{"id":227,"date":"2008-10-25T16:38:30","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T16:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/surprise-christian-right-runni.html"},"modified":"2008-10-25T16:38:30","modified_gmt":"2008-10-25T16:38:30","slug":"surprise-christian-right-runni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/surprise-christian-right-runni.html","title":{"rendered":"Surprise! Christian Right Running on Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

From Huffington Post<\/a><\/p>\n

Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into
\nEastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every
\nstate. The end of the Boy Scouts.<\/p>\n

All are plausible scenarios if Democrat <\/span>Barack <\/span>Obama<\/span><\/font><\/a>
\nis elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign
\nconversation called “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” produced by
\nthe conservative Christian group Focus on the Family Action.<\/p>\n

The
\nimagined look into the future is part of an escalation in rhetoric from
\nChristian right activists who are trying to paint Obama in the worst
\npossible terms as the campaign heads into the final stretch and polls
\nshow the Democrat ahead.<\/p>\n

Although hard-edge attacks are common late in campaigns, the tenor
\nof the strikes against Obama illustrate just how worried conservative
\nChristian activists are about what should happen to their causes and
\ninfluence if Democrats seize control of both Congress and the White
\nHouse.<\/p>\n

“It looks like, walks like, talks like and smells like desperation
\nto me,” said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston, an Obama supporter
\nwho backed President Bush in the past two elections. The Methodist
\npastor called the 2012 letter “false and ridiculous.” He said it showed
\nthat some Christian conservative leaders fear that Obama’s faith-based
\nappeals to voters are working.<\/p>\n

Like other political advocacy groups, Christian right groups often
\nraise worries about an election’s consequences to mobilize voters. In
\nthe early 1980s, for example, direct mail from the Moral Majority
\nwarned that Congress would turn a blind eye to “smut peddlers” dangling
\npornography to children.<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Huffington Post Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts. All are plausible scenarios if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign conversation called “Letter from 2012…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\nSurprise! 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Christian Right Running on Fear"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/79cf4745abafd37be8b44cd0493ca805","name":"Paul Raushenbush","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","caption":"Paul Raushenbush"},"description":"Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}