96 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
96 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Commentary--Extremist Elements within Christian Right
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by Sara Diamond, copyright 1986
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Fundamentalist Christians' crusade against homosexuals is no
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secret. But elements within the Christian Right--emboldened by
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their increasing political clout--are allowing other forms of
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intolerance to take hold within their ranks.
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A minor scandal ensued back in 1981 when Bailey Smith, then-
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President of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that God
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doesn't hear the prayer of a Jew. The fundamentalist community
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seemed to have cleaned up its act for a few years, but recent
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events illustrate a disturbing trend:
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**The National Religious Broadcasters, a professional
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organization representing 1000 Christian media outfits, allowed
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anti-Semitic activists to distribute literature at their February
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1986 convention.
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Publisher Pat Brooks of New Puritan Library from North
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Carolina gave away copies of The Six Pointed Star. "The Jewish
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star is the most evil of all symbols," Brooks said as she warned
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conventioneers of the "Zionist conspiracy" to deprive Americans
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of their tax dollars. Washington D.C. radio broadcaster Dale
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Crowley, handed out pamphlets proclaiming that "good Jews
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accepted Christ" and urging his colleagues to shun Christians
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building alliances with Jews.
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**Meanwhile, born-again Superstar Jerry Falwell, in a forum
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on Jewish-Christian relations, voiced love and admiration for
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the Jewish people, and unequivocal support for Israeli policies
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in the Mideast. Falwell received the Jabotinsky Award from former
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Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in 1980. But no more than
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five minutes after his talk before the religious broadcasters, he
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moved to another room for a press conference on South Africa.
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There Falwell taunted a black reporter with "You're biased.
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You're obviously with the Jewish media."
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**Maranatha Campus Ministries , headed by Bob Weiner with
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chapters at about 50 U.S. universitites, distributes a booklet on
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"Christian Dominion." Its arguments is that God chose "English-
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speaking Teutonic peoples" to come to America and "administer
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government among savage and senile peoples" and to "establish a
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system where no chaos reigned." One wonders what percentage of
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the current U.S. population can trace their ancestry back to this
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"chosen race."
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**At a July convention sponsored by the Mountain View-based
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Coalition on Revival, Concord TV-42 station President Ronald Haus
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gave a workshop on using the media to spread Biblical values.
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Haus offered advertising tips for Christian TV and radio station
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managers in cities with large Jewish populations. Just offer them
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cheap ad rates, Haus quipped. "A good Jew likes a good deal."
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**TV-42 broadcasts throughout Northern California from
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stations in Concord and Fresno. One of the network's in-house
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produced programs is "Accent on Health," hosted by Maureen
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Salaman, president of the 100,000 member National Health
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Federation. Aside from her leading role in the alternative health
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movement, Salaman is known nationally as a veteran activist in
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Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby. Carto has been described by civil
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libertarians as the most notorious anti-Semite and racial
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supremacist in the U.S. Last year Carto's Institute for
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Historical Review lost a lawsuit to a Long Beach man whose family
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was gassed to death at Auschwitz. Carto claims the Nazi Holocaust
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never took place.
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In 1984 Salaman campaigned as the Vice Presidential
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candidate of Carto's electoral front, the Populist Party. Just a
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few months ago Salaman led an internal power struggle within the
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Populist Party. She came out on the side of Willis Carto against
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the less extreme American Independent Party faction. TV-42
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President Ronn Haus apparently knows Maureen Salaman only as a
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health food expert.
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Do these signs indicate that the Christian Right--now
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flexing its muscles in the electoral arena--is broadening its
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base by moving further toward the fringes of political
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acceptability? Historically, fundamentalism has been a breeding
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ground for opportunistic racists and anti-Semites, but one might
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have hoped that contemporary standards of tolerance would have
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changed that tradition.
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It's possible that many zealous fundamentalist leaders are
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simply too naive to recognize extremism within their own
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movement. But if they want to gain any degree of legitimacy
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within mainstream America, they're going to have to throw the
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proverbial bad apples out of their own barrel.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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he
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proverbial bad a
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