The Religious Right is not dead, but it is dead wrong.
This is what Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for the organization Americans United, said during a lecture at Bakersfield College Jan. 31 in BC’s Fine Arts 31.
Boston, whose organization advocates the separation of church and state, flew in from Washington, D.C. He authored three books including “Why the Religious Right is Wrong.”
Boston began his lecture by stressing that his organization’s foe, the entity known as the Religious Right, is alive and well, and he cautioned listeners not to regard the Religious Right as “a spent force on the decline.”
“Like Dracula and Godzilla in the movies, it always comes back,” Boston said. “The list of characters will change.but the Religious Right will always be a permanent part of the political scene,” Boston said.
Boston emphasized that the Religious Right often does some good; religious groups have helped the homeless, indigent and alcoholics to name just a few. However, Boston said that his secular group believes the Religious Right should not use tax-payer money to fund religious schools and religious ministries, which might lead to government-imposed religious proselytizing.
One fear of Americans United and other secular groups is that religious organizations use tax dollars to fund job-training programs as well as substance-abuse treatment programs which will lead not only to job discrimination based on religion, but also to the withholding of government-funded social services based on religion. Religious groups should not be allowed access to government funds, nor should religion be draped in the mantle of government authority, Boston said.
“Religion should have a voice; government should not have a religious voice,” Boston said.
According to Boston, Americans United fear the intrusion of the Religious Right upon the current presidential campaign.
Many presidential candidates are trying to win religious voters. Lately, reporters have been asking presidential candidates what their favorite Bible verses are, and the like, instead of asking more pertinent questions concerning the economy and the war in Iraq, Boston said.
The reason why Christian conservatives believe that the Christian church and Christianity should merge with American politics is that the constitution is a Christian document, and that its framers were Christian, said Boston. That belief is wrong, said Boston. The constitution is a secular document, and its framers, most notably Thomas Jefferson, were more products of the Enlightenment period. Jefferson, according to Boston, was a deist, which means that he believed in God, but that he rejected the concepts of divine revelation and miracles, such as the virgin birth and idea of Jesus being God incarnate.
Furthermore, according to Boston, the framers of the constitution did not add the “In God We Trust” typically stamped on coins. The part “In God We Trust” came much later, around the time of the Civil War.
“How could a guy like Jefferson get through the red states?” Boston asked. “A guy like that wouldn’t be elected for any public office these days.”
On a more serious note, however, Boston spoke of the various times in history when the concept of God and Christianity were twisted and abused.
For example, in the early American colonies, non-Protestants and atheists could not hold office. Boston went on to mention that in Nazi Germany, officers sported belt buckles that bore the words, “God with us.” Boston cautioned the audience to be wary of certain supposedly conservative “Christian” politicians such as Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich, “a thrice married, serial adulterer.” Both of these politicians recently lectured on Christian family values.
“They would never impose Christian morality on themselves,” Boston said.