The organizations of the radical religious right are the vehicle by which money is laundered before going into the pockets of the politicians or into propaganda production. The average American Christian sitting at home watching what s/he considers to be a man of God or even just a godly man (or woman) probably has no idea how much of their money goes into the ministry they believe they're supporting and how much of it goes to fund politically motivated agendas that will, if successful, take away the rights of EVERY American, including those who contributed to these ministries. Not all the organizations of the radical religious right are outwardly religious— the Heritage Foundation, for example, touts itself as simply a conservative think tank. And yet the conservative platform is that our "heritage" is Judeo-Christian and heterosexual and (very subtly) white.
All of them have co-opted words, narrowing the definition and hiding behind wholesome sounding monikers. "Traditional" when used by a member of the radical religious right means "from the 1950s"— when women were homemakers, wives and mothers, men ruled the workforce, children knew their place and no one questioned the man of the house (oh, and blacks still weren't equals of whites— but they never tout that one.) "Christian" means believing in the impending end-times: the Pope and Catholics are often not considered Christians. Neither are Mormons. "Family" means one man married to one woman, with the union producing children— usually Christian as well. "Values" means "what we believe is moral and anyone who disagrees is immoral". "America" or "American" means heterosexual conservative Christian (and, often subtly implied, white). "Moral" means "conservative Christian tenets". And "faith" means "Christianity" (with a tolerance of Judaism).
Many of these organizations— particularly their legal arms— claim to be working for "constitutional rights" but what they are really doing is working to make THEIR faith and THEIR beliefs the constitutional law of the land. Please, before you support ANY organization that seeks to elicit support based on faith, family, values/morality or patriotism, check to see who they are affiliated with. There are several organizations that monitor the radical religious right and their organizations. You can find them in The Solution section of this site.
Keep in mind as you read about these organizations that they are only nine of dozens— maybe even hundreds— of organizations across the country. They were selected because they demonstrate the depths of influence, the financial wealth/backing these groups have and the agenda they are pushing. Groups like the Christian Coalition have state chapters, even city chapters all over the country. Some, like Falwell's Moral Majority Coalition, are reincarnations of older organizations that went defunct. (Falwell is notorious for starting groups that really don't go anywhere, despite raising large quantities of money from hapless suckers who think they're supporting "traditional values". And quite often, where that money went is difficult to determine.) Some are more extreme than others, like Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, but they get the media attention because of their extremism.
Please note, there is one organization that I do not cover here. An organization whose influence is one of the main driving forces behind this current misadministration. That group is the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). I intentionally chose to not cover PNAC because it would have overwhelmed the entire site. There are literally thousands of webpages out there that are devoted to exposing the agenda of PNAC and it would be futile for me to attempt to do the same. PNAC, like the Heritage Foundation, is not an overtly religious organization, but Christianity (especially conservative Christianity) is one of its foundations. Please take the time to check them out to see how insidiously they have insinuated themselves into positions of power and influence in this country.
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