Christian Right - Introduction

Christian Right – Introduction

1. What is the Christian Right?
The X Right is a complex coalition of media ministries, political lobbies and missionary groups active in foreign affairs. It is a movement in constant flux but united in an overall goal to take over control over the political and social institutions in the US, and thereafter elsewhere.

2. The Old Christian Right

The main organisations in the Old Right were off-shoots of Carl McIntire’s American Council of Christian Churches established in 1941 to oppose the liberal National Council of Christian Churches, and the International Council of Christian Churches, formed in 1948 to counter the World Council of Churches. McIntire’s glory days are over but on 12 March 1988, he placed a full-page ad in the New York Times headed “A Call from the International Council of Churches to stand by Israel and maintain her rights to the land”.

3. The New Christian Right

The New X Right shifted the rhetorical focus toward the concept of a ‘new society’ under the control of the bible literalists. Sojourners, progressive evangelical magazine, traced the rise of the New Right to the 1974 formation of Third Century Publishers, set up to promote books linking born-again Christians with a right wing political agenda. The initial materials published by Third Century included ‘The Spirit of 76’, a blueprint to win elections and One Nation under God, a manual to swing born-again Christians towards conservative politics.

4. Lausanne Evangelical Conference 1974

The International Conference on World Evangelism, held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 aimed to forge an ideological alternative to the progressive positions taken by the World Council of Churches which has its Geneva headquarters just 40 miles away. [West always alarmed when the Third World is empowered.] More than 4000 evangelicals gathered from 150 countries. Billy Graham and his associates raised $3.3m to cover the travel expenses for 1000 Third World participants. The Conference was considered a landmark event in 20^th century Protestantism. It sought to counter the influence both of the WCC and Marxism in aligning with Third World masses exploited first under colonialism and now under capitalism.

At the opening address, Graham admitted he had been too close to a particular political system – he had been widely criticised for his friendship with President Nixon through the Vietnam and Watergate years. The conference inspired many other conferences but its influence was limited to evangelical circles.

5. 1976: evangelicals gain momentum

A major factor that led to the growth of the X Right was religious broadcasting. This is turn helped with an evangelical revival. Pollster George Gallup Jr, himself born-again, proclaimed 1976 the ‘Year of the Evangelical’ following his survey that 50 m adult Americans had a born-again experience.

That included California Governor Ronald Reagan. The 1976 presidential campaign was the first time since JF Kennedy’s 1960 race that a candidate’s religious orientation became a key issue. On the Republican side, both Gerald Ford and Reagan claimed to be evangelical believers. But the evangelical vote went largely to Jimmy Carter who became President.

6. Role of Missionaries

Missionary work has always been a political project. The European conquest of Latin America and Africa could not have been accomplished without missionaries prepared to legitimise and soothe the pain and theft of colonialism, as well as transmit sensitive local information.

Missionary work helped to organise social movements and development programs favourable to US priorities. Today’s missionaries hold degrees in foreign languages, agriculture, law & business admin. While the thrust is still evangelistic, the increasing focus is on humanitarian work in competition with older progressive groups.

In 1975, Christianity Today estimated that 10-25% of US based missionaries (Protestant & Christian) had passed info to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The CIA wanted to know the internal politics of remote Third World regions, and details about indigenous religious and political leaders.

In 1976, the CIA (under George Bush Sr) said it would no longer recruit missionaries for info but would listen if they volunteered info.

7. US Relief Agencies

World Vision, the largest evangelical relief and development agency, was started in 1950. It has organised hundreds of millions of relief projects in 80 countries, the largest being in Africa. Its 1987 budget was $145m, with more than 20% coming from US AID (an arm of the State Dept). Together with food distribution and ‘leadership training’, World Vision has gathered intelligence for the US govt, including field data for the CIA in Vietnam.

Operation Blessing was started in 1978 by Pat Robertson as a relief arm of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). It has been active in the Philippines, Ethiopia, Sudan, Lebanon and Central America.

Food for the Hungry (FFH) is Arizona based and moderately evangelical. It receives grants from US AID and Israel. It has supplied grain to Ethiopia and in 1987 renewed its interest in Vietnam.

8. Explaining poverty

FFH explained its position in Darrow Miller’s paper in 1988: “Underdevelopment, hunger and poverty has its roots in the minds and hearts of individuals and the moral ideals of cultures…” Miller argued that to guard against human evil, societies must employ something like the US version of democracy and capitalism. [No mention of US military interventions, genocides, land grab etc] Africans are poor because of their belief systems. Therefore to counter poverty, it becomes acceptable to attack other cultures as dysfunctional.

9. Support for RENAMO, Mozambique

X Right support for the Mozambican S-African terror group RENAMO dates back to 1986. The State Dept reported that RENAMO had killed 100,000 civilians in order to turn them against the elected socialist government. During on raid, RENAMO massacred 380 people. It also planted thousands of landmines on roads used by Moz civilians and soldiers. Though the State Dept voiced its disapproval, rightwing senators like Jesse Helms and Robert Dole continued their support for the murderous ‘freedom fighters’.

Among X Right supporters was Ian Grey, an Australian ‘missionary’ (sentence to 10 years by the Moz govt) and Jimmy Swaggart ministries (charged with aiding churches in RENAMO areas).

The Christian Right support for right wing groups in Central America will appear elsewhere.

Reference:
1. Spiritual Warfare by Sara Diamond (Pluto Press 1989)