If Only Right-Wing Christians Knew Where Their Ideas Came From

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/belief/if-only-right-wing-christian-evangelicals-knew-where-their-ideas-came



***SNIP

Trachtenberg points out the powerful evangelical impulse in two of the era's greatest political bestsellers, Henry George's Progress and Poverty and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. George wrote glowingly of "the noble dreams of socialism." Bellamy advocated "the religion of solidarity... a system of public ownership... to realize the idea of the nation ... as a family, a vital union, a common life."

Both denounced the injustices of the emerging corporate system with "evangelical fervor," says Trachtenberg, sustained by "religious emotions of 'solidarity.'"

But there was more going on than just utopian words. There were workers organizing in the factories and the streets, dominated in the 1870s and 1880s by the Knights of Labor. The Knights intended to use government to achieve their goals—goals that today's progressives still struggle for, like a fair and just income tax structure, guaranteed equal pay for women, and government ownership of utilities and transportation systems.

And they built their movement upon "an unmistakable fusion of republicanism and evangelical Protestantism," in Trachtenberg's words. "Workers found in Protestantism a profound 'notion of right' for their struggles." They made “'the religion of solidarity’ proclaimed by Edward Bellamy and other Protestant reformers … a living experience within labor.” Obviously they saw no conflict between evangelical Christianity and a strong central government enforcing laws to create economic justice.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[theHandpuppet]

2. Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

I did find this portion to be troubling...

"The Republican Party may or may not be cracking up. Cracks in the GOP alliance don’t necessarily mean any advantage for progressives, of course. But they are windows of opportunity, if the left knows how to take advantage of them. It’s all a question of strategy.

"A smart first step for progressives is to do whatever we can to widen those cracks. It’s the religious right, long the progressive left’s favorite target, that is now the richest target of opportunity. Because politically progressive evangelical Christianity is not merely a relic of the 19th century. It’s making a comeback.

"That presents left progressives with a challenge. In your struggle for justice, would you ally with people who share your commitment to greater economic equality but would like to see government ban abortion and gay marriage? Today the question may seem abstract and hypothetical. Soon enough it may become a very real issue of debate for progressive strategists, and there are bound to be good arguments on both sides...."

[xchrom]

3. yes. that jumped out. nt

[MissMillie]

4. good article

I hope you link to it on the "Good Reads" page.

[MisterP]

5. heck, even Bryan was driven by opposition to the rampant Social Darwinism

that had egged on the Germans in one world war (and then again)

the fundamentalist right (1910s) picked up on anti-Catholicism (1830s) and the Plymouth Brethren (1830s in the US), but that placed them not too far from the Adventists (1840s) and Jehovah's Witnesses (1870s); British Israelism (1800s) became Christian Zionism (the reactionary 1940s variant) and combined with a sudden shift towards Israel 1973 as they fought turrsts while we departed Saigon, and a tightly coordinated New Right combining gun-fingering White-flight right-libertarians and Powell-Memo corporatists propelled the Religious Right from a punchline to Very Serious People (and a punchline yet again); remember that the Discovery Institute was lefty in the 1960s...

David B. Davis's <i>The Fear of Conspiracy</i> plays into this too: "the Mooslims" controlling "Pallywood," churches, schools, Washington, all 50 statehouses, etc., was the Masons in the 1830s, Mormons in the 40s, Catholics in the 50s, Jews in the 1920s, Commies in the 40s, gays in the 50s, etc., etc.; I also LURVE Larry A. Witham's <i>Where Darwin Meets the Bible</i> and Melani MacAlister's <i>Epic Encounters</i>

things change very fast even in 20 years: witness this hilarious pic--