End of the Christian Right? More and more Christian Right operatives and groups are just giving up.

[ck4829]

Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle.

James Dobson, 72, who resigned recently as head of Focus on the Family - one of the largest Christian groups in the country - and once denounced the Harry Potter books as witchcraft, acknowledged the dramatic reverse for the religious Right in a farewell speech to staff.

Despite changing the political agenda for a generation, and helping push the Republicans to the Right, evangelicals have won only minor victories in limiting the availability of abortion. Meanwhile the number of states permitting civil partnerships between homosexuals is rising, and the campaign to restore prayer to schools after 40 years - a decision that helped create the Moral Majority - has got nowhere.

Unease is rising that a nation founded - in the view of evangelicals - purely as a Christian country will soon, like northern Europe, become “post-Christian”.

Recent surveys have suggested that the American religious landscape has shifted significantly. A study by Trinity College in Connecticut found that 11 per cent fewer Americans identify themselves as Christian than 20 years ago. Those stating no religious affiliation or declaring themselves agnostic has risen from 8.2 per cent in 1990 to 15 per cent in 2008.

Despite a common distaste among evangelicals for the new Democratic president, who is regarded as at best a die-hard, pro-abortion liberal and at worst a Marxist, a serious rift is emerging among social conservatives in the wake of his election victory.

A growing legion of disenchanted grassroots believers does not blame liberal opponents for the decline in faith or the failures of the religious Right. Rather, they hold responsible Republicans - particularly Mr Bush - and groups like Focus on the Family that have worked with the party, for courting Christian voters only to betray promises of pursuing the conservative agenda once in office.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5136050/US-religious-Right-concedes-defeat.html

[Taverner]

1. Don't count your assholes until they've farted....

[Stevenmarc]

2. The Hula Hoop is making a comeback, and like any fad so will they.

[54anickel]

10. Isn't that why Warren has been so busy trying to redefine "church" and changing

the focus. Like it's some new revelation to him, "Oh yeah, Jesus said to care for the poor, the widows and orphans"...He just seems so fake. To this day I cannot stand to read or hear the word "purpose" - makes me cringe.

[get the red out]

15. Me too

He started the movement of wearing blue jeans, talking like you might want to pretend to help the poor at some point, and hating right on. We have a cult/mega church in my town like that. They try to take captives where ever they can. They have really gone after recovering addicts and alcoholics, getting hold of them and telling them if they aren't in church every night they will relapse and die.

But they wear blue jeans and play christian rock, so they are COMPLETELY different from any other cult around. :sarcasm:

[anonymous171]

3. Good riddance. That's what happens when you tie yourself to a political movement.

When that movement becomes unpopular, your religion becomes unpopular too.

[polichick]

4. Good, let them notice the "logs in their own eyes" for a change.

[RiverStone]

5. Give it another couple of generations...

And they will be nothing but a fringe group (at least in it's current form). Their archaic, sexist, judgmental bullshit will go the way of the dinosaur.

[BonnieJW]

7. Like the Pilgrims.

You don't see them any more either.

[OHdem10]

6. Setting goals too high usually brings discouragement.

Actually believing they could overturn Roe V Wade. Every sane
politician including GWB and the present Chief Justice of Supreme
Court, always lay out the Caveat---Roe is established law. Only
an insane politician would be willing to tear the country apart
based on such an issue.

Not understanding that most Americans recoil when they hear accusations
that ring of exclusivity and discrimination. Turned off by attitudes
of superiority. While many Americans may agree on the idea that
Marriage is between a man and a woman, they can be totally turned off
by anti-Gay Commentary. The "Shunning" attitudes of some Christians
and Christian Groups give the impression that they have to put others
down in order to make themselves look good. These tactics simply
do not draw people to their cause.

In reality they were more powerful during GWB Administration Reign.
They still hold a lot of sway over members of Congress. If they
had dreams of converting the country, and some did, this was an
impossible dream. Americans are too independent and free-spirtied
by nature to ever fall into line under one religious banner.

[Dulcinea]

8. Maybe this means religious beliefs will become personal again.

I look forward to the day when people's religious beliefs, or lack thereof, are considered their own business & not constantly thrust on the rest of society.

[get the red out]

13. That would be cool!

I can't imagine a utopia like that.

[KansDem]

9. I would have thought David Kuo's book "Tempting Faith" would have been the death knell

...for conservative Christians.

In his book, Kuo wrote that White House staffers would roll their eyes at evangelicals, calling them "nuts" and "goofy."

Asked if that was really the attitude, Kuo tells Stahl, "Oh, absolutely. You name the important Christian leader and I have heard them mocked by serious people in serious places."

Specifically, Kuo says people in the White House political affairs office referred to Pat Robertson as "insane," Jerry Falwell as "ridiculous," and that James Dobson "had to be controlled." And President Bush, he writes, talked about his compassion agenda, but never really fought for it.

"The President of the United States promised he would be the leading lobbying on behalf of the poor. What better lobbyist could anybody get?" Kuo wonders.

CBS

Bush and Rove played the conservative Christians for the chumps they are! :rofl:

[arcadian]

11. They jumped the shark with the "Jesus rode dinosaurs" thing.

[get the red out]

12. I will believe that when

they say women own their own bodies and gay people have equal rights. Those freaks are going to try to rule this country until the last dog dies.

[gratuitous]

14. They just had six years of a clear run

Even got Congress and the President to meddle in the Schiavo Affair. Fondest wishes coming true at last! And yet, when the dust settled and the party was over, they still hadn't outlawed abortion, reinstituted prayer in schools, or any of a dozen other wish list items. A crappy little one-off for the woman whose brain had turned to milk of magnesia, and not even a reach-around.

As Rod Stewart sang to Maggie May, "I know I keep you amused, but I feel I'm being used," the repressive religious right may have finally figured it out. They were being used by politicians who drew near when the faithful's wallets were open and elections loomed, but who vanished like a stipper when your last dollar gets folded into her g-string. Song's over, my time is up. Come back again when you have more money. Until then, buh-bye!

[flakey_foont]

16. buh-bye

[ColbertWatcher]

17. I think they've just created new groups ...

... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5454526&mesg_id=5454526

[vinylsolution]

18. Hmmm... this must be....

... the 'end times' the fundies have been bleating about for so long.

But what a happy ending!

[ohheckyeah]

19. Paul basically told Christians that what went on outside the church

is none of their business:

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:13)

Where they ever got the idea they were to force their beliefs on anyone else is beyond me.

[Soylent Brice]

20. bwahahahaha!

good.