| For New Christians This forum is for new Christians to ask questions and be encouraged by other Christians. Here you can post your questions and talk about issues relating to new believers. |
 | 
3rd May 2007, 12:58 AM
| | Newbie
  
| | Join Date: 3rd May 2007
Posts: 4
Blessings: 107,814
Reps: 10 (power: 0) | | | What is the Influence of Evangelical Protestantism in American Domestic Politics? P.2
The Religious right is very active countering the mainstreaming of Alternative sexual lifestyles. The RR links the lifestyles of homosexuals as destructive and will be the corrupting force that ultimately brings about the collapse of society institutions and the decay of the family, morality and religious belief. The religious right is active in the promotion of perceived sinister aspect of alternative lifestyles. The following are a selection of quotes that illustrate the religious right’s position on alternative sexualities. I really believe that Christian oppression is just around the corner. I really believe that the level of anger arising out of the homosexual community primarily, but the whole humanistic movement that's out there....as they gain political power - and they got it now - they're going to continue to oppress us. James Dobson, Focus on the Family[9]
When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together. Pat Robertson, Christian Coalition, 700 Club 1/21/93[10]
[Homosexuals]want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers. Pat Robertson, Christian Coalition, 700 Club, 1/18/95 [11]
Satan uses homosexuals as pawns. They're in, as you know, key positions in the media, they're in the White House, they're in everything, they're in Hollywood now. Then, unfortunately, after he uses them, he infects them with AIDS and then they die. Anthony Falzarano, PFOX, Janet Parshall's America, 2/27/96
If the militant homosexuals succeed in their accursed agenda, God will curse and judge our nation....The goal of the homosexual movement is to 'mainstream' unspeakable acts of evil...Their cries for tolerance are really a demand for our surrender. They want us to surrender our values, our love for God's law, our faith, our families, the entire nation to their abhorrent agenda. Randall Terry campaign literature One of the Right's tactics in opposing gay marriage is to fan the flames of unfounded fears that gays are dangerous to children; Religious Right groups are at the forefront of state and federal efforts to ban gays from adopting children or serving as foster parents. In a disturbing number of legal cases, judges have cited homosexuality as a justification for declaring parents unfit and denying them custody of their own children. At the core of opposition to gay marriage is an adamant refusal to recognize that loving gay relationships can have any worth or merit. Women’s Health The role of women is hotly contested within America. The Religious Right is no exception; the Morning after Pill is a focus point of their activity. Wendy Long, head of Concerned Women for America, is a conservative Christian advocacy group, expressed dismay the recent FDA announcement approving the morning after pill for sale. She warned that over-the-counter sales could lead to greater promiscuity, an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, and the likelihood that adolescent girls will gain access to the pill. "You could have a 19-year-old man buy it and hand it to a 13-year-old girl," Long said. "Any restriction on who can buy it without a prescription will be meaningless." [12] The RR’s position is simply framed in terms of moral health, obsessively striving to protect its children’s innocence and chastity. However; the benefits of the position it advocates in terms of a woman’s actual sexual health is questionable because it produces ignorance and stigmatizes legitimate preventative measures such as contraceptives; a proven measure against sexually transmittable diseases and parasitic infection. Abortion is the hot potato of American Politics, the issue has polarized the public, Lobby group from both sides have strong arguments for and against: The Religious Right is no exception. In 1973 the US Supreme Court decision effectively granted the right of abortion, the case known as Roe vs. Wade, has divided American society along political, moral and religious lines.[13] The divide has given birth to two counter posed movements; the Pro-choice and the Pro-life movements. The Religious Right supports the Pro-life movement, because of the old testaments Ten Commandments one of which is do not murder. Conservative evangelical Christians allege that humanity begins at conception consequently they use emotive language to draw no distinctions that ‘killing’ a fetus is ‘killing’ a human. Another aspect of this debate is the emotional blackmail articulated by the Religious right and Pro-lifers specifically the use terms such as convenience abortions and resort to branding women who have abortions as selfish; these tactics are designed to pressure women into keeping unwanted pregnancies. Women’s Equality. The second and third waves of feminism have modernized the equality between the sexes, greater equality and opportunities have revolutionized the lives of women around the world. These developments have altered the traditional biblical role of women, and an affront to the bible is an affront to God, the ‘feminist agenda’ as it is referred to as an evil and destructive force within society. "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." – Pat Robertson direct mail, Summer 1992 On a simpler level the feminist critique of traditional roles challenges the patriarchal control over women lives, articulated by modern conservative Christian leaders and prophets of the old and new testament of the bible. On women’s equality: "I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period.” – Pat Robertson, the 700 Club, 01/08/92 “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is man” - St. Paul to the Corinthians; 1 Corinthians 11:4, 50 AD. In conclusion, the religious right has serious influence over domestic policy within the United States. Their political positions on marriage, education, women’s equality, and homosexuality create divisions not only between liberal and conservative Christians but within mainstream society as well. The key positions within the George W. Bush’s presidential administration that are held members of the religious right and the effective lobbying conducted by RR organization has been part of well thought out strategy taking the RR towards their ultimate goal of a theocracy ruled by biblical values creating a Christian America in the image of evangelical protestants. [1] Kaplan, Esther. “With God on Their side: How Christian Fundementalists are controlling the Bush White House”, Church and State, Vol. 59, No. 1, (Jan 2006), p.7. [2]Zakaria. Fareed, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home andAbroad, New York, W. Norton & Co., 2003. p.210. [3] Baez, Benjamin. And V. Darleeen Opfer, Ideology and Educational Policy: An Analysis of the Religious Right, Education Policy, Vol. 14, No. 5, Nov 2000, p.588 [4] Gary Glenn and John Stack. America: Fundamentally Religious: Our Puritan spirit is still with us but in different forms. World and I Vol. 14, No. 12, (Dec 1999): p35 [5] Kaplan, Esther. “With God on Their side: How Christian Fundementalists are controlling the Bush White House”, Church and State, Vol. 59, No. 1, (Jan 2006), p.8. [6]Kaplan, Esther. "With God On Their side: how Christian fundamentalists are controlling the Bush White House--and interfering with Americans' lives." Church & State 59.1 (Jan 2006), p. 9. [7] [8] “Talk about sex: the battle over sex education”, SIECUS Report, Aug-Sept 2002, p.21. [9] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/def...spx?oid=4257#5 [10] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/def...spx?oid=4307#5 [11] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/def...spx?oid=4307#5 [12]Anonymous.FDA rethinks its delays on sale of morning-after pill.(Food and Drug Administration, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.). The Christian Century 123.17 (August 22, 2006): p12 [13]Nicholas Hill, Peter Ling. Editorial, History Today. London: Oct 2006. Vol. 56, Iss. 10; p. 38 |
3rd May 2007, 01:45 AM
|  | Ace by His Grace
32  
 | | Join Date: 12th November 2005 Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 5,956
Blessings: 123,345
Reps: 88,642 (power: 101) | | | Closed for review.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
| |
| Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode |
| | |
