Uncertain times for US Religious Right

Uncertain times for US Religious Right

By Matthew Wells BBC News, Washington

As the dust settles on Washington following the Barack Obama earthquake, one group more than any other is expecting to be out in the cold.

For the past eight years, the so-called Religious Right has enjoyed a warm reception at the centre of White House policy-making, and with the Republican coalition on Capitol Hill.

Mainly white, "born again" evangelical Protestants, who adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible - and oppose abortion rights above all - the Religious Right comprise around 40% of the Republican Party's support.

"The Republican Party as it exists today could not exist without the Christian evangelical vote and the conservative Catholic vote," said Allen Hertzke, visiting senior fellow at the influential Pew Forum on Religion and Politics.

"Now the Republican Party can't win with them alone - as we've learned."

Although there is always a tension between the narrow social agenda of Christian conservatives and the broader, more pragmatic "low tax" wing of the party, the strong US economy kept that argument at bay - until this year's financial crisis.

Blaming the economy

The imposing facade of the Family Research Council includes the motto "faith, family, freedom" carved into the stone above the door, right across from the National Portrait Gallery in downtown Washington.

I think you're going to see a surge once again, reminiscent of the early 1990s Michael Franc Heritage Foundation vice-president

When it comes to the seemingly never-ending Culture War in America, "we lost a good portion of it, if President Obama is a man of his word", said the senior vice-president of the council's Action arm, Connie Mackey, who is in a reflective but steely mood.

She rejects the idea that by focussing on abortion, gay marriage and federal judges who disagree with them, the movement is ignoring the recent election verdict: "It was all played out on an economic playing field, and the economy is a disaster."

California's electoral decision to define marriage as only valid between a man and a woman gives her hope that a majority of American voters remain socially conservative, and sympathetic towards moulding a new Republican party that is more conservative, not less.

"I always get a laugh out of the liberals in the Republican Party who think they can walk away from their base," she said. "The [party] is only the vehicle in which the conservatives travel... You have to look at that vehicle and say, is it repairable, or do we get a new one?"

At the foot of Capitol Hill, the conservative Heritage Foundation was one of the large think-tanks that helped forge the defeated Republican coalition. Its vice-president in charge of liaising with Congress, Michael Franc, is confident that being denied influence in Washington will revive the Religious Right.

Relaxing rules on stem-cell research and abortion, will "galvanise the social Right - they will find it incredibly easy to generate all sorts of reaction from their donor base, and their supporters," he said. "I think you're going to see a surge once again, reminiscent of the early 1990s."

Across the lines

Although the Religious Right groups see no common ground with the Obama administration, that is not the perception among more moderate evangelicals close to power, during this transition period.

One of the more plugged-in members of the emerging Religious Left is Burns Strider, who was head of religious outreach for Hillary Clinton's primary campaign.

"Instead of talking about criminalising women, let's come together in an honest conversation, and find ways to reduce the number of abortions," said the jovial consultant, in his office in suburban Virginia.

For the hard-core Religious Right "it creates relationships where the edges are smoother," he added.

For the Pew Forum's Allen Hertzke, the idea that some "culture warriors" might wander across enemy lines in the less dogmatic post-election environment, would be the continuation of an already visible trend.

"On certain international humanitarian and human rights issues, unlikely alliances have formed between conservative evangelical groups and more liberal human rights organisations," he said.

"On [human] trafficking, on religious freedom, on Darfur, on human rights in China..." Christian conservatives may find themselves working alongside Democrats in Washington, he added.

Down to Obama

As the Republican Party struggles to regroup following an emphatic election defeat, it is clear that the Religious Right will have a major say in what happens next.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin certainly helped to enthuse and ignite her fellow Christian conservatives in a way that John McCain could not. Many are already backing her for a run in 2012.

But the strength of the movement will also depend largely on what President Obama does. If he steers clear of a social and cultural policy agenda, preferring to focus all efforts on the economy and foreign affairs, the Religious Right will have nothing much to react against.

Unlikely as it is, given 40 years of polarisation, the culture wars may yet grind to a halt, for lack of ammunition.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7731609.stm

Published: 2008/11/16 00:31:05 GMT

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Election spurs "hundreds" of race threats, crimes (AP)

Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer Jesse Washington, Ap National Writer 1 hr 16 mins ago

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.

"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."

"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."

If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

Other incidents include:

_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."

___

Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Taylor and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081115/ap_on_re_us/obama_racial