News Intelligence Analysis
[Yurica Report Editor's Note: This is a two article page with two John Ward articles: 1) "Left Aims to Smite 'Theocracy' Movement" and 2) "Liberals Gather to Plumb Depths of Christian Right."]
The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
Left
aims to smite 'theocracy' movement
By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published May 1, 2005
NEW YORK -- Secular humanists and leftist activists convened
here over the weekend to strategize how to counter what they
contend is a growing political threat from Christian conservatives.
Understanding and answering the "religious far right"
that propelled President Bush's re-election is key to preventing
a "theocracy" from governing the nation, speakers argued
at a weekend conference.
"The religious right now has an unprecedented influence
on American politics and policy," said Ralph White, co-founder
of the Open Center, a New York City institution focused on holistic
learning. "It is incumbent upon all of us to understand
as precisely as possible its aims, methods, beliefs, theology
and psychology."
The Open Center, founded 21 years ago, played host to the two-day
conference at City College of New York called "Examining
the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right."
People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group that opposes
religion in the public square, co-sponsored the conference, which
drew about 500 participants.
"This may be the darkest time in our history," said
Bob Edgar, general secretary of the left-leaning National Council
of Churches and former six-term Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania.
"The religious right have been systematically working at
this for 40 years. The question is, where is the religious left?"
Speakers outlined such concepts -- others would say conspiracy
theories -- as Christian reconstructionism and dominionism to
a crowd that Mr. White said does "not understand the further
reaches of religion."
Dominionism is the theory that the account in Genesis in which
God gave man dominion over the earth has become a political teaching
advocating that Christians gain and hold power. Christian reconstructionism
is the theory that Christian conservatives intend to impose Old
Testament law in America.
The United States is "not yet a theocracy," Joan Bokaer,
founder of TheocracyWatch.org, said Friday night, but she argued
that "the United States is beginning to fit the model of
a reconstructed America."
Tax cuts combined with increased funding for faith-based social
programs and decreases in welfare spending, Ms. Bokaer said,
were examples of "the theological right ... zealously setting
up to establish their beliefs in all aspects of our society.
She compared the Federal Communications Commission's threatened
crackdown on indecency on television with the Taliban, the repressive
Islamic rulers of Afghanistan who harbored Osama bin Laden's
terrorist network until toppled by a U.S.-led invasion.
"Indecency police are a major part of theocratic states,"
Ms. Bokaer said, flashing a picture of Islamic women covered
head to foot under the title, "Taliban: Ministry for the
Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice."
Such rhetoric turned the volume up on warnings of theocratic
revolution issued by some Democrats opposing Republican efforts
to override their Senate filibusters of Mr. Bush's nominees for
federal judgeships.
Former Vice President Al Gore said in a speech Wednesday that
the move against judicial filibusters is driven by an "aggressive
new strain of right-wing religious zealotry."
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, asked
in a speech April 15 about the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged
Florida woman: "Are we going to live in a theocracy where
the highest powers tell us what to do?"
Sen. Ken Salazar, Colorado Democrat, last week called Focus on
the Family, the Colorado Springs Christian advocacy group, "the
Antichrist of the world." He later apologized and said he
meant to call James Dobson's organization "un-Christian,
meaning self-serving and selfish."
Conferees here shared Mr. Salazar's disapproval of such Christian
activist groups as Focus on the Family and such politicians as
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican. When
Ms. Bokaer showed a slide of Mr. Frist, some in the crowd hissed
loudly. Others, however, said such scorn is not helpful.
"If we are going to ask the Christian right to stop engaging
in demonization, we need to inspect some of our own language,"
Chip Berlet of the human rights watchdog Political Research Associates
said in his talk Friday night.
"I'm uncomfortable when I hear people of sincere religious
faith described as religious political extremists," he said.
"What does that term mean? It's a term of derision that
says we're good and they're bad. There is no content."
Afterward, in an interview, Mr. Berlet added: "The Democrats
do just as much name-calling as the right. It's great for fundraising.
[But] it's a heck of a way of building a social progressive movement."
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News Intelligence Analysis
Liberals gather to plumb depths of Christian right
By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published May 3, 2005
NEW YORK -- The 58-year-old man stepped to the microphone and
spoke like a zealous Christian anxious to learn about carrying
the Gospel to nonbelievers.
"We're trying to understand these people. How do we reach
out to them?" asked Wayne Reagan, 58, a retired Housing
Authority official.
But Mr. Reagan was asking how to evangelize believers, specifically
Christians, with the gospel of secularism.
Mr. Reagan, who is not religious, attended a conference Friday
and Saturday at the City College of New York, called "Examining
the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right." The event was
sponsored by the New York Open Center, a holistic learning center,
and by the People for the American Way Foundation.
Mr. Reagan's question was one example of how liberals are making
unprecedented efforts to understand, and even imitate, Christian
conservatives. Another conference attendee asked a speaker how
to talk to her Christian conservative relatives.
Since the presidential election, Democrats have discussed how
to reach the "values voters," who were one of President
Bush's largest voting blocs.
Some have said more effort is needed to understand the Christian
right. Others, such as the openly homosexual Episcopal Bishop
V. Gene Robinson, say liberals "have to take back [the]
Scriptures" and articulate their own spirituality
The conference on the religious right was conceived six months
ago by Open Center co-founder Ralph White, who heard a discussion
of "dominionism" on a political talk show. He didn't
know the meaning of the word, which refers to the belief -- based
on Genesis 1:26 and other biblical texts -- that Christians should
extend God's sovereignty over the political sphere.
Mr. White denied that the City College conference was "a
liberal attempt to do anything," instead calling it "a
generic attempt ... to educate people about something that is
distant and unknown to many of us."
Some at the conference expressed hostility toward Christian conservatives.
One attendee said during a question-and-answer period that she
thought the Christian conservative movement is the embodiment
of the Antichrist. Joan Bokaer, founder of TheocracyWatch, said
conservative politicians have manipulated Christians to vote
for them since the mid-1960s.
But some speakers addressed complex theological issues.
Chip Berlet talked about eschatology -- theological interpretation
of the "end times" -- and the significant impact those
views have on political involvement
There was much talk about how the Christian right has built a
political machine by keeping its religious beliefs under the
radar and using "stealth" tactics, as Republican strategist
and former Christian Coalition Director Ralph Reed once urged.
Jeffrey Sharlett, who runs a daily report on religion in the
press called the Revealer, said liberals should be in, but not
of, the Christian conservative movement. "Instead of railing
against the Christian right," he said, liberals should be
"going out and talking to them and writing stories about
your experience with them."
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