COLUMN: Republicans and the religious right: Why they make much stranger bedfellows than you might think

By Jack McMillin

The revelations surrounding Pastor Ted Haggard, founder of the New Life Church and star of “Jesus Camp,” again show us the hypocrisy of the religious right. I’ll spare you the introduction, but Haggard built his church and his career out of the demonization of others. According to the article “Soldiers of Christ” from Harper’s magazine, Haggard “sent teams to pray in front of homes of supposed witches.” The result of this action was that “in one month, ten of the fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market.”

There is a lot of hope among the left that the Haggard scandal will expose to those that weren’t aware the hypocrisy of the religious right and set it on the decline. But Haggard’s scandal won’t do this. The Republican Party bounced back pretty well after Nixon and Watergate, because, despite the loss of one figure of the movement, conservatives were still around. Furthermore, actual events won’t likely have a long-term effect on those who have dedicated themselves to a literal interpretation of the Bible. What’s one more scandal, especially to someone who has been able to ignore those involving Jim Bakker, Benny Hinn, Kent Hovind, Peter Popoff, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Robert Tilton, or Jim Whittington?

While the Haggard scandal may have temporarily turned voters away from the Republican Party and contributed to midterm gains for the Democratic Party, one man’s hypocrisy isn’t going to break the evangelical political machine. I do have faith, however, that other factors may temper the advantage Republicans hold over the evangelical vote over the long term.

One of these factors is the increasing awareness that the Republican Party, especially the current administration, doesn’t take the fundamentalists seriously. Republicans have been in charge of all three branches of government for six years, and (thankfully) Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land.

The promise that abortion will be banned is a carrot on a stick – if Republicans actually did it, there would be a massive backlash from moderates that would sweep many more Republicans out of power. This is not to say the Republican Party isn’t actively involved in fighting reproductive and civil rights – look at the fight over getting the morning-after pill available over the counter and the state amendments banning gay marriage – but they won’t go so far as to overturn Roe v. Wade. What would they do without it?

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The idea that Republican leaders are dishonestly manipulating religious conservatives isn’t just something I believe in because it makes me feel good; it’s documented. Just take a look at the good book. And by “the good book,” I mean David Kuo’s new book “Tempting Faith.” Kuo, who worked in the White House as Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, writes that the office of Karl Rove described evangelical leaders as “the nuts.” He also says that “National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and ‘just plain goofy.'” It’s obvious that those in charge of the Republican Party don’t care much for them aside for the votes they provide.

The Republican Party is a coalition of three groups that don’t really have that much in common other than the fact that they enjoy being in power. There is the social and religious conservative group, the economic conservative “drown the government in a bathtub” group, and the imperialistic neoconservative “invade Iraq” group. Ted Haggard’s church, with its bizarre ideals of “free-market Christianity” (which you can read more about in the Harper’s article), represents a mix of all three, but there are many in the party who don’t agree with everything it stands for. The same religion that makes “values voters” anti-choice also calls them to focus on alleviating poverty and protecting the environment, which are two strong points for the Democratic Party.