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The Religious Right
- Abstract
To the Editor:
I read Terry Eastland’s article, “Religion, Politics & the Clintons” [January], with great interest. Along with a discussion of President Clinton’s support for the religious Left, Mr. Eastland has carefully explored the diverse currents impinging upon the efforts of conservative Christians to preserve their religious beliefs and practices.
I have had the opportunity to work closely with many members of this group of religious conservatives and have found them to be a wide spectrum of Americans seriously concerned about the direction our country has been taking in the last several years. Their concerns are shared by . . . the Jewish community. This group originated . . . as a result of the breakdown in . . . liberal Protestantism. The liberal Protestant community has become largely a-theological, devoting itself to what it calls social welfare, including support for the PLO and for revolution. This is notoriously true among Quakers. Religious conservatives, who are very loosely defined, felt that they had to restore the integrity of the Protestant structure in religion, and so people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell initiated their current activities. . . . When they started, they found they could not achieve as much change as they would have liked, and so they resorted to political action. Their opponents criticize this, but it is part of the American process: to desire change and to use the political route as a means of achieving that change.
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