The Un-American Christian Right

The agenda of the American Christian right defies what this nation was founded on, and violates all proper logic in the electoral system. The basic values of the christian right consist of pro-life stances in all possible areas, teaching “family values” in public schools, and imposing Christianity into our political process.

Now the latter two mentioned are what I am referring to when I say it defies what our country was founded on and is at best unconstitutional. Teaching “family values,” in other words, means teacher led prayer in our schools, and for some, using the 10 Commandments as the source of morality in our schools and courtrooms. This can also fall under the imposition of Christianity in our political process. The reason that these ideas are un-American is simply because of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. Any type of teacher led prayer or postings of the Commandments is directly recognizing a religion of the state, something that is explicitly spoke against in this amendment. Prayer is a religious action, not an intellectual or educational one. My other problem with the 10 Commandments being posted in classrooms, courtrooms, or any government run or funded program, is that the first three of them have absolutely nothing to do with morality. They are religious “rules” and stand for no human decency or morality, simply a law of “God.” So why even bother with posting these when some of them don’t even stand for something right and true?

Now we come to the pro-life stances. The top 3 categories that a pro-life stance can be applied to are abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment. Now it doesn’t take someone of the Christian right to have these stances, and I am not even saying that the stances themselves are wrong, I am simply refuting the motives behind why these particular Christian activists hold these views. As a child of the Catholic school system, I had this drilled into my head time and time again; “Pro-life in all areas is the only Christian way to think.” I am perfectly aware that not all Christians are pro-life in all areas, but this particular teacher felt this way. When it comes to abortion, the stance is that all life is sacred, no matter how small. I will ignore the unscientific nature of this statement, and the contradictions within the church on this, but what I cannot ignore is that this is a stance rooted in religion. What I mean is that the thinking goes: “God created life, an unborn baby is life, therefore the unborn baby is sacred and cannot be aborted.” I will also not get into the fallacies of this type of thinking, but just see that it is rooted in the idea of God. This goes for all of these pro-life stances, and the problem then is that members of these evangelical Christian groups do not even think critically about the issue, simply take their stance because it is that of the “religious side.” However, I am aware that not all Christians are like this, and I am also aware that many pro-life people actually came to their conclusions through critical thought and not through a religious agenda.

A final issue that I feel the Christian right causes the most harm on is gay marriage, and the initial rejection of any member of the LGBT community. Almost any person who is against gay marriage, or a civil union of any kind, will say that they have “religious problems” with the issue. This means that because of their religion and what they have been taught through it, they feel it necessary to reject on an entire community of people, an outcast them from any type of fair and equal treatment. This could mean simply calling it “marriage” instead of a civil union, or even recognizing their partnership through the state for tax benefits. All of this discrimination is purely on the grounds of religious beliefs, and this is one of the many reasons why religion can be bad not only for society, but especially for our political process.

If you do not want to take my word on any of the claims I have made about the Christian right, simply go look up statements by Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, two of the influences for the Christian right, and you will find an abundance of awful and flat out evil slandering. Finally, I would like to address the notion that we are a Christian nation and that is what this nation was founded on. On the contrary, were founded on a secular democracy for a reason. Some of our founding fathers were Christian, some were deists, namely Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, but they all found common ground in the fact that religion and government should be completely separate, and that is why the Constitution was written the way it was. So our nation was founded on a secular government and a democratic process, and that is why the Christian right agenda defies everything this wonderful nation stands for and was built on.