The Ironies of the Religious Right
John Hart
January 1, 1999
The rise of the religious right represents the most rapid deployment of raw political power in the last 20 years. In little more than a decade, millions of religious conservatives were mobilized into a vast grassroots network, a sophisticated fundraising apparatus was created, and religious conservatives were elected to national and state offices in increasingly large numbers. In the opening months of 1999, Republican presidential hopefuls have been flocking to events hosted by conservative Christian groups, each seeking to prove that he or she is the most conservative and religious of the field. The growth of the religious right—starting with the Moral Majority and continuing with the far more successful Christian Coalition—has largely been driven by a sense of panic. Former Education Secretary William Bennett's 1994 work The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators showed that since 1960 violent crime in the United States had quadrupled, while illegitimate births, single-parent households, and teen suicides tripled. In Washington, D.C. there were more abortions than live births, and in many cities a majority of children were being reared in father-less homes. Statistics like these, coupled with a sense of moral urgency and clarity that was difficult for other interest groups to muster, spurred Herculean efforts to influence the political process. The Christian Coalition spent nearly $8 million on lobbying in 1997, more than any other citizen group, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Government. The Coalition ranked thirteenth among all lobbying spenders—ahead of AT&T, Ford Motor Co., IBM, Mobil Oil, and many other well-known companies. The 1.9-million member Coalition even outspent the 33-million member American ...
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