Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly with Most Conservative Christians by Joel C. Hunter (Distributed Church Press, 2006) 190 pp.
by Dr. Ralph Blair
Plagued with scandals and defections, the Religious Right’s Christian Coalition has been in the dumps. Then, amazingly, on October 1, a levelheaded, fair-minded and generously compassionate evangelical – atypical of previous Coalition leadership – was chosen as its new president. But by November 21, before he could begin to serve, Joel C. Hunter found himself out of office. Sadly, yet not surprisingly, the harsh old antigay guard had second thoughts about Hunter. Maybe they’d finally gotten around to reading his good book.
His book is a welcome relief from the Coalition’s rants; he’s sharply critical of much in the Religious Right. That’s not to say he’s pro-gay. But there’s little on homosexuality in these 190 pages. Evangelicals, he says, are “not against gay marriage [nb: no sneer quotes] because we are hatemongers”. Rather, opposition is because it “doesn’t fit the pattern laid down in Genesis 2:18-24”. He adds: “We are also against polygamy, polyandry, and bestiality for the same reason.” But since Adam and Eve were the only humans around when that “pattern was laid down”, polygamy and polyandry were impossible and Adam had already rejected bestiality. As polygamy was common in the Bible, and never forbidden, prime patriarch Abraham married his half-sister and took a concubine. Our experience of “falling in love” was not why the ancient Jews married – brides being obtained by purchase or by capture and for economic gain in these families. Young teenage brides were the norm. And then, there was that Mosaic law of levirate marriage. Actually, “the biblical definition of marriage” is really quite foreign to us today.
In his penultimate chapter, “Ask Dr. Hunter,” he briefly responds to “40 Frequently Asked Questions About Religion and Politics.” Question 29: “What’s a biblical response to gay marriage?” He repeats: “the ideal in Genesis.” He notes that the other problem “is how can you best love people who don’t fit into your moral paradigm? How can you best respect them?” Question 31 asks: “Why do conservative Christians ignore most social issues besides abortion and homosexual rights?” Citing someone’s quipping that “Conservative Christians seem to be focused below the belt”, he states: “If you just want to get fired up on hot-button issues, these will be the hot-button issues. But if all of life is important to you, then you have to really extend yourself to non-sex related issues.” Christians, he argues, need to get involved in issues of poverty, the environment, and justice “for the good of all”.
Hunter is precise and perceptive in suggesting why “the current strategy of the religious right won’t fly with most conservative Christians.” The right is “wrong [in] tone (too polarizing/enemy creating)” and “too limited in emphasis and issues”. It’s “focused on political wins rather than spiritual results”, “too linked to one political party”, “not deep enough intellectually” and it’s “aim is not service, but power.” “So,” he says, “we are looking for new leadership, but no ‘WACKOs’ need apply.” “WACKO” spells: “Wants only what is good for his or her own group. Angry; hot-button issues oriented. Christian in name, but not Christlike in nature. Knocks others who are different. Only interested in winning, not in growing spiritually.” That list’s on target – and applicable, as well, to why so much of GLBTQ strategy on the religious left won’t fly with conservative Christians, including gays. Both antigay and pro-gay political leadership is insufficiently savvy and loath to be self-critical.
Hunter counters what he calls the Myths of the Religious Right. Up against the Myth that “It’s High Time the Majority Had Its Way in This Country,” he counters with James Madison’s warning about the majority’s tendency to oppress minorities and sees Madison’s Constitutional concern to be in agreement with “our evangelical view” that “all people are self-centered, acting in self-interest.” He grants that secular humanism is a real problem, but observes that “evangelical alarmists” turn the language of spiritual warfare into “images of conspiracy and attack”. On another Myth, that “We Ought to Go Back to the Good Old Days When Christians Ran Things”, he recognizes this as based in naïve nostalgia.
Aware that “something in us will not let any of us govern very well”, Hunter alludes to sin. He cautions it’s “an illusion … to believe that governmental power is better because a believer holds it. History shows no such correlation.” He sees that “the social gospelers underestimated the enormity of sin” but so, he sees, does the Religious Right.
Hunter rightly argues: “Christianity is strongest when its only force is persuasion; civil government’s ultimate strength is its ability to use force.” He urges Christians to be “highly suspicious of political man”, adding: “Nowhere in the New Testament does it exhort individuals to political dominance. By contrast political power relationships are forbidden by Christ or transformed into an act of service (Matthew 20:25-28).” Noting: “Establishing ‘Christian values’ was not the ultimate goal of Christ; people have always been His goal”, he warns of that foremost attitude of the Pharisaic mind: “I thank you that I am not like other men”. “Self-righteousness can be institutionalized” and the tendency of “the group [is] to be the center; … the standard of measure.” He hopes “Christians in ideological conflict with the world can model what the world has seldom seen – persons placing a limit on how much power they will stockpile.”
Of course, what he endorses can call for support of civil rights for gay people, even marriage. While granting that Scripture “is open to a variety of interpretations” and that the church has misread it on many matters, and that “not every part of the Bible has the same relevance to every situation”, he does not revise his view that the Bible is totally negative on all homosexuality. And still, he concludes: “the most important focus a Christian can have” in politics is to live out Jesus’ summary of the Law: Love God with all one has and love our neighbors as ourselves. Hunter’s focus is Jesus’ focus. But, clearly, it’s still not the focus of Christian Coalition.