual political conference, the Values Voter Summit. But…

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Project Blitz by Any Other Name

Strategy Call Reveals a Shift to Stealth Mode Amid Escalating Rhetoric

Randy Forbes and Lea Carawan on Truth & Liberty Livecast

Randy Forbes, the founder of the Christian Right state legislative campaign Project Blitz, recently told affiliates on a recorded conference call that they are “trying to respond to attacks on faith,” which he described as a problem of “geometric…

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Christian Nationalists Try to Dodge the Baptists

A remarkable thing has happened since the Baptist Joint Committee launched an unprecedented campaign called …

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Review: Netflix’s The Family

title card for netflix the family docuseries

The five-part, original Netflix documentary “The Family,” is about a secretive, international religious network that has profoundly influenced governments in the U.S. and around the world for many…

Book Review

Blitzing to Dominion

The Christian and business Right has been steadily building political, policy and legislative capacity in the states since the 1980s. Since 2016, a Christian Right state legislative campaign called Project Blitz has become part of this …

Article

Christian Nationalism and Donald Trump

Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

The depth and breadth of White evangelical support for Donald Trump before and since his election has perplexed most observers. But a team of sociologists, freshly-analyzed data in hand, may have the answer that has eluded journalists, scholars, and…

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Religious Freedom is the Cornerstone of Our Democracy

Religious freedom is a central issue of our time. It has figured prominently in recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was a major theme of the presidential election of 2016. And it has been a major theme of the Christian Right in both…

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Tony Perkins Pops Off

Tony Perkins speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. on October 7, 2011. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

Paul Rosenberg recently published an essay at Salon that challenged the myth that the United States was founded as a Christian Nation. The occasion was the then-forthcoming annual celebration of Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the…

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A Manual to Restore a Christian Nation that Never Was

Two men in suits and glasses standing in front of a background saying "FRCAction"

Originally published in 2011, the Culture Impact Team Resource Manual—which includes, among other things, sample voter guides and instructions for church-based voter registration drives—has served as the primer for church-based, Christian Right…

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Dominionism Beyond the Roy Moore Moment

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore –– arguably the most openly theocratic candidate to run for a major office in the U.S. in modern times –– almost won. This, despite credible allegations of child sex abuse, a reputation as a serial…

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The Meaning of the Nashville Line in the Sand

The hundreds of Southern Baptist and conservative Reformed leaders who initially signed the recent Nashville Statement, have always opposed all forms of sexuality and gender expressions outside of heterosexual marriage. But in the face of broad…

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White Warriors on the March

Among the groups leading the recent Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia was the League of the South – an Alabama-based theocratic, neo-confederate group that has long advocated for southern secession. League leader Michael Hill was…

Article

The President Gets Paradoxical about Religious Freedom

During the presidential campaign and since assuming office, Donald Trump has repeatedly promised the Christian Right that he would make religious freedom a priority. In an apparent bid for their support, Trump made clear that he would advance the…

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A Dystrumpian Vision for LGBTQ People

Many are called but few are chosen during any presidential transition. That’s why it’s illuminating to consider who Donald Trump has chosen from the parade of possibilities for his transition team and senior administration appointments so far— and…

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Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value

To read press coverage about it, one might think that religious freedom is a concern only for religious and political conservatives, and not one of the most liberatory ideas in history. One would also think religious freedom and civil rights are at…

Article

Dominionism Rising

A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight

A man in the middle of a speech in a suit with "Values Voter Summit" in the background.

Dominionism is the theocratic idea that regardless of theological camp, means, or timetable, God has called conservative Christians to exercise dominion over society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.

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A Forthcoming Fortnight of Demagoguery

Religious liberty is already a central feature of the 2016 election campaign. But the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) intends to enlarge and escalate the debate when it wages its fifth annual Fortnight for Freedom this …

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Trump, Cruz, & Dominionism

Some Christian Right Leaders Fear a Crack-Up

The 2016 Republican presidential campaign has transformed American politics, likely forever. Everyone is making adjustments, but two recent illuminating episodes suggest that some Christian Right leaders are finding the changes to be unusually…

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Dominionism is the New Religious Freedom

Historians may someday see the 2016 election season as the turning point in how our society understands the Dominionist movement that is seeking to recast society in its own image.

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When Exemption Is the Rule

The Religious Freedom Strategy of the Christian Right

Report

The Christian Right Does Not Want Us to Celebrate this Day

Religious Freedom Day provides an opportunity for us to think dynamically about the meaning of religious freedom in our time – even as the Christian Right seeks to redefine it beyond recognition.

Article

When Anti-Abortion Propaganda is Accepted as Investigative Journalism

One of the underreported aspects of the current smear campaign against Planned Parenthood is the coarsening and polarizing of our civil discourse that usually accompanies discussions of the culture wars. This has been especially glaring because the…

Article

Catholic Democrats & the Group Behind the Anti-Planned Parenthood Videos

Anti-abortion Catholic Democrats have long sought to cast their cause as progressive, but their actions have taken them into common cause with the Religious Right. This tendency has been on display during the brouhaha over the publication of the…

Article

The Past Repeats

Christian Right Turns to Nullification to Counter Marriage Equality

Last year in The Public Eye magazine, Rachel Tabachnick and Frank L. Cocozzelli warned of the trend on the religious and political Right toward the use of “nullification” as a means of resistance by states to federal laws of which they do not…

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When the Exception Is the Rule: Christianity in the Religious Freedom Debates

The 2014 case of General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper was a landmark event because, although the case was ostensibly about opposition to marriage equality, the decision upheld foundational notions of religious equality and equal…

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Charleston Massacre An Attack on Christianity? Yes, But Not How the Christian Right Says

Immediately following the mass murder some Christian Right leaders jumped onto the airwaves to claim the shooting was an example of the campaign against religious freedom in America. It turns out they were onto something, just not what they had…

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When in Doubt, Religify!

Fear Mongering about Religious Liberty

So much of the contemporary religious liberty campaign being conducted by the Christian Right is demagogic fear-mongering designed to justify discrimination against other Americans, particularly LGBTQ people. While most of our attention is directed…

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Christian Right Leaders Escalate Anti-LGBTQ Threats

As marriage equality has advanced around the country, and the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on the issue in June, threatening language is escalating on the Christian Right. If these culture warriors actually follow through with their threats,…

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Not All the Same

Christian Right's Hobby Lobbyization of State RFRAs

Since the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell Supreme Court ruling in 2014, Christian Right agencies like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Becket Fund, the Mormon Church, and their allies at the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, have pushed state…

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The Overlooked Indiana Outcomes that Could Haunt the Christian Right

The Christian Right’s strategy has suffered some powerful losses of late. It is good to take notice.

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The Campaign to Undermine Pro-LGBTQ Churches

The The Christian Right’s narrative that mainline church membership is declining primarily because of differences over things like marriage equality unravels when subjected to scrutiny. One of the primary reasons for the departures is a sustained…

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Coming Soon to Utah: An International Festival of Bigotry

An international network of some of the world’s most vitriolic Religious Right activists and self-proclaimed orthodox religious leaders is holding its ninth global conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in October 2015. The World Congress of Families’ (…

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Will Our Prisons Overflow with Christians?

Many leaders of the Christian Right, from megachurch pastors like Rick Warren to the top prelates in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have repeatedly threatened civil disobedience (and worse) over marriage equality. If they follow through…

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Roy Moore & Ron Paul

The Politics of Secession, Nullification, and Marriage Equality

Groups and individuals involved in the wider movements of the Christian Right and contemporary libertarianism, on which PRA has reported over the past two years, have advocated varying degrees of nullification and secession; and have envisioned vary…

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Previewing the Next Anti-Marriage Equality Manifesto

Top leaders of the Christian Right plan to issue a fresh manifesto against marriage equality in March. It may be the defining document for the anti-marriage equality forces in the run up to the legal show down at the Supreme Court this summer (not…

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U.S. Theologian Wants Martyrs Against America

Christian Right thinkers and leaders are considering their options, from varying degrees of accommodation and acceptance, to massive resistance and revolution.

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The Response: A Christian Right Rally for Dominion

The Christian Right hopes that the mass prayer rally tomorrow, January 24, at Louisiana State University will be one of the largest in recent history. Organizers are also seeking a thousand clergy willing to be trained to run as Christian Right…

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After Marriage Equality Advances, Christian Right Leaders Back Away From Jail Time Pledges

The Christian Right is often long on style and short on substance. Depending on the day many of its leaders may cast themselves as the second coming of the Founding Fathers, the living legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or even as facing…

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Taking Religious Freedom Day Astray

Religious Freedom Day may be the most significant national day that most of us have never heard of. Considering how central religious freedom is to the Christian Right’s framing of issues ranging from abortion and contraception, to LGBTQ…

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Seize the Day!

Well, what if we did?

The Christian Right does not want us to think about Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the enactment of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. And when I say that the Christian Right does not want “us” to think…

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Old Time Revisionism

Southern Baptists Seek to Redefine Separation of Church and State

A conference at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC a few months ago provided a platform to launch a trial balloon for revising the Christian Right’s contentious and often bizarre approach to separation of…

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The Christian Right Does Not Want You to Know About This Day

In the heat of our political moment, we sometimes don’t see how our future connects deeply to our past. But the Christian Right does — and they do not like what they see. The Christian Right has made religious freedom the ideological phalanx of its…

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Christian Right Undermines Marriage Equality With Religious Supremacism

The Christian Right has been operating on multiple fronts to stop—or at least limit—the scope of the advance of marriage equality, including seeking to enable business owners, civil workers, and elected officials to openly discriminate against LGBTQ…

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The Nullification of Religious Liberty

It’s true. Religious liberty is under sustained attack in America—but not in the way the Christian Right would have us believe. A theocratic (and sometimes Neo-Confederate) movement within the broader Christian Right is targeting the religious…

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An Uncharitable Choice

The Faith-Based Takeover of Federal Programs

Two presidents in a row have increasingly steered federal grants and contracts to conservative Christian groups—including houses of worship.

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VVS14 Analysis

Glenn Beck, Mark Levin Try to Quell Christian Right Neo-Confederates

Some critics tend to cast the Christian Right movement as monolithic, when in actuality it has always been at just as fractious and dynamic as it has been powerful and influential. And yet, its considerable successes are sometimes obscured by its…

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New App Furthers Christian Right's Redefined Notion of Religious Freedom

Their analysis is as simple as their goals are ambitious. United in Purpose claims that too few Christians of the right sort are registered, participating in public life, and sufficiently grounded in a theocratic “Biblical worldview.”

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Neo-Confederate Group Forms Paramilitary Unit—While Claiming It Isn't

Michael Hill, president of the theocratic, White nationalist League of the South, has been escalating his threats of violence in recent months. As PRA has previously reported, Hill has gone so far as to call for the formation of death squads to…

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If Democracy is a Crime Under Religious Right's Biblical Law, What is the Punishment?

If the Old Testament Biblical Laws that are foundational to the contemporary Christian Right are to be the standard, then it stands to reason that the biblically prescribed punishments would, in their view, fit the crimes. If that is so, then many…

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Let's Not Ignore the Overt Calls for Violence from the League of the South

The League of the South is involved not in an eccentric nostalgia for retrograde racial politics and wishful thinking about secession of the Southern states so much as a revolutionary vision of theocratic, white nationalist violence.

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GOP Voters in Maryland Face Dilemma as Theocrats Win Party Primaries

Michael Peroutka, one-time presidential candidate of the Constitution Party, won the Republican primary for a seat on the County Council and GOP Central Committee. Peroutka and his ilk believe that holding local office empowers them to defy state…

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PRA's Fred Clarkson Discusses Religious Liberty on Between The Lines Radio

PRA’s senior fellow, Frederick Clarkson, joined Between The Lines radio this week to discuss the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, and the broader campaign to redefine religious liberty by the Religious Right.

Press Hit

Party-Switching Theocrat Wins Primary, Claims Maryland Legislature is Invalid & Talks Revolution

In his regular broadcast of The American View, he suggested that all of the laws of the state of Maryland may be invalid, because the state legislature is an invalid body of government for having considered initiatives that “violate God’s Law.”

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In Post-Hobby Lobby Era, Rick Warren Says He Is Willing to Go to Jail

Even though ERLC president Moore says he is confident Hobby Lobby will win their case, the panelists nevertheless agreed that Christians, and all people of faith, face creeping governmental “persecution.”

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Rumblings of Theocratic Violence

Some Christian Right activists have lost hope that a Christian Nation can be achieved in the United States through the formal political process—including a high-level GOP operative. They are calling for martyrs and thinking about religious war.

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VIDEO: Fred Clarkson Explains the Fight for Religious Freedom

The concerted effort by the Religious Right to redefine Religious Freedom is steadily making its way through the courts and legislators. Political Research Associates’ senior fellow, Fred Clarkson, explains why all Americans (religious and non-…

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Greasing the Line

Multiple Court Rulings Advance Government Sectarian Prayer

The combined case of Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius and Conestoga Wood v. Sebelius may be one of the most important religious liberty cases in American history. But the recently decided—but less well known—case Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway should not…

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Corporate Religious Freedom

The 3 Possible Outcomes in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby

In March, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which was combined with Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius. No matter how the cases are decided, they may well be two of the most pivotal Supreme Court…

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Southern Baptist Leader Takes Religious Liberty Arguments to the Absurd

Like other Christian Right leaders, Moore continues to rely on historical revisionism, bogus science, dubious claims of religious persecution, and hints darkly of tyrannical governmental violence to come. But his arguments in favor of discrimination…

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Maryland Neo-Confederate Candidates Back Plan to Defy Judge’s “No Sectarian Prayer” Order

The theocrats in both counties and their mentor, Judge Roy Moore, help illuminate a certain approach to contemporary debates about religious freedom.

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A Baptist Sexuality Summit for the Ethically Challenged

When Russell Moore ascended to the presidency of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), he claimed that he wanted to pull the public policy arm of the SBC back from the culture warring ways of…

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Updating the Image of Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry

The most recent “softer-language” campaign to launch from the Right is the Imago Dei Campaign, organized by a group of Christian Right leaders and Hollywood allies. The group, whose name translates from Latin to “image of God,” is seeking to alter…

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Two Neo-Confederate Leaders Join Republican & Democratic Parties to Run For Office

Two former leaders of the theocratic Constitution Party (CP) declared their intention to run in the June 24th primary election—as a Democrat and a Republican. The pair are running, respectively, for seats on the Democratic and Republican Party…

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The Stuff of Which Religious War is Made

Gregory M. Aymond, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans, is the leader of the majority religious institution in the state’s largest city, and he has made clear he is willing to use its economic leverage against any person or business…

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When the “Family Values” Agenda Includes Child Sex Abuse

The exposure of widespread sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy—and of the subsequent cover-ups by church leaders—has rocked the Catholic church for more than a decade. Less well known, though closely analogous, is the issue of widespread abuse within…

Article

Remembering John Salvi and the Brookline Clinic Shootings

As the United States Supreme Court reviews Buffer Zone laws around healthcare clinics today, let’s take a moment to remember one of the worst moments in the fight for women’s reproductive autonomy.

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EXPOSED: How the Right’s State-Based Think Tanks Are Transforming U.S. Politics

Two networks of conservative, state-level think tanks have matured rapidly over the past three decades. By crafting public policy, collaborating with Republican state legislators, and fostering new leadership for the Right, they have significantly…

Christian Right Seeks Renewal in Deepening Catholic-Protestant Alliance

Despite recent losses in the culture war, the Christian Right is forging a path forward by rallying around a few key issues: antichoice, opposition to marriage equality, and the defense of “religious liberty.” These themes—set forth in the…

"Bipartisan" Evangelical Rev. Rodriguez Conservative Even on Immigration

Great value is placed on being bipartisan in Washington, D.C., today. Or, at least, appearing bipartisan. That may be part of the secret of the remarkable success of Christian Right leader Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic…

Scott Lively Held to Account Back Home for Anti-Gay Persecution in Uganda

Yesterday, I and about 40 others crammed into the Springfield, MA, office of Arise for Social Justice, fresh from the first oral hearing of the lawsuit brought by Ugandan gay rights activists against Scott Lively–the notorious holocaust revisionist…

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez: Not So Moderate

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, executive director of the Sacramento-based National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) is regularly tapped by national media outlets like CNN and The New York Times as the leading voice of Latino evangelicals and…

State Anti-Marriage Equality Leaders Report from the Front Lines

Some of the most important leaders in the conservative movement were on a marriage equality panel at the recent Values Voters Summit. But likely few of the conference participants had even heard of the panelists or the Family Policy Council, the…

"Ex-Terrorist" Kamal Saleem Cons the Conservatives

One of the stock characters in American public life is the political/religious convert who becomes the expert on the evil he once was. Pick your era or locality of evil, and you’ll find ’em. And while there are certainly authentic converts from…

Article

A Swag Bag Preview of the Values Voters Summit

This year’s Values Voters Summit will be a shock to all who have claimed that the Christian Right is dead or about to breathe its last. Several thousand registrants are jamming into the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, D.C. this weekend for the…

The America We Seek and the Origins of Abortion Reduction

The general approach crystallized over several months in early 1996 when 45 antiabortion and religious right leaders, organized by the neoconservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, formally adopted abortion reduction as a series of related…

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Anti-Abortion Strategy in the Age of Obama

A protestor holding a paper that says "Bans of our bodies"

It didn’t turn out like they had planned. Two decades of political investment by the antiabortion movement and the Religious Right did not result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Even conservative Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged during…

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The Culture Wars Are Still Not Over

The Religious Right in the States and Beyond

In the wake of pre-election punditry that the Religious Right is dead and that the so called Culture Wars are over, I wrote a piece for The Public Eye: “The Culture Wars Are Not Over: The Institutionalization of the Christian Right.”1 The year was…

Becoming a Christian Citizen

Electoral Lessons from the Religious Right for the Religious Left

The main reason why the Religious Right became powerful is not what most people may think. Some would undoubtedly point to the powerful communications media. Others might identify charismatic leaders, the development of “wedge issues,” or even…

All in The Family

Jeff Sharlet’s new book The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, is in the best tradition of American investigative journalism. Sharlet, a scholar of religion based at New York University, writes with insight, verve and…

The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy!

One of the most remarkable, and least remarked upon, features of the contemporary discussion of faith in public life is that a defining feature of the religious right worldview has filtered deeply into mainstream and even progressive thought. This…

History is Powerful

Why the Christian Right Distorts History and Why it Matters

The notion that America was founded as a Christian nation is a central animating element of the ideology of the Christian Right. It touches every aspect of life and culture in this, one of the most successful and powerful political movements in…

The Battle for Mainline Churches

“Make no mistake,” wrote Avery Post, the national president of the United Church of Christ in 1982, “the objectives of the Institute on Religion and Democracy are the exact opposite of what its name appears to stand for. The purpose of its leaders…

The Rise of Dominionism

Remaking America as a Christian Nation

When Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court, installed a two-and-one-half-ton granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the Alabama state courthouse in Montgomery in June of 2001, he knew it was a deeply symbolic act. He…

Article

Takin’ It to the States: The Rise of Conservative State-Level Think Tanks

Like the famously premature announcement of the death of Mark Twain, reports of the decline of the Right in politics and public policy have been greatly exaggerated. Epitomizing the hidden strength of the Right are a growing number of well-funded,…

Christian Reconstructionism

Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence

Overview and Roots The Christian Right has shown impressive resilience and has rebounded dramatically after a series of embarrassing televangelist scandals of the late 1980s, the collapse of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and the failed…

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Frederick Clarkson

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