Conservatives of Convenience

A February 2008 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 16 percent of America's 225 million adults are unaffiliated with any religion. According to the report, "When 'childhood religion' is compared against 'current religion,' the unaffiliated show a net increase of 8.8 percentage points, compared to a 7.5 point loss among Catholics, for example, or a 2.6 percent loss among Protestants."

It is my belief that outrageously hypocritical behavior demonstrated by conservative religious authorities is directly responsible for the surge in non-believers and those who shun organized religion. The ubiquitous scolds who dominate cable TV and Republican politics are too often conservatives of convenience, who believe they are exempt from practicing the strident rules that they preach.

For example, South Carolina's First Lady, Jenny Sanford, filed for divorce last week after her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford (R), admitted to engaging in an affair with a woman from Argentina. Until the scandal broke, Mark and Jenny posed as a beacon of Christian family values.

I can understand Jenny's disgust with her husband, who left his four sons to cheat with his mistress on Father's Day. But one can't masquerade as a Bible-thumper when it comes to gay rights and other issues, and then say that the Bible is suddenly irrelevant when it comes to divorce.

Both Jenny and Mark profited from their charade, yet jilted Jenny wants to conveniently abandon biblical absolutism and utilize liberal divorce laws because her feelings are hurt. Sorry Jenny, but a mistress does not negate your marriage vows. Anyone can embrace the "sanctity of marriage" in good times. A true person of fundamentalist faith stays with the vows even when the relationship sours.

To highlight such hypocrisy, John Marcoa, a Sacramento Web-designer, has drafted a 2010 parody ballot measure that would ban divorce in California. Tellingly, the right wing organizations that fought to save marriage from gay couples have not lined up to support it.

From mega-churches to suburban strip mall ministries, fundamentalist youth rail against the secular culture, even as they ape it. They sport gaudy tattoos of Jesus, wear earrings in their noses and play imitation rock. On their fingers are silly chastity rings, when they really need chastity belts.

A recent New York Times magazine article points out that "More government money has been spent on the cause of sexual abstinence in Texas than any other state, but it still has the third-highest teen birth rate in the country and the highest percentage of teen mothers giving birth more than once."

Former beauty queen Carrie Prejean is the perfect spokesperson for liberal bashing libertines. She moralized over same-sex marriage, but expected forgiveness and understanding when, thanks to tabloid pictures, America got to know her in the biblical sense.

Perhaps the most amusing part of studying conservatives is their absurd claim that America is a Christian nation, which is impossible, because no two people can define what it means to be Christian. A new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report entitled, "Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths," concludes that people are now choosing to "blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs".

Who knew crystals and Christ went so well together?

Last month, Watergate felon Chuck Colson joined a batch of wing nuts to write "The Manhattan Declaration." This supposedly conservative manifesto began by shamelessly co-opting historical liberal successes. The Declaration reads:

It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery...Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement...The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians...

It is true that Christians played a role in these movements. However, it was non-believers teaming up with liberal Christians to overcome the opposition of conservative Christians. The anti-gay signers of "The Manhattan Declaration" are the ideological heirs to those on the wrong side of history. It was remarkable how efficiently they scrubbed their own embarrassing past and replaced their monumental failures with liberal accomplishments.

Social conservatives are a loud bunch, but their power is slipping. I think back to Middle school, when I attended a Houston Rockets basketball game with my father. During a time out the "Voice of God" announced that a gay rights measure had been crushed. The enthusiastic crowd burst out in to loud cheers, which was quite devastating to a thirteen-year old coming to terms with his sexual orientation.

On Monday, Houston voters elected openly gay Annise Parker to be their mayor. Unlike my youth, I watched a Houston crowd cheer for progress instead of prejudice. No doubt there were countless social conservatives across the city slamming beers, ogling women who weren't their wives and betting on sports -- while bemoaning the city's fallen values.

This is the lifestyle of today's conservatives of convenience. They are all creed and no deed.

 

Follow Wayne Besen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Truthwinout

Comments

[elsie900]

11:56 AM on 03/12/2010

A straight, practicing Christian here, saying amen: hateful behavior by Christians is mainly responsibl­e for today's backlash against the Church. Throughout our history we've been proving Pogo right: "we have seen the enemy and he is us."

I must point out: your Jenny Sanford example is a fail. Adultery is explicitly mentioned as a "no divorce" exception, though you could argue that at the time, it would have been nearly impossible for a woman to get a divorce based on it. As a woman, it's disappoint­ing to hear you come down harder on a woman for leaving an adulterous husband (even ironically­) than on the husband who behaved so badly. This was her wakeup call, and the beginning of a more morally honest life. I don't call her a hypocrite for leaving him; I give her credit.

I don't fault churches for dropping the hardline stance on divorce. They did the right thing, as they need to do on gay marriage. I will always be in support of doing the right thing no matter who someone is or how far they have to go.

But otherwise - excellent. "Conservat­ives of Convenienc­e" - a perfect descriptio­n. A favorite epithet they throw at progressiv­e counterpar­ts is "Cafeteria Christian" - as if they themselves aren't 'picking and choosing' by railing about sexual behavior while passing laws that help the rich at the expense of the poor. It is a cynical strategy and no moral value at all. Without humility, there can be no

[elsie900]

12:02 PM on 03/12/2010

"there can be no moral values," it should have said.

not sure what happened there.

[bujudude]

08:55 AM on 12/17/2009

"Conservat­ives of convenienc­e" is a very apt and succint way of encapsulat­ing the selfish and neandertha­lic philosophy of the far-right in this country. America has been circling the drain since Reagan's election, and Bush's election revealed to the world that narrow self-inter­est and unchecked greed are the true motivation­s of so-called conservati­ves.

When George Wallace was running for governor and was defeated by someone even more racist than him, he declared that "no one will ever out-n*gg*r me again". In other words, he adopted a harsher, more segregatio­nist stance, more out of political expedience than actual conviction­.

This attitude underscore­s the modern neo-cons, especially the Bushies, the birthers and tea-bagger­s, since they cherry-pic­k which biblical passages they adhere to and ignore the rest. And the ones they DO adhere to they use to justify their own greed, hypocrisy, racism, homophobia­, misogyny and proclivity towards empty rhetoric and lethal violence.

[elsie900]

12:01 PM on 03/12/2010

SO WELL PUT. I remember feeling uneasy at the smiling self-satis­fied smugness of the "Morning in America" gang. And when George Bush the First rambled on about a kindler, gentler America, it was blatantly obvious even he didn't believe igt.

[Tim303]

05:31 PM on 12/16/2009

"It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery...­Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement..­.The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians­..."

"Having said that, down with gay people!"

[cleveyucks]

05:01 PM on 12/16/2009

While I'm sure that the hypocrisy of religion accounts for a lot of people abandoning it, let's not discount the fact that belief in supernatur­al beings and magic is irrational at it's core and can't survive even the most fundamenta­l logical scrutiny.

That may account for a lot too.

[JEP57]

07:20 PM on 12/16/2009

And yet belief that everything we see around us, including conscious beings, all came about by complete accident after a stupendous explosion is rational? It's not rational and makes no sense considerin­g the odds that would have to be beat for it to happen.

[YoungSloshee]

04:17 PM on 12/16/2009

Over the years, the case made by conservati­ve religious-­types against matters of social equality (race, gender, and the outrage of the decade, sexual orientatio­n) has gone from paper thin to tissue thin. Divorce is okay, but gay marriage is abhorrant? Please.

Much like the average age of O'Reilly's viewers (71), the matter of gay equality is a generation­al thing. I hope that twenty years from now, those "conservat­ives of conscience­" will be pushed so far to the fring that they fall off their self-made cliff.

At this point in time, the only way I would allow (but never accept) these folk to spew their rhetoric is if they call themselves what they really are: Open bigots. At least then they'd be coming from a point of honesty rather than their current path of hypocrisy.

[iconoclast6]

04:13 PM on 12/16/2009

Very thoughtful­...and accurate. The problem is, these reactionar­ies may be on their way to being flu.shed down history's l00, but they can do a lot of damage on the way.

[smartypants1984]

03:10 PM on 12/16/2009

I was thinking the exact same thing. I live in NYC, and every day, I pass numerous street preachers who seem to think that insulting passersby in the name of God is the way to win souls. When people don't respond or worse, start yelling back, they seem to love it. These prophets see it as just yet another rejection of Christ, instead of the truth, that they are big jerks and the rejection is of them. Most believers still don't get it, and it's this: people aren't rejecting God, just his rude representi­tives.

[Racso]

03:10 PM on 12/16/2009

this is great writting

[TamChin]

03:07 PM on 12/16/2009

Amen, brother.

I left the church at 9, when I couldn't reconcile that there were no black angels in the picture books - only white angels, even though the children were black (they were stories about missionari­es in Africa). That was the tipping-po­int concrete visual evidence of the subjective evidence I had seen of hypocrisy among the religious adults in my circle. I became anti-churc­h/religion from that point into my late 30's, when I started looking for a spiritual home. At the time, I landed in a liberal Christian church which fit me as well as any I could find.

However... Given the visciousne­ss and ignorance and TOTAL lack of grace (which is what drew me to Christiani­ty despite my reservatio­ns) I see/hear coming from the religious right, I have returned my Christian papers and am now quite comfortabl­y non-religi­ous and, in particular­, non-Christ­ian. I mean, if this is how they think Jesus wants them to behave, then Jesus is not the person I thought he was.

9-year-old me was right - and I have no doubts that the Dys-grace that is the religious right has impacted many more people to shake their heads and wonder how their behavior can be so disconnect­ed from their proclaimed beliefs and ideals of 'treating others as you would like to be treated."

Crimeny!

[dakotawoman]

03:06 PM on 12/16/2009

Oh, my god, YES!

It has even drive away longtime, older Christians also.

I was a committed Christian for 30 years, after being raised a believing Catholic.

I followed the teachings of Jesus and BELIEVED. Over the years, however, the increasing intoleranc­e, bigotry, hatefulnes­s and xenophobia radiating out of the "Christian­" fundementa­list Right began to bother me until, 10 years later, it has alienated me completely­.

It's either/or time. Either they are truly Christian or I am truly Christian, but we can't both be because I postively abominate their stance on almost every social issue.