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Religion and the Radical Right in American Public Life
Author(s) -
Weinberg Leonard B.,
Assoudeh Eliot
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12203
Subject(s) - protestantism , christian right , communism , religious studies , civil rights , far right , presidential system , political science , radical right , law , gender studies , history , sociology , politics , philosophy
Religious movements and religious ideas have played important roles in the United States almost since the formation of the American republic. From those who sought to abolish slavery in the 19th century to the civil rights and anti‐war movements of the 20th, Christian clergy and laymen claimed religious inspiration for their involvements. There is another side to this story, however. In addition to championing these progressive causes, Christian, largely Protestant, religious ideas have also been central to the various radical right‐wing movements that have surfaced over the course of American history. Or, as the journalist H. L. Mencken once put it in connection with the 1928 presidential election campaign: ‘the Ku Klux Klan is really the secular wing of the Methodist church in the South!’ Xenophobic, Anti‐Catholic, anti‐Semitic, and especially anti‐communist, far‐right organisations in the USA have employed religious sentiments to justify their campaigns against important social changes in public life. We propose to tell their story.