The Public Eye - Spring 2009- Vol. 24, No. 1
Younger Evangelicals
Where Will They Take the Christian Right?
By Pam Chamberlain
Last October a chartered bus rolled deep through the South, its passengers college-aged young people drawing inspiration from the Freedom Riders of the 1960s. The black vinyl advertising plastered on the side broadcast the riders’ goals, “Equality Ride 2008: Faith in Action: Social Justice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People.” The bus brought young LGBTQ activists and their allies face to face with students at 15 Christian colleges in an attempt to generate more acceptance of homosexuality at evangelical schools.
2008 was the third year of the Equality Ride, a project of Soulforce Q, the youth arm of Soulforce, an organization Mel White cofounded “to cut off homophobia at its source—religious bigotry.” A former evangelical minister and speechwriter to Jerry Falwell (the founder of the Christian Right group Moral Majority), White was a closeted gay Christian who came out in 1993, left his evangelical ministry, and began work for the Metropolitan Community Church, an LGBTQ Christian community...
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New Tactics and Coalitions Take Aim at Planned Parenthood
By Adele M. Stan
For the leaders and workers of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, attacks from right-wing foes are nothing new. Almost from the moment that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the federation and its clinics have been in the sights of right-wing activists, most horrifically in 1994 during the harrowing siege of a Brookline, Massachusetts, clinic when a gunman took the lives of two workers in the name of God.
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Tying the Not
How the Right Succeeded in Passing Proposition 8
By Surina Khan
On June 26, 2008, 1,000 ministers, mostly from evangelical congregations, met by conference call to discuss tactics for passing Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California by amending the state constitution. The call was convened by Pastor Jim Garlow from the 2,500-member Skyline Church in San Diego County. The ministers on the call had a far reach: they lead congregations representing about one million people, and Garlow alone provides radio commentary to 629 stations each day.
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Also in this issue:
Book Review
The Rise of Biblical Womanhood Quiverfull |
Eyes Right
GOP Finds Unity in Obstructionism
Campus Action
Watch for Miracles |
Reports in Review
The Economic Road Ahead
Turning the Page on Criminal Justice
New Day for Human Rights?
Immigration Policy
One Man: Three Anti-Immigrant Groups |
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