Emergence of Religious Rights

Introduction

Composed of groups of theologically and socially conservative Americans, the Religious Right, which first emerged during the 1920s, is an influential force in politics in the United States today. The roots are found primarily within the most politically active segments of the American fundamentalist (see fundamentalism) movement. Some fundamentalists have fought not only against the theological liberalism of mainline Protestant churches, but also against evils they see threatening America's moral and spiritual heritage, most notably atheistic communism, secular humanism, and the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Discussion

Fundamentalist preacher Gerald B. Winrod was one of the earliest figures of the Religious Right. He founded the Defenders of the Christian Faith in 1925 to oppose the teaching of evolution and used his organization's journal, The Defender Magazine, to bring his political message to thousands of American Protestant households. A believer in the imminent return of Jesus Christ, Winrod studied prophetic themes in the Bible and pondered the place of the Jewish people in God's plans. Increasingly anti-Semitic, he concluded that a Jewish conspiracy lay behind many world events, and he blamed the Jews for World War I, Bolshevism, and the Great Depression. Winrod became involved in American politics when he supported Prohibition and opposed the presidential candidacies of Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He later charged that Roosevelt's New Deal was part of the Jewish conspiracy (Suarez, p. 66-71).

Gerald L. K. Smith, a Disciples of Christ minister, was a major figure of the Religious Right in the 1940s and 1950s. As the pastor of a church in Shreveport, Louisiana, Smith established a reputation for social reform and became one of the chief advisers of Louisiana's populist governor Huey Long. He delivered a memorable eulogy after Long's assassination in 1935. After World War II, Smith transferred his base to Michigan, where he organized the Christian Nationalist Crusade. Arguing that Christian character is the basis of all "real Americanism," Smith developed a political program that included segregationist, anticommunist, and anti-Semitic ideas. His magazine The Cross and the Flag insisted that "the Jews, the pagans and the Communists realize that they cannot capture America … as long as we remain a Christian nation."

Not solely the preserve of Protestant fundamentalists, the so-called Old Christian Right also included Roman Catholic priest Charles E. Coughlin. One of the earliest preachers to exploit the potential of the electronic media, Coughlin began a highly effective radio ministry in 1926. By 1930, he had turned from discussing religious topics to promoting political causes. Credited with aiding the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1932, Coughlin turned against him as the 1930s progressed. His preaching became so pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic that he was eventually forced off the air by church authorities in 1942 (Ribuffo, p.45).

Carl McIntire, who had founded the Bible Presbyterian Church in 1939 and bitterly opposed liberal trends in American Protestant theology, emerged as a leading clerical opponent of communism in the 1950s. Through his daily radio broadcast, the Twentieth-Century Reformation Hour, and through the ...