The GOP is Being Pulled Too Far From the Center, Pt. 2

 By JIM PURCELL

A fact can only be a fact. 

   There is such a thing as singular truth and editing such a truth will inevitably turn the result into a lie. Yet, there are things that are subjective (as science has yet to provide us with answers that would make opinions unnecessary). I am talking about the great subject that redefined the Republican Party beginning in the 1980s: the right of a woman to get an abortion.

   At what point is a life a life with all the rights and protections any person is entitled to have? At what point does a fetus become a person? This is the great social and medical argument that opened the gates for change in the GOP. Well, it was that and a lot of money the Religious Right put together. Still, all the money in the world cannot make a cogent argument; such a thing is needed for any issue to become a platform issue for any political party (at least in the United States). The Religious Right had both money and an issue that could not be disproved by any opposition, be that opposition political or scientific. 

   Roe v. Wade was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that abotion law was based upon. The 1973 decision by the justices was to  "...[to protect] a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction." This issue became the battering ram that Conservative Christians used to force their way into a mainstream political party. 

   I do not believe there is a side in this fight that is either entirely right or wrong. I do not espouse one side dramatically over the other. I would feel uncomfortable, as a man, attempting to legislate a woman's body and what she can or cannot do with it. Similarly, I believe in the inalienable rights for persons to have laws that protect them from undo harm. And, scientifically and morally, no one has yet definitively defined the moment the eternal spark becomes flesh and blood, resulting in a human baby with what myself and my fellow Christians believe is a soul of its own. It may well be that such a finding is impossible to discern, and the moment life is given to so much genetic matter cannot be adequately answered ever. 

   This essay is not intended to attempt to persuade anyone about how to believe in this matter, one way or the other. However, I do believe that this SCOTUS decision led to the creation of the Religious Right, and that this Religious Right found a home in the Republican Party because of this issue. Anti-Abotion supporters then made their way from the orbit of the GOP to the center of it over the ensuing years. It took time: years. It took money: billions of dollars. It took demonstrating the ability to win. But when Republicans started winning with the blessing of the Religious Right then it lent credibility to the argument of the Religious Right. And, after that credibility within the GOP was established, it gave the Religious Right a seat at the proverbial table within the Republican Party. 

   I remember the birth of the Religious Right because I was among those first people that mailed in their money to the then-newly minted Moral Majority, in 1979, and paid for my paper membership card. Following that, I received the appeals every other month for more money. Of course, I was 13 years old at the time and the money I used to send them was my allowance from my parents. Nevertheless, their mailers were unmistakable about their goals...to lobby for anti-abortion and Christian principles in American Government. In my own defense, I saw things very simply...loving God's principles was good and so that meant helping people who wanted to promote those things was also good. Of course, I was wrong. 

The Rise of the Religious Right   

There are people who will say that the creation of the Moral Majority was not the beginning of the Religious Right. However, I will respectfully disagree with them. 

Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. 

The story of the Moral Majority begins with the story of its founder and guiding force, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. 

Before he created the Moral Majority, Falwell Sr. was pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a fundamentalist megachurch, in Lynchburg, Virginia. In addition, he was a televangelist of some reknown. 

During the 1970s Falwell and other televangelists had created a new brand of retail religiosity for their viewers that, essentially, sold what amounted to spiritual salvation for contributions to their ministries. This practice was and is far removed from Christ-centered, traditional religious practices. However, using state-of-the-art media practices of the day these televangelists were and are successfully able to amass large fortunes for their ministries and themselves by employing such strategies with their audiences. 

   

   It was Falwell Sr., though, who most aggressively used his ministry's wealth to become politically active, most notably in the presidential election season of 1979 with then-candidate, former California Governor Ronald Reagan. 

   There had been an unspoken maxim in national politics that church and state would remain separate. In fact, this concept was and is at the heart of the American republic. Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson was the first to give words to this function of the republic. What the Religious Right did, by forcing its agenda through first candidate Ronald Reagan and then President Ronald Reagan was shatter this pillar upon which the republic rested. 

   At first it was one issue: abortion rights. This was the singular issue that grabbed the attention of the American public because it was an issue of merit. No scientist, credible philosopher, doctor or academic could then nor now identify that moment when life begins. Until this day, anyone speaking on this matter arrives at a decision about when life begins through a subjective process. With this being the case, anyone could make an effective argument that life began from the moment of conception through the moment of birth with the same force of argument. 

   Entering into a formal alliance with this new Religious Right did not come without its perils for Reagan. Should he win in November, he would be stuck with this new crowd of "Christians" throughout the balance of his public life. However, he was in a contest with a sitting president, Jimmy Carter, and all of the advantages that come with an incumbent president on the Campaign Trail. Reagan needed something 'more' to be able to overcome Carter's advantages and, though it was a gamble, perhaps these well-meaning group of unconventional Christians might be that silver bullet that Reagan needed to bring his campaign through to victory. 

(Jim Purcell is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary, where he earned his Master's of Proessional Studies. He is also a retired journalist, who worked in the field for two decades. He currently resides in Western North Carolina with his wife.)