(Fred is one of the long-time leading scholar-activists of America's religious culture wars. I'm pleased to have him speaking out here. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
The responses to something new and different can be as interesting as the new and different thing itself. Even the best of us sometimes have difficulty with new ideas, fresh approaches, and especially anything that challenges certain Conventional Wisdoms. Thanks to the invention of writing, we can see this play out when books and articles that question status quo thinking cause cognitive dissonance among the gate keepers. The intellectual debris left in the wake of such dissonance-induced crashes have much to teach us about the way things are and the nature of struggles that lie ahead.
The main reason why the Religious Right became powerful is not what most people may think. Some would undoubtedly point to the powerful communications media.
Others might identify charismatic leaders, the development of"wedge issues," or even changes in evangelical theology in the latter part of the twentieth century that supported, and even demanded, political action. All of these and more, especially taken together, were important factors. But the main reason for the Religious Right's rise to power has been its capacity for political action, particularly electoral politics.
Given my own repeated writing about the one-sided Gramscian "culture war"/"war of position" it's no wonder that I have a lot in common with him. But it's my hunch that I'm not the only one who does. His own welcoming diary begins on the flip.
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