#1
Challenging the Christian Right The Activist's Handbook

There were originally posted at
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
as Msg #1732

Challenging the Christian Right
The Activist's Handbook
Frederick Clarkson & Skipp Porteous

To go along with the "What others are doing" thread I am offering some
posts from the above workbook.
The workbook is dated a bit since it was published in the 90s but
there would still be worthwhile things in it that I can post that
might trigger some discussions and give others ideas for things they
might do in their own particular areas, as well as give us ideas for
things to try in this area.
**********************************
Just some brief comments for my first entry in this series
This ie excerpted from a San Francisco Crronical Article Dated MAY 12,
1992 found in The Activist's Handbook page 35
***********************************
Christian Right's New Political Push

By Don Lattin
[San Francisco] Chronicle Religion Writer

Four years after televangelist Pat Robertson's failed run for the
presidency, the Christian Right has refocused its political sights,
running "stealth candidates" for a myriad of local races, from school
boards to state assemblies.

Robertson is no longer seeking the White House, but the political
action arm of his charismatic Christian movement is more active than
ever in state politics. His organization in California, the Christian
Coalition of California, has 52 chapters and 10,000 members working to
elect anti-abortion, anti-gay rights candidates from San Diego to Eureka.

"We need a return to wholesomeness in this country," said Sara
Hardman, state director of the coalition.

Robertson's troops are not alone. Conservative evangelicals across the
theological spectrum - fundamentalists, Pentecostals,
reconstructionists - are putting their religious differences aside and
launching a grass-roots political crusade to transform what they see
as a "godless," immoral society.

"This is a God-inspired movement; there's nothing the liberals can do
to stop it," said Jay Grimstead, founder ofthe Sunnyvale's Coalition
on Revival and the California Activists Network, two theological and
political wings ofthe Christian Right.

"Our ranks are a bit thin now, but by 1996, we really will be
something for the liberals to fear," said Grimstead, who is running
for a Republican Central Committee seat in Santa Clara County.

Their crusade is sounding alarms among liberals and other political
opponents, who say the evangelicals' real agenda is a repressive
Christian theocracy.

Throughout California, Christian Right leaders and their liberal
watch-dogs are talking about the "San Diego model," a 1990 campaign
strat-egy that ran a secretive slate of about 90 candidates for school
boards, city councils, even irrigation districts.Chronicle Religion Writer

Sixty of those candidates were elected, many of whom played down their
religious agenda, shunned established "candidate night" forums and
focused their campaigns on registering members of fundamentalist and
Pentecostal churches and making sure that they voted.

"They hid their agenda and took advantage of voter apathy and the
anti-incumbency mood," said Kathy Frasca, a founder of the Mainstream
Voter Project in San Diego, a watchdog group organized in response to
the new campaign. "They have taken over most of the Republican Central
Committees in California."

I selected the above for two reasons:
(1) The tactics described above are still very much in use by the
radical religious right. They are so stealth anymore, otherwise the
tactics are pretty much the same.

(2) "Robertson's troops are not alone. Conservative evangelicals
across the theological spectrum - fundamentalists, Pentecostals,
reconstructionists - are putting their religious differences aside . .
. "

The secoind reason might be more important than the frist, especially
in light of some recents posts and arguments that have taken place in
this very forum.

"Conservative evangelicals across the theological spectrum -
fundamentalists, Pentecostals, reconstructionists - are putting their
religious differences aside . . . "

There is a VERY IMPORTANT lesson there and gives the formula for success.

A very famous man once said this or something very much like it: A
house divided cannot stand.
The radical religious right paid attention to that.


**************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]

HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]

For people in Hampton Roads you are also invited to join

NORFOLK/VA. B. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE MEETUP GROUP
http://churchandstate.meetup.com/47/

Virginia Chapter Americans United for Separation of Church and State
http://au-va.org/

***************************************************************

. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why

page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.

256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .

****************************************************************

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

"Dedicated to combatting 'history by sound bite'."

Now including a re-publication of Tom Peters
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE HOME PAGE
and
Audio links to Supreme Court oral arguments and
Speech by civil rights/constitutional lawyer and others.

This site is a member of the following web rings:

Freethought Ring--&--Freethought, Religion & Beliefs Ring

The First Amendment Ring--&--The Church-State Ring

American History WebRing--&--The History Ring

Let Freedom Ring--&--Religious Freedom Ring

Law Issues Ring--&--Legal Research Ring

****************************************************************