The truth of humanity, is that people can only be governed (controlled) to the extent they allow.

Plenty of RR go home to close their blinds, drive long distances or travel to "let off steam", live double lives in their communities at the risk of being shamed or forced out of their churches.  Americans are not going to live in shadows, our spirit and human will is too strong.  People will flock to other churches when they finally understand that they are trapped.  My ancestors and family members have left churches when they got to nosy, and many left the Southern Baptist Convention when they started that thing about women submitting.  They recruit new people, some fade away, they go too far, and people push back or it falls apart from within.  It all looks like roses when they have the deck stacked, but the Church is essentially prone to human falibility, and we all know how that ends up, just ask Foley, Abrahmoff, Bishop Law, and Tammy Faye Baker.

by lilorphant on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 11:27:25 PM EST

;-)

reading Kingdom Come (and other sources), I get a sense that the religious right is composed of concentric circles of supporters.  on the inside are the folks deeply committed to the notion of America as a Christian nation, and on the outside are the folks who stroll into evangelical mega churches because that's where the community is in their neighborhood.  based on that, i would guess that the best way to shrink the christian right is to try and siphon off those people in the outermost circles, by providing them an alternative, progressive religious community.

i'd like to hear what your thoughts are along those lines, whether that's a useful line of thinking or if it's totally off-base.

by PlantingLiberally on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 11:46:51 PM EST

Great series from Orcinus. Thanks!

by anomalous4 on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 02:04:48 PM EST

Saying that the Christian right is somehow "over" seems nonsensical to me - as nonesensical as declaring that "the left" or any major societal and cultural grouping ( depending on how one sliced things up ) was somehow "over".

But - in reality - without a decline in underlying ideologies all that happens is that individual organizational centers ( the Christian coalition, whatever ) rise and fall. But, there are so many smaller organizations that generally move under the public radar and that really constitute - I'd say - the real strength of the movement, the big national organizations can function as a distraction because casual observers, witnessing the collapse of one or more big national Christian right groups,give such events probably far more importance than warranted.

Meanwhile - I suppose the Christian right ideology could be waning but I haven't seen much evidence of that so far.

by Bruce Wilson on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:29:17 PM EST