The Religious Right is as strong as ever. It is one of the most successful political movements in American history, and it is adapting and evolving in order to continue to thrive. The mainstream media seldom realizes this. A recent Reuters article, "U.S. Religious Right remains a force after Falwell's death," by Ed Stoddard, is an exception.
From the article (via Yahoo! UK & Ireland) -
"National-level leadership is less important than it was in the 1970s and 1980s when Falwell headed the Moral Majority because the movement has matured," said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.
"A lot of the focus is at the local community and state legislative level," he told Reuters.
Roughly 60 million Americans consider themselves to be evangelical Christians and they tend to take their religion and related matters more seriously than mainline church goers.
Its influence can be seen in state legislatures in places like Oklahoma, where a law has recently passed to prohibit public funding for most abortions.
In Texas, its legislative agenda has included scuttling pro-gambling bills, while ballot initiatives in several states have banned same-sex marriage -- testimony to the effectiveness of its local activism.
It has also made inroads in the U.S. military, where critics say senior officers are carrying out a campaign to convert peers to evangelical Christianity -- with huge implications for U.S. foreign and defence policy as the United States pursues radical Islam.
"They want to see a spiritually transformed U.S. military with ambassadors for Christ in uniform," said Michael Weinstein, author of "With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military.'
(Cartoon by Bill Sanders--click to enlarge.)
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