What’s in a label? During the ‘80s, the Reagan Revolution mustered enough public relations chutzpah to make it a real liability for a candidate to be branded with the “L” word, as in “liberal” or “conservative.”
Labeling can be an offensive weapon used on behalf of one’s cause or candidate, but more often it is used derogatorily against a cause or an opponent, in hopes of conjuring unattractive images in the public’s mind when the label is heard or read.
Well, there’s a new label in town, and it is showing up in political debates throughout the country, especially in campaigns that focus on education, even right here in Lake Highlands in the RISD School Board races of 1993 and 1994.
You would think that reference to the “three R’s” in discussions about education would mean “reading, writing, and rithmetic;” but these days, it means “radical religious right.”
Bob Slagle, Texas State Democratic Party Chairman, rejoices that Texas State Republican Party Chairman Fred Meyer is “under siege” from “radical, right-wing Republicans.”
In Dallas, Roni Mendelssohn of Planned Parenthood speaks at a public forum at Temple Emanu-El on how to defend your schools against the coming onslaught of the “radical religious right.”
Incumbent RISD School Board member Lee Cochran warns that the “local religious right advocates an agenda to control school boards…whereby they can impose their beliefs on an entire community…”
What is going on here? Who are these goons from God that are out to break your knees with their Bibles? When pressed, it appears that many of these “Chicken Littles” define the radical religious right as Christians who go to church regularly and believe in traditional notions of family and community, like heterosexual marriages, marital fidelity, children born in wedlock, swift and sure punishment to deter crime, and independence from government.
Is this what all the fuss is about?
Are these really unwelcome beliefs? Are people who subscribe to these beliefs fairly described as “scary” or “radical” or “extreme?” Is the fear of traditional values really more frightening than waking up to an intruder in your bedroom, confronting a carjacker, or generally living your life in fear of the stranger walking behind you?
Are we focusing on the right fears?
Inciting fear by characterizing professing Christians as modern-day inquisitors is a curious condition in the United States of 1994.
“One Nation under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance; “In God We Trust” on our coins; having been endowed with “inalienable rights” by our “Creator” and placing our “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” according to our Declaration of Independence – these are all only vestiges now, I presume, of what was once a society much more connected with religious tradition and the moral code that that tradition produces.
Instead, we are now taught that the First Amendment requires religion be quarantined on some deserted island for fear of polluting the sanctity of the secular state.
So here we are. Listening to people become apoplectic over morality and torture by prayer, while public schools decline and decay, and kids scratch their heads over essay questions and fractions but are proficient at contraceptives and self-esteem.
Surely, if we truly believe in local control of our schools, we can do something about this perverse trend.
Get involved. Go to school board meetings. Talk to your kids’ teachers. Find out what is going on and why. You may not like what you see. You may decide to do something about it.
When the hyperbole is removed, it seems that the radical religious right consists of really nothing more than parents who want schools to teach their kids the basics in a safe environment.
Pretty scary proposition, huh? Unfortunately, the scary part is that we may never realize something so basic again.
