It's 12:01 am... A new posting day begins
:-)
Ashcroft is Attorney General of the United States and is in the Cabinet. He is a member of an ultra-conservative evangelical denomination, the Assemblies of God. He was a leader of the Christian Right before his appointment. After his appointment, much of the higher level of the Justice Deprtment was replaced with conservative Christian evangelicals and members of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. Christian prayer sessions were instituted, and a statue of justice was draped because it showed a breast. Many policies were changed to reflect the concerns of the Christian Right.
Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition became the head of the Republican Party of Georgia and now is a major Republican Party campaign strategist.
In 2002 a serious study in Campaigns & Elections magazine found that the Christian Right effectively controlled the GOP state political machine in 18 states, and was strong in 26 others.
http://www.4religious-right.info/campaigns_elections_study.htm
A look at the recent platform of the Republican Party of Texas is instructive.
http://www.texasgop.org/library/platform.php
At one point, seven leading Senate Republicans--Bill Frist, TN; Mitch McConnell, KY; Rick Santorum, PA; Bob Bennet, UT; Kay Bailey Hutchison, TX; Jon Kyl, AZ; and George Allen, VA--worked openly and closely with the Christian Right, and received a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition.
On the issues of reproductive rights and gay rights and AIDS prevention the policies of the Christian Right have been repeatedly enacted into law, made part of federal regulations, and enforced in policies and funding patterns.
-Chip Berlet
<http://www.censtrat.com/> -----Original Message----- From: srobin21 at comcast.net [mailto:srobin21 at comcast.net] Sent: Thu 9/16/2004 6:10 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Cc: Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Re: Powerless religious right?
>Or, it is evidence that the Bush Administration knows how to reward its political base ( and the White Christian evangelicals have repaid the favor, by being a loyal part of the Republican electorate), but that is something different from saying that the Christian right is the controlling or a controlling force within the GOP, as is often alleged.. While we know they can do a lot on a local level (like school boards) or even on a state level in some states in the Bible belt, but is there evidence that Christian right activists and leaders themselves hold such power on a national level? It would be easier to answer yes to that question if one could point to some preacher or activist elected to the House or Senate or appointed to the cabinet, which isn't really the case.
>Steve
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> Since conservative White Christian evangelicals have in fact been given
> political payoffs in terms of legislation, regulations, and policies;
> then this is evidence of the political power of the Christian Right--or
> at least evidence that the Republican Party and the Bush administration
> believe the Christian Right has political power.
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>
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