The single greatest threat to church-state separation in America is the movement known as the Religious Right. Organizations and leaders representing this religio-political crusade seek to impose a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint on all Americans through government action. (AU's Guide to the Religious Right)
We are all aware of the continued threat to our secular democracy posed by the Religious Right, and now we have a new resource for education and activism. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has just published a guide to the Religious Right, a wonderful collection of online resources on the various movements and leaders of the radical Religious Right. The home page for this resource is available here.
Below are some samples of the available resources.
The Religious Right and American Freedom. Particularly helpful in this article is a list of the Religious Right's ultimate goals:
1. Controlling Americans' Decisions about Reproduction, Sex and Death
2. Passing Anti-Gay Laws
3. Controlling Education in America
4. Stripping Federal Courts of Their Power to Hear Certain Types of Cases
5. Securing Control of Social Services
6. Instilling Censorship
7. Other Issues (including exerting more influence over the military and U.S. foreign policy)
Religious Right Power Brokers: The Top Ten
1. The Christian Broadcasting Network (Pat Robertson, Founder, CEO and Director)
2. Focus on the Family (James C. Dobson, Founder and Chairman)
3. Coral Ridge Ministries (D. James Kennedy, Founder and President)
4. Alliance Defence Fund (Alan Sears, President, CEO and General Counsel)
5. American Family Association (Donald Wildmon, Founder and Chairman)
6. American Center for Law and Justice (Pat Robertson, Founder and President)
7. Family Research Council (James C. Dobson, Founder; Tony Perkins, President and CEO)
8. Jerry Falwell Ministries (Jerry Falwell, Founder and Director)
9. Concerned Women for America (Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Founders)
10. Traditional Values Coalition (Louis P. Sheldon, Founder and Chairman)
(Also available is a one-page flyer, Religious Right Top Ten Who's Who, available as a .pdf file.)
Another valuable resource is a collection of statements by the leaders of the Religious Right, They Said It! Religious Right Leaders In Their Own Words, available as a .pdf file. Following are a few examples of the Religious Right's true agenda:
Modern U.S. Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the founders had in mind in the First Amendment of the Constitution... [W]e must fight against those radical minorities who are trying to remove God from our textbooks, Christ from our nation. We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours. -- Jerry Falwell
They [the radical left] have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore. -- Pat Robertson
This is our land. This is our world. This is our heritage, and with God's help, we shall reclaim this nation for Jesus Christ. And no power on earth can stop us. -- D. James Kennedy
The last collection of resources includes several articles on the various leaders of the Religious Right and their true aims, including Charles Colson, James Dobson, the Christian Coalition, The American Center for Law and Justice, Jerry Falwell, National Religious Broadcasters, Christian Reconstructionism and the National Reform Association, Pat Robertson, Council for National Policy, D. James Kennedy, Discovery Institute, Rick Scarborough, the American Family Association, Sun Myung Moon, the Family Research Council, Tim LaHaye, and Worldview Weekend.
Please take some time to visit AU's website to learn more about their efforts to protect the Constitutional separation of church and state. With this new resource, we have an effective tool for education and activism in defense of our secular democracy.
For more on the Christian Right, please see my series, Deconstructing the Dominionists: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI.
For more resources on the Religious Right, see Talk To Action and Theocracy Watch.