The Christian Right:

A Religiously Grounded Social Movement

Fritz Detwiler

March, 1999

"America! It's ours. We want it back!" These words thundered from the pulpit of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church as its minister D. James Kennedy addressed the attendees at his 1994 Reclaiming America Conference. Kennedy, like a host of other ministers and conservative Christian activists, believes that our society has been taken from the hands of God-fearing Christians by secular humanists. They believe that these God-fearing Christians are the rightful inheritors of the nation's founders and deserve a privileged place in governing and running the nation and its social and cultural institutions. These religiously motivated activists are leaders in what is arguably the most significant social movement in the United States in the last twenty years -- the Christian Right.

Distinctions

The Christian Right is not the only segment of the American society that occupies the conservative corner of the political landscape. They are joined in that territory by three other identifiable clusters that share with the Christian Right an absolutist view of both their legitimating sources of authority and the moral principles derived from those authorities. I identify these groups as Libertarians, Free Market Capitalists, and Constitutionalists. The following table suggests an important set of distinctions in identifying the distinguishing characteristics of each group:

Typology of Conservative Absolutists

Type of Group		Guiding Principle	Source of Authority
Libertarians	Individual rights and freedom		John Stuart Mill, Ayn Rand
Free-Market Capitalists		Economic Determinism	Adam Smith, Milton Friedman
Constitutionalists		Strict Constructionism	United States Constitution
Christian Right		Dominion	Christian Bible

While there exist a great deal of crossover among conservatives identified with each of these groups, ultimately adherents identify different guiding principles and sources of absolute authority. Not included in any of these segments is the large number of conservative Americans who are not absolutistic in the source and application of their basic principles. These persons seek to balance a number of different values and tend to be more pragmatic and compromising in their interactions with others.

Definition

The distinctiveness of each of the conservative camps identified above is the source of their authority. The Christian Right derives its source of authority, as do all Christians, from the Bible. Christian Right leaders, however, interpret the scriptures in the context of a set of five principles. In combination, these five principles separate Christian Right activists from the majority of Christians in the United States.

Biblical Christian Understanding of the nature of Truth

The Christian Origins and Foundations of the United States

A Principle of Dominion in which God Commands them to Take Control of the Culture

A Distinctive Theology of Culture derived from the Writings of Francis Schaeffer

A Distinctive Political Theology derived from the Writings of Rousas John Rushdoony

At the organizational level, the Christian Right consists of a loose network of think tanks, lobbying groups, activist organizations, and legal defense funds. All these groups share, in one way or another, the movement principles listed above.

Divisions

Divisions exist within the Christian Right in terms of the precise implications of the defining principles. The following chart identifies three camps within the movement, the camp's distinctive interpretation of the dominion principle, and a leading figure in that camp.

Typology of Christian Right Camps

Type	Characteristic	Representative Figures
Hard Core	God-Law	RJ Rushdoony
Main Corps	Biblical Principles	James Dobson, Pat Robertson
Soft Core	Political Pragmatism	Ralph Reed

Hard Core Christian Right activists comprise an extremely small segment of the movement. This camp includes Christian Reconstructionists of various types, Christian Identity leaders, and militia and patriot activists. Christian Reconstructionists hold that American culture should be restructured on the basis of literally applied Old Testament law. This would mean, for example, the abolition of the prison system by returning to indentured servitude and an expanded application of the death penalty. God-law is the term RJ Rushdoony uses to describe the Dominion Principle for the Reconstructionist camp. Christian Identity falls further to the right than Christian Reconstructionist. Also known as British Israelism, Christian Identity argues that the true remnant of God's chosen people are to be found in the Anglo-Germanic peoples. The movement identifies true Christianity with Northern and Western Protestant Europeans and Americans. All other people will eventually fall subject to their rule as the Kingdom of God is realized on earth. Although closely related to Neo-Nazi and similar groups, Christian Identity is grounded in explicitly biblical foundations. Militia and patriot Americans tend to combine Biblical and Constitutional literalism. Their approach uses religion to justify extreme anti-statist views.

Main Corps The main corps of the Christian Right is distinguished by the five characteristics listed above. For the most part, they come from a group of religious traditions found within conservative evangelical Protestantism. The largest constituency is born-again Christians or neo-evangelicals. Fundamentalists dominated the movement in its earliest phase in the first quarter of the twentieth-century. They are still a main source of movement supporters. Other groups such as Holiness and Pentecostal denominations provide additional following. The Christian Right also draws from Conservative Calvinists churches including Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Reformed Christians. Roman Catholics and a few Orthodox Jews and Eastern Orthodox Christians complete the main constituency. Many other socially conservative Christians agree with the Christian Right on particular moral or social issues but they depart from the leadership at the point of insisting that the nation's cultural institutions be brought into conformity with biblical principles.

Soft Core Soft Core or pragmatic Christian Rightists represent the branch of the movement that is most willing to enter into strategic and political compromise with the larger culture. Such cooperation may include political liaisons that abandon some movement goals in the pursuit of others. The Soft Core leadership gives more weight to long-term political gains than unachievable short-term battles. While often politically expedient, soft core leaders have run into considerable resistance from the main corps when the leaders have appeared to abandon some core principles in the pursuit of political rather than cultural victories. Soft Core activists appear to be quite comfortable working within the present political system, particularly within the Republican Party. In a related significant development, Don Hodel, brought to the Christian Coalition as President after the resignation of Ralph Reed in 1997, resigned in 1999. News reports circulated by the Washington Times and noted by Focus on the Family attribute the resignation to a disagreement within the Coalition camp in which Hodel criticized the Coalition for placing politics over principles.

According to many scholars who study the Christian Right, the Main Corps of the movement is the most dominant at the present time. These leaders reject political compromise and are pressing the Republican Party to adopt their social and cultural agenda no matter what the ultimate political fall-out will be. Since they are convinced that they are right, they are also convinced that their blueprint provides the best political future for the Republican Party as well. At the left of the movement are those in the Christian Right who either use religion to advance secular ideological agendas or who see movement organizations as a way of increasing their political power and that of the larger conservative movement.

The Five Principles

Biblical Understanding of the Nature of Truth: Biblical Christians view the Bible as inerrant but not necessarily literally true in all respects. The truth contained in the scriptures is absolute and cannot be changed by humans. Its truth is ahistorical meaning that the truth contained in it is not conditioned by the historical or culture context in which it was received. Its meaning also has not changed since God revealed it. Therefore, a person in twentieth-century America can know precisely the same truth as those living in the Holy Lands centuries ago. Truth is also propositional. It is given to humans in declarative statements that are neither to be debated nor altered. In this sense truth is received not discovered. Finally, the Bible provides the categories and standards by which Christians can assess all other truth claims. In its most rigorous application, this extends to the study of history, science, culture, and literature. In its looser application, it refers mainly to the moral and theological claims of the Christian scriptures.

The Christian Origins and Foundations of the United States: This implies that the nation's Founders were Christian both in conviction and intent and that all their efforts should be read in the context of their Christian faith. Since the Founders were Christian and built the nation and its foundational documents on Christian principles, Americans today should return the nation to that foundation. Christianity should be privileged over all other religions legally and culturally.

A Principle of Dominion in which God has commanded them to subdue the earth and have dominion over it: What holds all of these camps within the larger Christian Right is the acceptance of the principle of dominion. At its most basic level, dominion refers both to God's sovereignty over all creation and to the charge God has given to humans to bring the world under God's sovereignty. Two scriptural passages provide the basis for this principle. The first is drawn from the Book of Genesis (Gen. 1:26-28) and the second from the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 28:18-20).

Genesis 1:26-28:

"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
Most mainstream Christians, from the theological right to the left, tend to interpret the dominion principle in the Genesis passage in terms of stewardship. From this perspective, the God commands humans to exercise responsibility for being good stewards of the non- human dimensions of the creation. In Christian Right circles, however, theorists interpret the passage justification for movement efforts to extend dominion to the human sphere. They read the passage as a divine charge to bring every institution and organ of civil society into conformity with God's will. From their perspective, this mandate is not given to humanity in general. It is specifically directed to those whose minds and wills remain faithful to God. Dominion is reserved for those who remain the spiritual and moral heirs of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Matthew 28:18-20

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.'"
The Matthian passage is commonly known to Christians as "the Great Commission." Mainstream Christians tend to interpret this passage in terms of a Christian duty to spread the Gospel through mission work in foreign lands and through evangelism at home. However, Christian Right leaders tend to interpret this passage in political and social terms. From their perspective, the Great Commission directs them to make "Bible-obeying" Christians out of the entire world. While conversion to Christianity still rests with the sovereign will of God, until the world is regenerated all people are free to accept true or false faith. However, since God is sovereign over all creation, this does not free Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, all other people from living in conformity with God's law, particularly in the social, political, and cultural arenas.

4. A Distinctive Theology of Culture Derived from the Writings of Francis A. Schaeffer: Francis Schaeffer arguably is the most important figure of the contemporary Christian Right. Through his work, Schaeffer provides the Christian Right with: a definitive view of history that satisfies its need for truth; the identity of the fundamental enemy against which God has continued to struggle throughout the course of human history; a description of the point at which the enemy is most vulnerable; and a design strategy for the winning attack. In many ways, Schaeffer is the both the philosopher and the architect of the movement. For Schaeffer, the true enemy of Christianity is secular humanism. It is the substitution of a God-centered worldview with a human-centered worldview. Every aspect of Western culture, from art to science, has been infected by this secular humanism and needs to be redeemed. The schools, public and religious, are the key theatres in which this fight for recovery of the culture must be waged. To do that, Schaeffer argued that biblical Christians need to become acutely aware of the precise points of combat with secular humanism. He finds these at the most basic level of our grounding presuppositions about reality, truth, and the human condition. Schaeffer called his method presuppositionalism. To redeem the culture, Christians must push secular humanists to the point at which their worldview, their orientation in the world, no longer protects them from the truth. This may require confronting people directly with the consequences of their choices in order to demonstrate to secular humanists that their worldview can no longer protect them or provide adequate answers to their situation. In the abortion battle, Randall Terry's confrontational strategy of creating obstacles to abortion by creating physical, emotional, and legal roadblocks is a perfect example of this strategy. Terry publicly acknowledges his debt to Schaeffer on this point. Schaeffer's analysis of history, his recognition of the moral character of the battle, and his strategy of presuppositionalism has been central to Christian Right challenges to public education.

5. A Distinctive Political Theology Derived from the Writings of Rousas John Rushdoony: Rousas John Rushdoony is probably unknown to most Christian Right activists at the grassroots level and Christian Right leaders often seek to distance themselves from Rushdoony's vision of a transformed America. Yet, RJ Rushdoony is the most important political theologian in the Christian Right world. Rushdoony's writings not only provide the theological foundation for the movement's criticism of mainstream American culture, they provide the most widely accepted vision of what the structure of society would looks like from a Biblical perspective. Schaeffer and Rushdoony are in complete agreement about the history of Western culture, the demise of a Christian cultural consensus in the West, and the foundational role of secular humanism in bringing about the culture's decline. They also share a commitment to presuppositionalism as a method and strategy for social transformation. Finally, Schaeffer and Rushdoony agree that God is the absolute sovereign over the creation and that society can only function well when people accept that absolute sovereignty and agree to structure their society on the foundation of God's divinely revealed principles and structures for human living. Rushdoony's particular contribution comes in the way he defines the structure that God has divinely ordained for humans. According to Rushdoony, God has divinely ordained four social institutions that together provide the structure for a Christian America. These institutions are the individual, the church, the state, and the family. Many Christian Right leaders only identify three, leaving out the individual. Each of these institutions has complete authority to exercise sovereignty over its "sphere" of responsibility. Society can only function well when each performs its proper functions and does not assume responsibility divinely designated to another institution. The key here is that everyone needs to know what those responsibilities are and to which social institution they are relegated. Schools, for example, are delegated to the family and not to the state. Therefore, the authority that the state wields over the schools is without foundation. The school system must be reformed so that the family, its proper source of legitimacy and authority, can fulfill its divine responsibility. This structure provides the Christian Right with its basis for social criticism in general, and for their challenges to the contemporary American political and educational systems.

Christian Right Leaders and Groups

The leaders of the main corps of the Christian Right transform the theoretical arguments and analysis of Schaeffer and Rushdoony, as well as others, into grassroots activism at the frontlines of the culture war. They also develop political power in order to advance their agenda through the existing political system. Finally, they provide the movement with the legal resources necessary to fight their cause within the legal system at the Constitutional level. I divide these leaders into First and Second Teams based on their influence and the organization power they control.

The First String

Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition

Robertson is generally recognized as the leading figure in the Christian Right. While I believe this assessment is not accurate, he is, nevertheless, one of the most powerful figures in the movement. Robertson controls a number of organizations that put him in an excellent position to influence the larger culture. The Christian Coalition operates as a Christian Right lobbying group as well as an organization designed to mobilize political responses at the grassroots level. The Coalition also prepares legislative policy papers for the United States Congress as well as various state legislatures. The Coalition has chapters in most states, including Michigan. One of the most controversial aspects of the Christian Coalition is their preparation and distribution of "Voters Guides" prior to national elections. These guides compare the candidates on a range of issues that always makes their favored candidate look the more attractive to people who share Robertson's political values. These Voter Guides have come under fire for possibly violating the legal provisions of the Coalition's tax-free status. The executive director of the Coalition Randy Tate is a former United States Congressman and does extensive lobbying in the Republican Party.

Robertson's 700 Club provides him with valuable television exposure. Since he sold the Christian Broadcasting Network he now longer controls access to the airwaves for many Christian Right activists. Robertson's Regent University enrolls only graduate students. It specializes in education, communications, political science, law, and theology. Robertson was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1988. Robertson also controls the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian Right counterpart to the ACLU. Jay Sekulow is the executive director and chief litigator. The ACLJ is active in promoting legal challenges to what Robertson and the ACLJ perceive as attacks on the religious freedoms of Christians. Robertson is also a prolific writer. His books tend toward dispensational fundamentalism and include many conspiratorial arguments similar to those offered by the John Birch Society. Robertson identifies secular humanism as the chief opponent of contemporary Christianity and links it to what Robertson perceives as the moral decline of American culture.

By background, Robertson is a pentecostal. He has been known to lapse into speaking in tongue on his 700 Club television program although those occurrences became much less frequent as the decade of the 1990s passed. He was an ordained Southern Baptist minister but gave up his ordination prior to his failed 1988 run for the presidency. Robertson is also a graduate of Yale Law School and holds a Jurist Doctorate from that school.

James Dobson and Focus on the Family

James Dobson heads the media empire known as Focus on the Family. He is arguably the most powerful figure in the Christian Right. His increasing politicization and movement toward the Reconstructionist end of the Christian Right is one of the most significant factors in the emergence of the main corps of the movement over the soft core faction. Dobson's influence in the movement does not derive from his political activism. Quite the contrary. He is widely revered as the pre-eminent Christian family and parenting counselor in the nation. His homey style and his ability to provide a biblical foundation for solving family problems has allowed him to become, after Billy Graham, the most influential evangelical Christian in the country. For the past decade, Dobson has carefully guided his listeners and readers into the culture war. They now understand the impact that secular humanism has had in destroying or threatening their lives and the need to reestablish the Christian foundation of the American nation.

Focus on the Family does not like to position itself on the front lines. That responsibility falls to the Family Research Council. The FRC conducts extensive lobbying for the Christian Right agenda on Capitol Hill. Until he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, Gary Bauer served as FRC's executive director. In that capacity, Bauer and the FRC have had substantial impact on the Hill. They provide extensive research and position papers in support of particular legislation. They help write the legislation by working with committee members and by providing expert testimony for congressional committees.

Dobson has also launched the Alliance Defense Fund as his legal weapon in fighting the culture war. While the ADF does take on cases in defense of Christian liberties, it also coordinates efforts to identify the most promising cases for advancing the agenda of the Christian Right in the legal system.

In 1998, Dobson was vocal in his criticism of the Republican Party for failing to push the Republican social agenda in the 1998 congressional elections. Dobson's criticism carries enormous weight and his threat to disassociate himself from the Republican Party was not taken lightly by the party leadership. Dobson has been outspoken in his condemnation of contemporary public education, using the arguments framed by Schaeffer and Rushdoony.

The Second String

(yet to be developed)

The Second String of the Christian Right includes organizational leaders who have achieved national acceptance on particular issues or within specific sub-groups of the Christian Right. Each controls a specific organization. None of these organizations or their leaders has achieved the same kind of global influence in the movement either in terms of the range of issues or the breadth of its constituency. These are Phyllis Schlafly and the Eagle Forum; Beverly LaHaye and Concerned Women for America; author and political activist Tim LaHaye; D. James Kennedy and Reclaiming America; and Robert Simonds and NACE/CEE. Others are Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association, Lou Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coalition, and Jeff Bell and Off the People. Still to be mentioned are dozens of other smaller groups, most commonly associated with specific issues.