Posted on 04/10/2009 11:32:24 PM PDT by Schnucki
Edited on 04/12/2009 11:03:20 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism.
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.
“We tried to defend the unborn child, the dignity of the family, but it was a holding action,” he said.
“We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”
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.
Though the struggle will go on, the confession of Mr Dobson, who started his ministry from scratch in 1977, came amid growing concern that church attendance in the United States is heading the way of Britain, where no more than ten per cent worship every week.
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
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Has Dobson Thrown In The Towel? Not Quite (FULL AUDIO)
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
From the ashes will rise a new Ronald Reagan..
Excuse me.
McCain lost. McCain is the OPPOSITE of a conservative.
Sheesh. I’m a libertarian, and even I think he’s an arrogant, self-absorbed, egotistical unprincipled leftist sellout.
He lost because he’s just basically, not likable.
It’s got nothing whatsoever, to do with right or left.
Or state vs. individual, for those of the fellow libertarian persuasion. :)
Anyone else, waiting for “maverick” John McCain to start acting like a maverick, just once.
With DEMOCRATS.
Wasn’t Dobson,INC., pulling for Mittens?
What a crock! What is it with all these defeatist, first Newt Gingrich with his third-party crap and now this. Nice little tactic by the rats. Demoralize us. The socialists and communists never win through democratic means, why should we expect this is another attempt to side-step the people. They know damn well we are the overwhelming majority, all we need is a proven leader and all their power is gone.
ping
Heck I was too, at one point.
Sometimes I think a Palin / Romney ticket would be a wildfire which would reignite Reagan Democrats and Reagan Republicans to roll back all this “internationalist” bullcr*p.
They’re both fighters.
If we can figure a way to keep them from destroying each other, they might be unstoppable together. :)
...whatever.
You have to put leather on your prayers, and what I mean is, you have to put faith in motion with your feet...take action.
We are in dire straits in this country, and until we resolve to get physical, then nothing will ever be accomplished. And yes, violence may be in order.
Pray that it's not.
Conceding defeat is unacceptable.
all these battles have not been lost because of the ballot. They have been lost because of activist judges usurping the will of the people. Voiding legitimate, certified elections and votes by the people is unconstitutional.
I disagree with the pretense of the article. We are not defeated. We have to enforce the rule of constitutional law.
When politicians fail to uphold their oath of office to “protect and defend the constitution of the US” we the people have the full right to take matters into our own hands.
The only reason why the battles about abortion and gay marriage have been lost (for now) is because we have let judges make laws and that is not their constitutional job description. Laws can only be made by the legislative branch. When people understand the laws they can find the solutions.
Well, when you have pastors like Rick Warren joining up with the homosexuals..., what do you expect?
“From the ashes will rise a new Ronald Reagan..”
Which has nothing to do with the Christian Right.
We may have suffered some tactical defeats, but the war is His, and we will be with Him for all eternity!
HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!
Mitt, a fighter? On what? What’s been, other than his hoped for forgotten health care boondoggle, Mitt’s signature issue?
Maybe I’m biased, insofar as I’m glancing with some interest northeasterly from Southern California toward a certain more conservative state, should things go south at our workplace.
But this FReeper is of the opinion, the Mormon faith is very much an echo of our Pilgrim ancestors, and the rugged self-sufficiency - and the deeply held faith they represent - are something which can be a very powerful selling point, if properly presented.
And Mitt, for all his faults (undermining Governor Palin at every opportunity, at the top of the list) is successful, and knows how to lead.
I know. And I probably agree with some of what you’re thinking right now.
But he’s not too shabby, as far as candidates go.
What is keeping me from putting a Mitt sticker back on my car, is his campaign by proxy, of subterfuge and sabotage against Governor Palin.
That’s a very serious problem. For the party, for his potential supporters, and for America’s future.
He needs to put an end to that.
Completely.
You said — We may have suffered some tactical defeats, but the war is His, and we will be with Him for all eternity!
—
Unfortunately non-Christian conservatives don’t quite appreciate that kind of thinking... :-)
Will we ever see that “US religious Left concedes defeat” headline?
“We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”
And when you see these things begin to take place “look up for thy redemption draweth nigh” (paraphrased)
Why would we ever be discouraged!
Mel
Well, now Mitt is down from a fighter, to a leader. Other than Mormons, who does Mitt lead, and in what?
(BTW, The Puritans were a pretty whacked out crew, and fairly disliked by almost everyone they came into contact with)
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