Tag Archives: Christian Right

May 10, 2012, 10:41 am

Obama to the Christian Right (Nervously): It’s On!

President Obama told ABC news yesterday that on the subject of same-sex marriage he has been “going through an evolution on this issue.”

He may indeed be going through an intellectual evolution in his thinking about the rights of gay people to marry. His recent remarks indicate that he has undergone a theological evolution as well. Recall that Obama cast his new-found stance on this issue as a reflection of his Christian scruples (a point I hope to explore in greater detail forthwith).

But permit me now in my capacity as a student of Faith and Values campaigning to point to a third type of evolution in his thinking: Obama’s strategists have completely given up on religious conservatives and concluded that they are irredeemably lost to Mitt Romney.

This observation needs to be properly contextualized. In 2008, Democrats were still reeling from the damage that the so-called…

November 9, 2011, 6:48 am

The Swashbuckling Christian Right: On the Defeat of Amendment 26

By Jacques Berlinerblau

Mississippi’s “Personhood Amendment” self-imploded and succumbed to an unexpected defeat last night. Analysts are already dissecting the reasons for the collapse of an initiative that seemed a sure thing just a few weeks ago.

Yet this setback should not obscure a crucial truth: The hard Christian Right, which sponsored Amendment 26, is the most swashbucklingest social movement out there. They will pull out all the stops, give you the razzle dazzle, double-down on doubling down. And, yes, they will be back, bigger and better than ever.

Secular believers and nonbelievers had better understand their antics and resolve. Expect one thousand Amendment 26′s in the future. And that’s because this type of over-the-top activism is, currently, a win-win proposition for social conservatives.

Let’s be clear: The endeavor to define a fertilized egg as a human being endowed with all …