Changing Fortunes: An Analysis of Christian Right Ascendance within American Political Discourse

Abstract

The status of the Christian Right is usually evaluated by an examination of their successes in the legislative realm, the fate of particular Christian Right groups, and the limiting effects of cultural pluralism on religious exclusivism. These analyses usually conclude that the success of the Christian Right is limited. Despite predictions and arguments to the contrary, the activist Christian Right, whose various groups are now generally summarized as the New Christian Right (NCR), have continued to achieve greater prominence in American political discourse. Factors such as the willingness of some Christian Right groups to accentuate the secular aspects of their agenda, and the embrace of NCR groups by secular political leaders, are evidence of the rising fortunes of the Christian Right. Also, the culture war rhetoric employed by the Christian Right has been highly effective in the appropriation of valued rhetorical symbols in American public discourse. Finally, the authors explore the conditions of a postmodern cultural and intellectual climate of pluralism and relativism which provides fallow ground for the tolerance of even the most extreme of culture war rhetoric. The authors conclude that the status of the Christian Right is best assessed through consideration of evolving social forces with which the Christian Right may find affinity, and from which the Christian Right may benefit.