Re: christian right

> Saying the Christian Right is no longer a force to be reckoned
with in the
> U.S. is like saying the same thing about consumerism, or
individualism.
>
> Conservative Protestantism is central to the U.S. ideological
formation.

[elson] Again, you conflate the right with the Christian
fundamentalist movement.  And NOT ONCE did I say the Christian
Right in no longer a political force.  To repeat I've stated that
the revolution utterly collapsed.  Nearly all their aims failed:
school prayer, pro-choice, family values (marriage is at an all
time historic low), etc.  If one cannot recgonize the collapse of
the movement, well, then we need not waste time arguing about it.
(more below).

> Specific leaders (ie, Jerry Falwell) and organizations (ie,
Christian
> Coalition) may come and go, but there will be others, make no
mistake.
>
> "Bible-believing" Christians, including self-described
evangelicals and
> fundamentalists, are now as large a proportion of all
Christians in the
> U.S. as the mainstream Protestants.  This proportion has been
steadily
> growing for 30 years.  (Recent research by Michael Hout and
Andy Greeley
> shows that a large part of this is because the bible-believers
have more
> children, but the growth is real, whatever the cause.  The good
news is
> that the rate of conversion of adults may be much less than
previously
> assumed.)
>
> It is wishful thinking to see the recent setbacks of the
organized
> political wing of this movement as some sort of decisive
defeat.
> Marxist predictions of the demise of religion are as faulty as
those of
> terminal capitalist crisis based on the tendency of the rate of
profit to
> fall.
>
> RH

Good God!  You suggest that I equate the failure of MM movement
with the "demise of religion"?  Give me a break.