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Originally Posted by Zerbie
I don't find this realistic at all. There has been a religious right in America for generations, and from time to time they take influence over some facet of culture, leading to bizarrities like Prohibition (and all the clandestine bars Prohibition spawned) and the Hollywood Morality Code, which, among other things, suggests that all married couples sleep in twin beds across the room from each other.
They are not likely to just go away. We need to stop letting them dictate how our government does things.
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What part of the report do you find unconvincing? Is there a flaw in their demographic analysis?
In fact, in recent history there has been a politically relevant religious right only since the late 1970's. During the 30s, 40's 50's and 60's (when I was growing up) it was the moderate protestant denominations that held all the political strings. The first sign that that was loosening was the election of Catholic JFK in 1960. In the 70's and 80's the conservative catholics began to make common cause with right-wing evangelicals around moral issues such as gay rights and abortion. This is when the moral majority began to control the political situation for the first time. Prior to that, the conservative evangelical right was a lower class movement with very little influence.
The Temperance movement that finally resulted in the success of prohibition was basically a movement of middle class educated white women. While these women were Christians they were not fundamentalists. They were, by and large, the same women who were driving the first wave of feminism, women's suffrage, the abolition movement, and the movement to legalize contraception. Prohibition was first and foremost an attempt to reduce domestic violence and spousal abandonment.
Prohibition turned out to be a really really bad idea, but it wasn't a fundamentalist plot.
The moral landscape of this country has been changing at a phenominal rate over the last century and its showing no sign of changing now. I think the Christian rights ruling coalition is fracturing and this report makes a credible case that changing demographics in the next two decades will accelerate that process.
Nice to see you back BTW!!
