Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Segregation and Conservative Christians
"As someone who grew up in Mississippi and Alabama during the civil rights movement, ... [all ellipses in original, RSR] my reading is that the conservative Christian movement never was able to distinguish itself from the segregationist movement, and that is one of the reasons I find so much of the rhetoric familiar -- and unsettling," evangelical theologian Charles Marsh tells Robin Reid at Politico.
Now compare that to all the nonsense about Darwin, evolution, and the Nazis coming from a certain well-known Christian right outpost in Seattle.
By the end of the civil rights movement, the way was set for this marriage of the Republican Party and conservative Christians. … At the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi in 1980, (Ronald) Reagan's statement "I am for states' rights" was a remarkable moment in the conservative South. The Southern way of life was affirmed and then deftly grafted into national conservative politics.
White political elites are very good at using the language of faith. The preachers use it to communicate to thousands of parishioners who truly believe that, to be Christian, one must be part of a certain party.
Now compare that to all the nonsense about Darwin, evolution, and the Nazis coming from a certain well-known Christian right outpost in Seattle.
