{"id":154,"date":"2009-04-14T15:09:43","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T15:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/04\/think-culture-wars-over-i-have.html"},"modified":"2009-04-14T15:09:43","modified_gmt":"2009-04-14T15:09:43","slug":"think-culture-wars-over-i-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/04\/think-culture-wars-over-i-have.html","title":{"rendered":"Think the “Culture Wars” Are Over? I Have a Bridge in Brooklyn For Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe  James Dobson was just having a particularly bad day.  As the top Religious Right leader gave a “farewell speech”<\/a> to the staff at Focus On the Family he noted that “we are awash in evil” and that “humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”  By those battles he meant the “cultural” clash over reproductive choice, gay rights and censorship. As a few bloggers<\/a> did point out, however, Dobson also noted that “God is in control and we are not going to give up, right?”<\/p>\n

Of course, Dobson and his “far-right-of-center” colleagues aren’t giving up.  They have a mound of money, are raising more with Obama-bashing every day and continue to return to the wells of gay-bashing and vilifying the separation of church and state on a daily basis.  In the last year for which we have IRS records, <\/span>Focus took in about $145 million and Dobson’s more overtly political arm vacuumed in an additional $10 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, I’d say thankfully, Dobson has lost some big battles: no
\nconstitutional amendments to outlaw abortion, define marriage as “one
\nman and one woman,” or return government-sponsored prayer to public
\nschool.  I hope he loses plenty more.  \n<\/p>\n

However, we can’t look at the Right’s record and not see how
\nsuccessful they have been in other venues.  On Election Night 2008, they managed to get voters to adopt three anti-gay state constitutional
\namendments in Arkansas, California and Florida. Some years they manage
\nto get a half dozen restrictions on reproductive choice enacted in
\nstate legislatures.  Moreover, their often hand-selected, George Bush-appointed federal judges chip away at church\/state separation or even
\ndeny litigants a day in court to protest intrusions into religious
\nliberty.<\/p>\n

I discussed some of this last night on Ed Schultz’s new MSNBC show<\/a>;
\nDobson will be making an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox tonight to
\n“clarify” his comments on the “culture wars.”  When all is said and
\ndone, it may be that Dr. Dobson and I finally agree on something: those
\nwars are not over and the “soul” (literally or figuratively) of America
\nis still in the balance.<\/p>\n

To subscribe to Lynn v. Sekulow, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe  James Dobson was just having a particularly bad day.  As the top Religious Right leader gave a “farewell speech” to the staff at Focus On the Family he noted that “we are awash in evil” and that “humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”  By those battles he meant the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,59,102,2,7,5,10],"tags":[111,114,115,110,101,113,51,67,112],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-censorship","category-constitutional-law","category-courts","category-gay-marriage","category-separation-of-church-and-state","category-white-house","tag-censorship-2","tag-culture-wars","tag-ed-schultz","tag-focus-on-the-family","tag-james-dobson","tag-marriage","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-reproductive-choice"],"yoast_head":"\nThink the "Culture Wars" Are Over? 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}