





Abortion Trumps Gay Marriage for VVS Christian Right Activists Chip Berlet print page Sun Sep 19, 2010 at 10:06:23 AM EST After months of direct mail and e-mail aimed at mobilizing the Christian Right base to stop gay marriage and block the "gay agenda," attendees at the 2010 Values Voter Summit picked abortion as their most important issue. Gay marriage wasn't in the top five. The take home point? Sometimes social movement participants simply reject the plans of the movement leaders. I suspect that Christian Right leaders will continue to push the antigay agenda, but I should have known that predicting homophobia as the major theme for Christian Right activism leading up to the November election based on what the leaders wanted was foolish. Maybe yes, maybe no. Let's watch what happens. Throughout the event program speakers urged attendees to stop and reverse the political and social victories of gay rights activists, especially gay marriage but also the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the U.S. military. The top issues picked by Christian Right leaders going into the 2010 Values Voter Summit picked which ended today (Sunday, September 19) were listed at the top of the event web page in this order: Protect Marriage

Champion Life

Strengthen the Military

Limit Government

Control Spending

Defend Our Freedoms When the issues were voted on by attendees at the conference, however, this was the lineup: Abortion

Government spending

Repeal of health care

Protection of religious liberty

National security A major theme of the conference was that fiscal and social conservatives must be working together. Here is an intellectual defense of this idea: http://tinyurl.com/socialeconomic. Right-wing bloggers have been touting it. We should read it. Some evangelicals are concerned that getting too deep into the political swamp leads them away from God. To counter this tendency, the Family Research Council has issued a pamphlet titled "Why You Should Be Involved: A Biblical Case for Social and Political Involvement." After listening to many hours of speeches at the Values Voter Summit, my primary impression is that we are now living in a Post-Fact Society. These folks not only live inside conservative information silos, but they accept as factual all sorts of assertions that not only lack logic, but in many cases are demonstrably false. Is there really a threat that judges in the United States plan to start enforcing Sharia Law? Really? I think not. More on the Post-Fact Environment later. Meanwhile check out the book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, by Farhad Manjoo Between now and election day look for the excellent reporting by (listed alphabetically) Peter Montgomery, Sarah Posner, Abby Scher, Adele Stan, Amanda Terkel, and David Weigel, on the Values Voter Summit and the Tea Parties. These are among the thoughtful reporters who covered the conference and have done their homework on this subject. There are other reporters who also have been writing thoughtful articles, but for progressive people of faith, the journalists listed above need our support. Some of these folks have to scramble just to pay their rent. Heads up funders.

p.s. David Weigel is some sort of libertarian, but progressives should read him anyway...his writing is that good. Never think we can't learn from libertarians or even conservatives. p.s. David Weigel is some sort of libertarian, but progressives should read him anyway...his writing is that good. Never think we can't learn from libertarians or even conservatives.



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Abortion Trumps Gay Marriage for VVS Christian Right Activists | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden) comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)







Abortion Trumps Gay Marriage for VVS Christian Right Activists | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden) comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)