Snookered
Reflections on Randall Balmer’s “Bad Faith”. Dr Gary Straub. Meadow@StMatthews. Lent 2023
Before I read Balmer, I blamed abortion on Trump…so imagine the chagrin I’m in! I realize now: race is the culprit. The abortion myth got invented by the Religious Right and propagated as a smoke screen to cover the racial inferno burning across America in the 60’s. WAIT! Please don’t hang up just yet! Here’s a take from Balmer— an All Star American Church History Scholar.
Began as IRS revoked Bob Jones University’s tax-free status over racial discrimination. Seems “we the people” unwittingly continued to pay OUR taxes (+ theirs) to make up for lost revenue from church/non-profit/501c3’s who enjoyed the full benefits of NO tax while also exercising full freedom to discriminate. The law of the land imbues all institutions with the full range of religious freedoms …. but discrimination on Uncle Sam’s dime is not one of those inalienable rights.
Now, watch the jujitsu. Religious Right soft-pedals race while squawking about “restricting our religious freedoms, our constitutional rights!” Astonishingly, once the Almighty is invoked, discriminators cheer: “we’re on Team Jesus!” They wrap the flag around a faux patriotic plea and indignantly march! Full privilege to discriminate is possible —but not while also claiming tax-exemption. Can’t take the cake & eat it too. Double-dipping dumps the burden of a private ideology on an unsuspecting public who silently subsidize discrimination.
HEY! Who is paying Bob Jones to exclude people of color? Jane/John Q Public. Bob Jones bellows about exempt status & files exclusions… yet dines at the public trough, waltzes out the restaurant—stiffing the public— paying not one dime. I got embroiled in this amidst the 70’s Nashville private school kerfuffle. The whole Private Education case always seemed to me just a ‘bubble off plumb.’ Just saying.
50 yrs ago, the Hard Right Strategy selected a topic w/o major objection: abortion! Nobody believes abortion is a grand idea. Most objections cited the mother’s health exception & extreme circumstances like rape and incest. Back then, the matter did not kick up a lot of sand—even for Southern Baptists. Even the evangelical Chicago Declaration ‘agreed to disagree’ without getting all judgy…UNTIL the Political Right climbed into bed with Patriotic Fundies. Billy Graham nailed it: “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious evangelicals/fundamentalists with the political right. The Hard Right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” Good Word, Billy! Move over Machiavelli! This marriage of convenience was certainly a superslick power move!
Meanwhile, whose nose slipped under the camel’s tent? Major right-wing opinion-makers like Weyrich, Norquist, and Vigurie. They shifted the ground of argument from integrated schools to pro-life, and got the celebrity preachers to ‘Amen it!’ Abortion became the grounding sanctity of a evangelical/fundamental subculture and the true test of loyalty.
That odd scraping sound? That’s earth’s tectonic plate of opinion shift from Green v Connally to Roe v Wade. Hardly anyone noticed this ‘switcheroo’ until too late! All Aboard as the anti-abortion train left the station! In the 50’s era, most all major church/political leaders frankly affirmed that abortion was “not ideal,” but not zingy enough to serve as true “cause celebre.”
While the issue initially carried little credible theological weight— suddenly churches felt the pressure to sign up! Then the preachers piled on. There’s a Hebrew word to cover this odd phenomenon: mishegoss—crazy bullgashicta.
When Christian Nationalism gets linked with a rabid pro-life agenda, some serious crazy—making cranks up. So…while Fundy America happily overwhelmed Protestant USA by an 81% evangelical vote block—Mainline Protestants woke up and .simply got snookered! Howl at the moon if you must! Scratch for a new analysis and fresh strategy. When somebody whomps up on you so overwhelmingly, you’re best off to just take your lumps and say your prayers. Then beyond a 30 second stress break: Get Busy!
