What Happens to the Religious Right?

D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite, speculates the future of the Religious Right in what appears to many to have been a crushing defeat on Tuesday's election.

"Is the Obama presidency the final nail in the coffin for the Religious Right? Don’t count on it. For one thing, political movements like the Religious Right don’t need a “god” to succeed, but they do need a devil. Nothing builds allegiances among a coalition like a common enemy."

What the Religious Right needs is a structure in which their sectarian identity can be forged and re-inforced as a distinct social group rooted in a specific idea of revealed truth through conservative Christianity. As Stark & Bainbridge (1985) argued the measure of how sectarian a group is in its variable tension with the prevailing normative culture. They explore three measures of this tension: "difference from the standards set by the majority or by powerful members of society, antagonism between the sect and society manifested in mutual rejection, and separation in social relations leading to the relative encapsulation of the sect" (p. 66).

If we look at the formation of the Religious Right in the 70's it would seem that a liberal government and a socially liberal society is the paradoxical fuel to reconstitute themselves. It will be interesting to see how groups like the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, American Family Association, and others do this. I would suspect they will continue the clear sectarian us (pro-family, pro-life, pro-religion) v. them (pro-gay, pro-choice, pro-secularist) mentality that we see cast in clear relief as soon as Sarah Palin was nominated.

If the closing of the "god-gap" was seen through the action of the Obama/Biden campaign to lure faith voters, and their clear response to that lure, it could be that moderate evangelicalism will be the norm. This will mean that in order to be distinct and maintain sectarian tension lest they fall down the slope of secularism, the Religious Right will be forced to become more strident with fundamentalist religious claims. The response has so far been quite clear:

"Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, advised his supporters not to give up and signaled a coming confrontation.

“Senator Obama is now President Obama,” Perkins said, speaking as president of FRC Action. “His positions on life and marriage are not where the American people are on these issues. His mandate has meaning especially on the economy and new efforts for international cooperation, but he has no mandate to destroy human life and overturn man-woman marriage. We congratulate him, but we will be reminding him today and everyday that values aren’t just among the issues, they are the core issues.”

So how will this affect the GOP? Their choice is to stay the course with the Religious Right to increased sectarian tension, or to moderate more with socially liberal faith voters and more moderate evangelicals thus rejecting the Religious Right trajectory which has been their base for many years now.

What would seem to be a favorable scenario is for Republicans and Democrats to moderate in the middle on center-right and center-left respectively to push out the extremes. The connective tissue between the two to hold that moderation in check should be the Libertarian party which can function as a check and balance between the two parties in order to keep them accountable and honest for the socially liberal and fiscally conservative majority of the public good. This will force the Religious Right to the fringe.

However, this works well for the Religious Right since any sectarian behavior should be on the margins along with socialist liberals and activists who occupy the other edge of the standard curve of ideological balance. At best we will see the re-constitution of balance to the system whereas since Reagan, that curve has been skewed, unpredictable, and way out of balance. The election only loosened up the tightrope, and now it will take work on all sides to get balance back.