Frank Schaeffer: Far Right Evangelicals And The Campaign Against Obama

Here's the thing: the C Street gang and their backers represent only a fraction of the threat to American democracy that right wing Evangelicalism as a whole poses. Far right Evangelicals don't see America as just another country, but as a battleground and springboard for world conquest in the name of Christ. In that the Evangelical left and right agree: from Wallis to Dobson they all believe that God is on their side — they may differ on precise issues but they all believe in some form of American exceptionalism.

The reason for this is that intellectually lazy political players — of the kind who lead the Evangelical movement — crave power, or to be close to power, just like the people who run C Street. These are the same folks who have been putting together the so-called National Prayer Breakfast; they are the "professional Christian" hangers on running around Washington DC putting together Bible studies and all the rest.

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How to deal with this? A few thoughts:

First, all religious organizations should to be taxed in exactly the same way as any other businesses or individual; second, full disclosure of candidates' (and elected members of government, as well as government employees) connections with religious organizations of any kind need to be made, along with financial disclosures subject to exactly the same kind of tough investigation that candidates' tax returns and other financial dealings are subject to. And last, links among dozens of Evangelical organizations and The Fellowship Foundation, (or The Family or whatever you want to call it) should be made clear. (There are actually many people on the Evangelical "left" who are tied to these groups.)

Above all ordinary Americans — and especially religious people who seek faith rather than power — need to understand that the Evangelical right is basically unpatriotic and anti-American. They feel alienated from the diverse, pluralistic country that America has become and are working to undermine it both here and abroad. They resent the system that allowed Obama to succeed; and they worship what they believe is "God-given" free-market capitalism.

In effect, the radical right movement in America, having failed at the ballot box to find a successor to their boy in the White House, George W. Bush, is regrouping in the Senate and Congress and working hard to undo the Obama presidency.

The sooner Americans wake up to the fact that what Jeff Sharlet describes in his book is only the tip of the iceberg the better. The right wing Evangelical enterprise is anti-democratic from top to bottom.