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Theocratic Right

The theocratic right's ideal is an authoritarian society where Christian men interpret God's will as law. Women are helpmates, and children are the property of their parents. Earth must submit to the dominion of those to whom God has granted power. People are basically sinful, and must be restrained by harsh punitive laws. Social problems are caused by Satanic conspiracies aided and abetted by liberals, homosexuals, feminists, and secular humanists. These forces must be exposed and neutralized.

Newspaper columnist Cal Thomas, a long-standing activist in the theocratic right, recently suggested that churches and synagogues take over the welfare system "because these institutions would also deal with the hearts and souls of men and women." The churches "could reach root causes of poverty"--a lack of personal responsibility, Thomas wrote, expressing a hardline Calvinist theology. "If government is always there to bail out people who have children out of wedlock, if there is no disincentive (like hunger) for doing for one's self, then large numbers of people will feel no need to get themselves together and behave responsibly." 

More Details: Regressive Populism -- White Racial Nationalism -- Far Right

Excerpted from a chapter in the South End Press book
" Eyes Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash"
Edited by Chip Berlet

[Return to "Different Sectors of the Right."]

[Read or download the entire study] (very long)

"Theocracy & White Supremacy:
Behind the Culture War to Restore Traditional Values"
by Chip Berlet & Margaret Quigley