Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

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Vēritās
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Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by Vēritās »

Posted by a friend on Facebook:
Little history lesson. The only reason the Supreme Court has to address abortion at all in the twenty-first century is because some white men who ran evangelical universities in the early '70s didn't like the government forcing them to let Black folks into their schools. They needed to galvanize a movement of the religious right to restructure government power so they could keep Black folks out, but they knew white supremacy wouldn't be an effective banner around which to rally such a movement. They decided they would go on a large scale campaign to overturn the majority evangelical support for Roe v. Wade and turn opposition to abortion into a central evangelical identity marker. While restoring segregation became a bridge too far (until now), opposition to abortion became a very effective evangelical identity marker that has effectively divided the country and restructured government power in favor of a small minority of right wing authoritarians.

If these folks actually cared about reducing abortion rates, they would focus on the root of every single elective abortion that has ever taken place in this nation: an unwanted pregnancy. Expanding access to contraception, to comprehensive sex education, and to women's healthcare far more efficiently and effectively reduces unwanted pregnancies and thus abortion rates than does criminalization, but because all three of these issues are non-starters for right wing authoritarianism, they must hypocritically focus on criminalization knowing that it won't efficiently or effectively reduce rates of abortion, it will just force women to retreat to unsafe options and cause more deaths. Turning opposition to abortion into a right-wing identity marker allowed it to be deployed as a credibility enhancing display, which incentivizes people to escalate the cost of their commitment to order to amplify the power of the display, which has now led to several states proposing for "no-exceptions" prohibitions on abortion, which will kill American women. The next step will be laws penalizing women for crossing state lines to get abortions in other states, as well as lawsuits aimed at the providers in those other states, further restricting the liberty of American women and further endangering their lives. Their lives are just pawns in the game of right wing authoritarian identity politics––which, again, is fundamentally about white supremacy––and it's just absolutely disgusting.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... wqtS95rhLU
Last edited by Vēritās on Wed Jun 29, 2022 2:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by Gunnar »

I couldn't agree with you more, Veritas! virtually the last thing the hard right anti-abortionists are really concerned about is the well-being or even the very lives of women and their unborn (or even born) children.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by honorentheos »

This seems overly reductionist and exactly the sort of vilification that threatens our society it argues against.

Evidence? Here is Ronald Reagan speaking in 1964, a decade before the Roe decision:

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency ... e-choosing
Reagan wrote:This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
Reagan's appeal as a speaker, then ultimately as a presidential candidate, came out of the culture wars and growing sense among people that the world wasn't just changing but changing for the worse at the direction of misguided elites who did not share the values of the average person.

While the press for civil rights forever reshaped the political map and certainly flipped southern democrats to become part of the moral majority, make no mistake that attempting to reduce the tragectory of the right into today's populist revolt against liberal democracy as being nothing but racism writ large is itself an example of illiberal reframing in an attempt to mold the left. It establishes the belief that anything in defense against the right is permissible because racism/abortion are too great an evil to be morally ambiguous. What principle could possibly be of such central importance it justifies not doing anything and everything needed to win against the vile opposition?
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by Moksha »

honorentheos wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:05 pm
What principle could possibly be of such central importance it justifies not doing anything and everything needed to win against the vile opposition?
In the case of Reagan, it was the political expediency of winning the Presidential election in 1980. So he abandoned the position he took as California Governor.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by honorentheos »

Moksha wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 9:46 pm
honorentheos wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:05 pm
What principle could possibly be of such central importance it justifies not doing anything and everything needed to win against the vile opposition?
In the case of Reagan, it was the political expediency of winning the Presidential election in 1980. So he abandoned the position he took as California Governor.
That sounds made up. His speech in 1964 is one of the cornerstones of what became American conservativism from Goldwater through the 1990s and Gingrich which opened a new chapter.

He was encouraged to pursue public office by the Republican party because of his views as expressed in the linked speech. Again, that speech was in 1964. He became Governor in 1967.

From the Reagan library website:

Ronald Reagan began a long side-career of public speaking as his acting career closed out. He traveled across the country meeting Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce and any other civic-minded local groups. This continued and intensified during his service as the General Electric spokesperson while hosting their sponsored television series. "The Speech" was delivered in various forms and to different audiences as each word was honed, measured and memorized.

During the 1964 Presidential campaign, Republican party officials in California, who knew Reagan's powerful message and delivery, asked him to film a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater. The speech was aired on October 27, 1964 and it was electrifying. Donations to the Republican party and candidates increased dramatically.

The Republican Party took note and they targeted Reagan as a candidate from that point forward. He agreed in 1966 to run for Governor of California. He won two terms, and eventually won the Presidency.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by huckelberry »

honorentheos, upon reading the opening post and its linked article I found myself troubled by the seriously overnarrow view being taken. I was unsure what to make of it and appreciate your attempt to evaluate it. I think the article was looking at the moral majority movement and its contribution to conservative politics. Reagan represents a body of views that both predate and exist far more broadly than the moral majority movement.

I read through the speech as linked, ok I skimmed a little in the later portions. He became more succinct later on in his messages (the gov is the problem , the socialists want to take our freedom) Back in 64 it was we have to beat the communists in southeast asia or the world looses its freedom( well is in danger of loosing it) There is criticism of government policy and policy can use criticism.

If one looks at fundamentalist history in America there is a long culture war going on well before the civil rights issues arose. There is urban morals with too many immigrants, there is Hollywood, there is too much sex and dancing there is not enough prayer in school , there is evolution being taught somewhere. What I have seen is moral majority latching on to some of all that and the varieties I missed. I think the original post points out correctly that the abortion issue was useful bring more people into an involved movement. Schaffer who was the significant proponent of concern for abortion as leading to social decay had no interest in racial segregation, was against it. Yes there are racists in the conservative movement but they may be well short of a majority so approaching the movement as racist is just to completely misunderstand the movement.


I will add my first thought which was to remember an Jordan Peterson observation that conservative authoritarians have greater than average disgust reactions. A disgust reaction is a sort of natural reaction to unclean things like decayed food. For humans it also works for a reaction to perceived unclean items getting into society. The reaction was used against Jews i 1930s Germany. In the US it has a racial history.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by Res Ipsa »

I read a couple of pieces by the author, who gave me some historical context I hadn't seen before. But I don't think the OP presents the actual lesson. The rise of the religious right as a political force had its roots in anti-union and anti-new deal settlement. Protestant ministers and businessmen created and joined an organization that became the modern organization that sponsors, among other things, the National Prayer Breakfast. But the focus of that collaboration was leaders. Others wanted to engage the rank and file evangelical community in local and national politics. And one guy, in particular, devoted considerable efforts to finding some issue that would politically engage evangelicals.

As the author shows, evangelicals had responded to the evils of the secular world by trying to create their own separate world within a world, including their own colleges and universities. Tax exempt status was critical to those efforts, as the schools were financed by tax deductible donations. The author's thesis seemed to me to be that it was the loss of tax-empt status, more than just racial issues, that galvanized the rank and file into action. The loss of tax exempt status was an existential threat to the separate world they were trying to create.

But, because what caused the loss of tax exempt status was racial discrimination, it wasn't really a good look. So this guy, among others, tried to find some other cause that the galvanized rank and file would organize around. And abortion was the one that caught on.

Reagan certainly capitalized on that movement to help win elections, but I see that as political opportunism more than anything else.

Like others, I find the OP over simplistic and not helpful.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by huckelberry »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGekHCa1fDA

ok link works. This is Franky Schaeffer, son of the individual who really lead the way on the anti abortion movement. He might have some insight into why racial considerations are completely inadequate to explain the moral majority as a religious political movement. His view is not particularly comforting.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by Dr Exiled »

honorentheos wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:05 pm
This seems overly reductionist and exactly the sort of vilification that threatens our society it argues against.

Evidence? Here is Ronald Reagan speaking in 1964, a decade before the Roe decision:

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency ... e-choosing
Reagan wrote:This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
Reagan's appeal as a speaker, then ultimately as a presidential candidate, came out of the culture wars and growing sense among people that the world wasn't just changing but changing for the worse at the direction of misguided elites who did not share the values of the average person.

While the press for civil rights forever reshaped the political map and certainly flipped southern democrats to become part of the moral majority, make no mistake that attempting to reduce the tragectory of the right into today's populist revolt against liberal democracy as being nothing but racism writ large is itself an example of illiberal reframing in an attempt to mold the left. It establishes the belief that anything in defense against the right is permissible because racism/abortion are too great an evil to be morally ambiguous. What principle could possibly be of such central importance it justifies not doing anything and everything needed to win against the vile opposition?
Great post. People are fed up with 50 years of wealth being funneled up to the top 1%. It isn't racism, it is money issues.
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Re: Religious Right - Origins based in Racism

Post by ajax18 »

In years past the lefts view on abortion was to make it safe, rare, and legal, which seemed to be in step with public opinion. Today's left wing SJWs demand that we celebrate abortion and indoctrinate the youth in public schools with the idea. The current left wing moral authorities are hedonistic people like Howard Stern. Why is abortion such an appealing idea to Democrat men? Because they want to be able to bang around without any chance of being held financially responsible. Kamala Harris said as much when she talked about how bad the the Supreme Court ruling was for her sons. As bad as America has gotten, I still believe that most people have not sunken to Howard Stern or Schmo's view of morality. As always the far left is going to overplay their hand on this and I think they're going to pay for it the upcoming elections, assuming they're not allowed to cheat.
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