"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning fears, racial or otherwise.  And though many of those concerns once had been arrogantly or ignorantly dismissed as mere racial `code words,'  every president from Nixon to Clinton based his successful campaign on some key elements from the Wallace political cannon."  Author Stephen Lesher, George Wallace Biographer.

My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If you haven't I strongly urge you to read her work, here, here, and here. DeVos, President Trump's choice for Secretary of the Department of Education, is not there to strengthen that governmental agency but essentially, to destroy it. Indeed, her motives have been clear for a long time. DeVos's family related philanthropies are longtime funders of Christian Right projects, particularly in the area of school privatization. Politico reports that DeVos has said her work in education is intended to "advance God's kingdom."  

This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC

Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy DeVos, Building Mercenary Army in UAE

The Prince and DeVos families are at the intersection of radical free market privatization and the Religious Right, and have made an enormous impact on the current political atmosphere.  Erik Prince played a significant role in privatizing military functions while his older sister Betsy is at the helm of a movement to privatize public schools. The billionaire brother/sister duo are also vice presidents of their parents' foundation which is one of the major funders of Focus on Family and Family Research Council and an array of missionary organizations and right-wing think tanks.

Religious freedom is one of the central issues of our time. Arguably, it a central issue in any time, and every time, at least in the United States.  The country was founded with a very deliberate approach to promoting a permanent culture and constitutional protection for religious pluralism and separation of church and state, partly in order to preserve this historic advance in democracy and human liberation.

Somewhere along the way in the 20th century, what we now call the Christian Right gathered in sufficient ideological coherence and political capacity to create a theocratic movement that most of us thought could never happen here. Nevertheless, here we are, as the Christian Right has made religious freedom the centerpiece of its contemporary politics.

The theocrats of the 18th century  enjoyed benefits of a unified church and state, such as existed in colonial Virginia.  One of the reasons for and results of the American Revolution was to dismantle that power structure in the name of religious freedom.

Sometimes my fellow progressives forget that the anti-colonial war of liberation that was fought primarily along the Eastern Seaboard in the 1700s, was supported by persecuted religious dissidents such as Baptists and Presbyterians.  I have published an essay in The Public Eye that seeks to address some of this, titled Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value.  

There has been a recent rash of demonstrations outside of the famous First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.  The current pastor appears to be the brunt of the vocal sign -wielding mobs gathering outside the building that houses the congregation.  Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress is accused of being responsible for the election of Donald Trump as President.  Vocal activists have given credit to Jeffress for changing the course of the Nation.  Few appear to be aware of historic relevant connections to the church and city to the foundation of the modern Religious Right.  Author Bill Minutaglio has written a book seeking to make the connection between the Dallas of the sixties and the hard right.  Minutaglio has authored a book named Dallas 1963, in which he unveils peculiar and little unknown facts about the city and the fascinating peoples that staffed the movement that appears to have come of age and blossomed into a national phenomena.  A movement  that led to recent political results.  Jeffress and his rival in North Dallas, Jack Graham, can boast of accomplishments started by foundations laid in Dallas over fifty years ago.

Yes, folks it's time for the presentation of the annual Coughlin Award. As always, the competition was fierce. But this year, the gold goes to militant anti-choice priest Fr. Frank Pavone.

It is time to once again note the preposterous-but-malevolent claims that there is a War on Christmas. The annual revival of this repulsive anti-Semitic tradition begun by Henry Ford is carried forward today primarily by the Christian Right and the dour propagandists at Fox News.

But fortunately, even these provocateurs cannot not drown out authentic and beautiful celebrations of those who seek to honor and enjoy Christmas in all of its dimensions.

In March 2016 Trump campaign strategist and CEO Steve Bannon made a comment that could be construed as being blatantly anti-Catholic. He accused the Catholic Church of supporting immigrant rights in order to pad the number of their American following. And as expected several Catholic spokesmen seized on the remarks, attacking Bannon as a bigot.

And while this criticism may well be warranted, it overlooks a more ominous dimension of Bannon's character. He will say anything in the blind pursuit of political power.  

One of the challenges in writing about the Religious Right and what to do about it is the matter of terms and definitions. That's why I revise and update this post from time-to-time

From the earliest days of Talk to Action, we have written about how unfair labels and terms of demonization are not only inaccurate and opposed to basic standards of scholarship and journalism -- but conflict with the basic values of all people of good will. (They tend to be politically counterproductive as well.) The purpose of this post is not to go over all that again, but simply to highlight some useful resources on basic definitions and usage for those who are interested in trying to get it right.

I might be one of a select few who didn't vote for Donald but would have to say Trump's election made my life easier...I might even stretch it and use the word "better."   I gleaned this idea from a local leader of the Democratic Party.  He is well versed on politics and media, having been in the industry.  He is now a  retail owner and dared not place a Hillary sign in front of his place of business.  He knew it would cost him customers.

Back in 2012-2014 I did a lot of writing and research on The Gathering, the yearly meeting of elite evangelical right philanthropists who collectively distribute upwards of $1 billion dollars a year in grants and function as the funding wing of The Fellowship, which hosts the National Prayer Breakfast.

My research was based, at least initially, on an audio archive of talks at The Gathering which went back to 1996. That archive, along with a trove of The Gathering newsletters back to '96, used to be publicly available at the official website of The Gathering. Around 2013 or so, most of that archival material vanished. Fortunately, I had harvested it and have since made it available to select researchers.

There is a misguided effort underway to not use the term "alt-right."  The effort, currently led by the Center for American Progress, claims that using the term somehow helps provide PR cover for racists.  It would be nice, but there is rarely a one word solution for anything. That's why this campaign is a non-starter that will be ignored by almost everyone. This major report on the Alt-Right and its founder, by Sarah Posner in Rolling Stone is a good example of just how ignored this campaign will be.  Sensible discussions of the term are busting out all over.  Slate had a good discussion titled "There's No Better Term for the Alt-Right Than Alt-Right."  Another approach was outlined by scholar Matthew Lyons, (Co author with Chip Berlet of the book Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, which has turned out to be an important scholarly handbook for our time). Lyons writes:

We are moving into a bleak period, when understanding the forces opposing us will be more important than ever. That means exposing supremacist ideologies in all forms and guises, but it also means developing a political vocabulary that lets us make distinctions, rather than treat all enemies as one undifferentiated mass.

In light of the controversy, the Associated Press has updated their Stylebook.  

   

"Our guidance on when and how to use the term "alt-right," including: avoid using it generically and without definition."

 

This is, of course true of all such terms. Never use them generically, and always define them so the reader can understand what the writer actually intends.  This is one of the reasons why at Talk to Action we have sought to avoid labeling and demonization.