The Christian Right's Self Destruction?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/15/the-guardian-view-on-american-christianity-change-and-decay

More than a few commentators have attempted to make this point. This one dates from the dawn of the Trump administration. Over four years later things have definitely changed. There's a strange energy in the air, people are energised to be sure. Some might think the notion that the Christian Right is in decline is ridiculous. They can certainly make their case that the movement is thriving.

But at the same time there is (I think) a perceptible decline. Certain types of market-oriented churches seem to be flourishing. Driven by therapy and entertainment there is a political edge to some of them but mostly their messages and marketing packages (I won't say gospel) are about experience, empowerment, healing, and building relationships. And while these churches (sic) fill up on Sunday morning they also seem to rise and fall in fairly short order. A new variation appears after a few years and becomes 'the thing' for the moment and some of the previous models disappear. Are they (or the movement) really growing or are people just shifting between them with many giving up after a season?

Based on my unscientific observations it seems like most conservative congregations are in decline or just plain struggling. There are exceptions but these exceptions not always helpful examples. In some cases they are anomalies. I can drive south of where I live and visit some Reformed congregations that are located near college campuses that are popular in those circles. Their congregations are packed on Sunday morning – during the school term. It's evident most of the congregation is made up of students and so while there is certainly an energy and vibrancy at work when one visits – how real is it in terms of actual congregational life?

There are other strange dynamics at work. Christian radio (particularly the pop music variety) seems to be expanding. Its sacrilege is everywhere on the radio dial but aside from its denigrated forms of so-called Christian music (and Christianity in general), one walks around in public (in the listening area as it were) and fails to see the impact or the fact that there's a Christian population that would support it. I'm not seeing or interacting with many Christian people or families. There's no evidence of Christianity's presence as I walk through the dying mall for example or through the 'Big Box' stores. I'm surrounded by pagans. But then again, maybe some of them do attend churches. After all the market-driven churches are in the end filled with pagans and often led by them. I've been more than a little surprised at what I see on Sunday mornings. It's one thing to bring in the broken and downtrodden – that's a glorious thing, but I wonder are these churches challenging them or merely affirming them in their decadence and dissolute lifestyles?

These are all things to ponder but one thing is clear – the reputation of the Christian Right is shattered, and rightly so I might add. If you went back to the 1980's you would find many people that would perhaps disagree with the Moral Majority but they would say its ranks were filled with mostly good, moral, and sincere people. I may actually disagree with this assessment (as being too kind and optimistic) and certainly it's a generalisation but I think it's safe to say that many people who disagreed with the Christian Right nevertheless (at one time) held them in some regard. Not so today. In fact in terms of morality the Christian Right is despised and viewed as not only 'less than' moral but particularly immoral. And it's not just because of the elements in society that champion sodomy and the like. No, it's that the Christian Right has been revealed as being hypocritical and Machiavellian, and on an almost unimaginable scale.

For years the movement carried on about character and civic virtue but then the public saw how they behaved. Their mendacious, scheming, and duplicitous behaviour was nothing short of deplorable when it came to Bill Clinton. While many mainstream folks jumped onto the war wagon with Bush and his Evangelical allies, by the end of his term they grew disgusted with the Christian Right and its stalwart support for the damaged president and his many crimes and deceptions. Then Obama came into office and things got particularly ugly and it all resulted in the ascendancy of Donald Trump. Much of the public was understandably repulsed.

The mostly Evangelical-dominated Christian Right has no standing anymore. They're a powerful political bloc but one that is demographically and culturally doomed. As many have pointed out they're turning to raw authoritarianism now as the only means to retain a hold on power. The messages of morality and character have been abandoned and aren't talked about anymore. A flawed (and unbiblical) movement from its birth, it has now collapsed or at the very least is collapsing. It may continue in name and in a kind of rough form but that's just empty packaging. The movement self-destructed and now makes mockery of its onetime claims.

The danger is this – it might morph into something else and pick up new allies along the way. In some respects this is already happening. It won't be the 'Christian Right' anymore (and it certainly isn't conservative) but it will still be filled with professing Christians – people who have shifted in ideology and have moved closer to Right-wing elements that aren't even remotely Christian in their basic epistemological or ethical foundations. Even now it's simply the Right or more truthfully the Far-Right with all that label implies.