The Religious Right has too much influence
in American public life
as the speaker line-up at a Ralph Reed event this week demonstrates,
according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
An
array of presidential hopefuls and major congressional leaders is
scheduled to appear at Reed’s “Faith & Freedom Conference and
Strategy Briefing” June 3 and 4 in Washington, D.C.
Reed is the
former head of the Christian Coalition, a religious-political group
founded by TV preacher Pat Robertson. Today, Reed is a political
consultant and head of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an
organization supposedly dedicated to “educating, equipping, and
mobilizing people of faith and like-minded individuals.” He has also
made efforts to lure the Tea Party into an alliance with the Religious
Right.
“I don’t think Ralph Reed has anyone fooled,” said the
Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “He wants to
forge fundamentalist churches and church members into a disciplined
voting bloc and force political candidates to kneel before it.
“This
kind of mixture of religion and politics is a grave danger to American
public life,” said Lynn, who has monitored the Religious Right for some
25 years. “It is a sad day when our politicians start preaching and our
preachers start politicking.”
Concluded Lynn, “I wish all the
candidates would have the courage to stand up and say – as John F.
Kennedy did in 1960 – ‘I believe in an America where the separation of
church and state is absolute.’ Today, the Religious Right’s power is
such that a statement like Kennedy’s is almost unthinkable. As a matter
of fact, candidates are more likely to give their personal profession
of faith.”
A recent Americans
United survey
of the top Religious Right ministries and groups in America revealed a
tax-exempt fundamentalist empire with an annual income approaching one
billion dollars.
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.