Zed Books For God's Sake: The Christian Right and US Foreign Policy

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. For God's SakeThe Christian Right and US Foreign PolicyBy Lee MarsdenZed Books LtdCopyright © 2008 Lee MarsdenAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84277-884-5ContentsAcknowledgements, vii, Abbreviations, viii, Preface, x, Introduction, 1, PART I, 1 Open Doors in the Corridors of Power, 25, 2 Spreading the Word, 59, PART II, 3 Promoting democracy or the Gospel?, 85, 4 Hijacking the Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance Agenda, 113, 5 Dominion and the Environment, 149, PART III, 6 Blessing Israel, 175, 7 The War on Terror, 217, Conclusion: From Here to Eternity, 245, Notes, 254, References, 261, Index, 274, CHAPTER 1Open Doors in the Corridors of PowerOver the past three decades, the Christian Right have developed into a sophisticated and relatively coherent political force with their roots firmly in Republican Party soil. Whatever the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, it is inconceivable that the Christian Right will not have played a significant role in the nomination of the Republican candidate. Such expectations are a fitting tribute to a movement that has come of age and is able to mobilize millions of voters behind a narrow range of socially conservative moral issues. The Moral Majority and, later, the Christian Coalition have proved invaluable in delivering Republican victories in three presidential and six congressional elections. The Christian Right's ability to mobilize supporters behind the Republican cause is not guaranteed, however, and there are limits to their ability to turn out the vote, particularly when concerns other than socially conservative ones dominate elections. Over the course of the George W. Bush presidency the Christian Right have increasingly sought to extend domestic success to the international arena on an equally narrow range of special interests. In this chapter, we will consider the background to the movement and examine how it seeks to influence the executive and legislature. This will enable an understanding of the religious and political motivations of the movement, and of the politics of mutual dependency between the Republican Party and the Christian Right, which will inform discussions in later chapters on specific foreign policy interventions.Influencing the White House and Capitol HillThe relatively recent phenomenon of organized Christian Right political involvement began in the 1970 s, but there are antecedents. Most presidents have claimed to be practising Christians and have transferred the rhetoric, at least, of civil religion and the American Creed to foreign policy. President Truman's early decision to recognize the State of Israel was due in no small part to his Christian belief (Clifford, 1992: 7–8). Richard Land would claim that Wilsonianism represented an evangelical foreign policy with its roots firmly in Woodrow Wilson's Presbyterian evangelicalism. However, the 1970 s mark a departure in this general principle of evangelical engagement with the political process. During this period, there was a shift among conservative evangelicals, particularly in the South, from the Democrats to the Republican Party. Democrat support for civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and increasing secularization threatened traditional evangelical values and caused those who held them to question their long-standing allegiance to the party. Kevin Phillips attributes this political shift to the reform legacy of four Southern Democratic presidencies: Truman, Johnson, Carter and Clinton (Phillips, 2006: 179). In a rapidly changing society, where traditional gender roles, sexual morality, marriage and traditional Christian beliefs were increasingly contested, conservative evangelicals sought security in their traditional values.The election of born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter to the presidency in 1976 should have signalled a restoration in Democrat fortunes among white evangelicals in the South. Conservative ch