Religious Right losing influence in U.S. politics?

[B. de Corbin]

Those of us who have been watching American politics for a while have been pretty concerned with the growing power and influence the religious right has exerted in our politics since the 80's, turning folks like Billy Graham into political forces to be reckoned with.

Here's an interesting article from CNN's Belief Blog analyzing the results of the election. The author arrives at the conclusion that - at long last - this phase of our politics might be passing - a thing for which many of us will be breathing a sigh of relief...

[Caelia]

Re: Religious Right losing influence in U.S. politics?

It seems to sort of wax and wane at periods (does anyone remember Pat Robertson's run?) I've noticed. This seems to be one of those waning periods. I would like for the Christian Right to wane for good, but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: Religious Right losing influence in U.S. politics?

It may or may not be. There are still people using an argument like "this man is this religion so I am not voting for him" even if the statement is not true, this crap is still influencing people. It is an ignorant argument in very many cases, but we can refer to the "and I'm a mormon" set of commercials for info here, because it was decided that people did'nt understand what a mormon was, or what it meant, ahd it was feared that this would negatively impact a specific candidates chances for winning... (ya know cause we don't know who I'm talking about.) I just don't feel like religion belongs in politics. not because I don't like religion because I don't personally give a crap what your religion is, but if you subscribe that all people need to follow your religious doctrines, which are established by a suppressed old man in siberia, then I start to care, and make other choices. I think voting for someone because a pastor or something tells you to is massively unfair, to any religious minority. I would love to see this mentality gone, is it leaving, I don't know.

[Ophidia]

Re: Religious Right losing influence in U.S. politics?

I don't think it's a religious issue. I think, more & more, people are starting to feel that the one is greater than the many. Individuals are getting tired of being told that they aren't important as an individual, and this trend is only going to get stronger as this generations of indigo children and 'gifted and talented' kids become old enough to become politicians themselves.

When Romney first started his campaign, I looked at him and thought to myself, "mostly harmless". I didn't think he was going to run out and start any more wars, I figured he'd be bad for the environment because loosening EPA controls helps big business, but I didn't (and I still don't) think he's a whack-job. He wasn't up there talking about bringing the Constitution more in line with the Bible (like Huckabee), he wasn't setting off any alarm bells. Nevada's got a sizable Mormon population, I know a lot of Mormons, and even though I feel the religion is bad for women, it's not generally extremist. Romney didn't seem too concerned with turning America Mormon.

But it seemed like since Romney was a 'fringe Christian', all these actual whack-jobs started tacking themselves onto him. The guys talking about legitimate rape, the Biblical Constitution supporters, the rabid pro-lifers, people who feel the best way to improve the economy is for women to get back into the kitchen & leave jobs for men... and that vocal minority of loonies made everyone take a step back & say, "Hey, I don't want these guys in office deciding what's best for me, let alone the country".