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 New Edition of the 'Right Wing Watch On-Line' People For the American Way Foundation Report |
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People For the American Way Foundation
RIGHT WING WATCH ONLINE
The latest from the Right Wing's mail, television, radio and web activity, courtesy of People For the American Way Foundation's research and monitoring operation. July 21, 1999 THE RIGHT'S RESPONSE TO LITTLETON "I want to say to the elite of this country - the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you in Littleton, and I accuse you in Kosovo of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don't have the courage to look at the world you have created." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich In This Issue: (1) The Religious Right Jumps into Action (2) Politicians Respond in Congress and on the Campaign Trail (3) Scapegoating Liberalism (4) Cashing in on Littleton The shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado has riveted national attention on a number of issues: guns, violence in entertainment, school safety, and morality in public policy to name a few. These issues have rocketed to the forefront of public debate and the Littleton tragedy promises to be a common reference point during the 2000 elections. As the country grapples with the difficult issues of whether to restrict guns or violent images in video games or student expression, many on the Right are exploiting the tragedy to push some of their favorite issues. Most notably, they have used it to target public schools. (1) The Religious Right Jumps into Action For example, in the weeks after the tragic shootings in Colorado the Religious Right quickly renewed their call for a school prayer amendment and tried to make the issue a litmus test for Republican presidential candidates. Playing on a favorite myth of theirs, Religious Right leaders claimed that God has been "thrown out of our schools" or that students are banned from expressing their personal faith. Others called for a voucher system so students could leave the public schools altogether. Here's what they were saying: The CHRISTIAN COALITION launched an ad campaign in the strategically important states of Iowa and New Hampshire calling for putting "God back in our schools." Christian Coalition's Randy Tate says in the ad, "As America struggles to understand the terrible tragedy of Littleton, we urge all candidates for office, regardless of party, to pledge their support for putting God back in our schools, and parents back in our homes." "It's time for Congress to lift the ban on the expression of faith in our classrooms. Give our kids the opportunity to pray, and our teachers the freedom to discuss morality and decency." The CHRISTIAN COALITION extended the campaign from the 87 radio stations in Iowa and New Hampshire to include an additional 117 stations in Louisiana and South Carolina, two other states that figure prominently in the presidential primary season.
On his 700 Club television show the day after Littleton, PAT
ROBERTSON again attacked the 1962 Supreme Court decision that found
government-sponsored prayer in public schools to be unconstitutional.
Robertson wrongly claimed that "suddenly the worship of God became
unconstitutional" after the ruling and called it the "principal
reason" for youth violence.
JANET PARSHALL, the national spokesperson for the FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL, claimed that "God has been continually kicked out of schools." Another FRC spokesperson told FAMILY NEWS IN FOCUS that, before looking at violent entertainment as the major problem, we should look to a lack in values in public schools - that they "must teach that there is an absolute truth." BEVERLY LAHAYE, Chairman of CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA, said that tragedies like Littleton would continue, "[w]ithout God and without the Bible in these kids' lives." Like others on the Religious Right LaHaye sells school prayer as a tonic. "Where is God in their schools?" she says. "Instead of schools instilling in our children the importance of God in their lives, they are taught tolerance of anything and everything around them." FOCUS ON THE FAMILY's JAMES DOBSON blamed three things for the kind of school violence we saw at Columbine High School: the breakdown of the family (even though the two killers were from "intact, respectable homes"), the decline of a Judeo-Christian value system, and "today's media-saturated 'culture of death.'" On Meet the Press, BILL BENNETT alleged that the Colorado killers would have been hauled in for counseling if they had been walking the halls quoting the Bible instead of Nazi dogma. The right-wing weekly paper HUMAN EVENTS ran a front-page editorial titled, "Forget God, Get Littleton." They wrote that Littleton was "the latest example of what will become increasingly routine so long as our society expels God from the schools while allowing the raw sewage of Satanic rock and death-dealing videogames to flood the shopping malls and Internet."
However, these myths have not gone completely unchallenged. An editorial writer from Salina, Kansas answered the numerous, and baseless, charges that public schools are hostile to religion. He told the story of his local school district - where an individual's faith is respected, not repressed, and religious history, music and art is integrated into the curriculum. This district, like most others, follows the guidelines set out by the Education Department on religion in public schools. But the writer notes that "many peoplebenefit from the fiction that religion has been banned from the public schools....It can certainly boost Christian Coalition fund- raising." He closed with an important observation: "There are as many prayers in the public schools as there are prayerful people. If our children are murdering each other, we must find something other than a lack of faith to blame." (2) POLITICIANS RESPOND IN CONGRESS AND ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL But many right-wing politicians have danced to the Christian Coalition's tune. The GOP leadership pushed several bills that permitted the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools and otherwise threatened church/state separation. The sponsor of one such bill, REP. ROBERT ADERHOLT (R-AL), admitted the purpose of his bill outright, saying "It's been decades since Congress tried to change our religious heritage." After three such bills passed Pat Robertson was elated, calling it a "tremendous victory for people of faith." REP. TOM DELAY's (R-TX) remarks on the House floor blaming the tragedy on day care, divorce, the teaching of evolution and lack of religion were well-publicized but many other politicians have joined in his call to return God to the schools. For instance, REP. BOB BARR (R-GA) asserted that the shootings would not have happened had the Ten Commandments been posted in Columbine High School. A number of the Republican presidential hopefuls have also invoked Littleton on the campaign trail. In a speech delivered on the anniversary of his famed attack on the television character "Murphy Brown," DAN QUAYLE said that the shootings should help bring back prayer to public schools. "We have allowed our legal system to distort and deny the role of faith in American life," said Quayle. "In fulfilling its cultural agenda, the legal aristocracy has not worked alone. It was aided by a willing and compliant news media and an entertainment industry that transmits counter-culture values."
Former Family Research Council President GARY BAUER has shaped his
presidential campaign around the Littleton shootings. This is a
conscious move on his part to fit his Religious Right agenda with a
more secular face.
"I've tried to figure out a way to talk about this to get the attention of the American people, many of whom are uncomfortable with religious appeal," explained Bauer. Yet when asked about gun control on Meet the Press, Bauer turned the conversation to the alleged absence of God in schools. "That is at the heart of the issue basically, not Hollywood and guns," he said. PAT BUCHANAN, the quadrennial Religious Right candidate, also blamed the tragedy on a lack of religion. "At Littleton, America got a glimpse of the last stop on that train to hell she boarded decades ago when she declared that God is dead, and that each of us is his or her own god who can make up the rules as we go along." House Majority Leader DICK ARMEY (R-TX) advocated school prayer as a legislative response to Littleton. Saying "[w]e should not simply blame the guns," Armey called for the passage of Rep. Ernest Istook's (R-OK) proposed constitutional amendment allowing organized prayer in public schools. (3) SCAPEGOATING LIBERALISM Many on the Right also took the opportunity to blame liberals or liberalism for the shootings. Former House Speaker NEWT GINGRICH struck an accusatory tone in his first major speech since leaving Congress: "I want to say to the elite of this country - the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you in Littleton, and I accuse you in Kosovo of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don't have the courage to look at the world you have created." But Gingrich didn't stop there. He also cited the elimination of prayer and "the creator" from schools, an overtaxing government, violence in movies and video games, and a lack of teaching about the U.S. Constitution as negative influences on today's teenagers. AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION President DON WILDMON blamed liberals of all stripes, saying that Littleton has "been coming for 40 years." Among the culprits are "anti-Christian types like the ACLU," politicians, the "liberal" news media, and Hollywood "where pagans are in control." In rather conspiratorial tones, Wildmon also indicts the National Education Association for spending "hundreds of millions...in seizing control of the schools and turning them into centers to promote their secular experiment." SAMUEL BLUMENFELD, a right-wing critic of public schools, added a new twist to the Right's recipe of blaming Littleton on liberalism and lack of religion. In his column on the right-wing WorldNetDaily website, Blumenfeld alleged that the real problem is prescription drugs, like Ritalin and Prozac, "most of which are prescribed and administered by the schools themselves." In addition to casting direct blame on such drugs, he blamed today's teachers for "using the most irrational teaching methods ever devised by so-called educators," saying that "there was no such thing as ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder]...when I was going to school back in the 1930s and '40s." (4) CASHING IN ON LITTLETON As we enter the summer campaign season, the Religious Right only seems to be warming to this theme. Their direct mail appeals continue to cite the Columbine shootings as they appeal for money, often for upcoming election activity. The CHRISTIAN COALITION's June fundraising appeal plays on fears of school violence while soliciting money for their "Countdown to Victory 2000 Campaign." After emphasizing the high stakes of the 2000 elections, they blame violence like Littleton on "the 35-year assault liberals have waged against moral norms and religious faith." The Coalition also accuses the media of ignoring the Columbine student who was killed after admitting that she believed in God. "The news media has done its best to de-emphasize this fact. Can you imagine how different the media response would be if the two killers had been targeting homosexuals? But specifically targeting Bible- believing Christians for slaughter is not worth noting in the eyes of the media!" Republican Presidential candidate GARY BAUER continues to use the shootings as a central theme in his campaign. His June fundraising appeal invokes incidents of schools violence in Littleton - as well as Mississippi, Kentucky and Georgia - as an inspiration for his "pro- family" campaign platform. At the top of that platform are "the sanctity of human life" and "the need to return God to our daily lives and to our schools." ROBERT SIMONDS of CITIZENS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION led off his June direct mail by invoking Littleton and attacking "our violent and unpredictable public schools." He goes on to attack "the anti- Christian God-haters" such as "People For the (un) American Way" before moving on to his most recent project, a plan to pull all Christian children out of the public school system.
In his June letter, JERRY FALWELL pleads with supporters for their
financial help in order to "take back America's children" from "the
Hollywood, television, music and video kingpins, perverts and liberal
extremists who are destroying the lives of our children and ruining
America's future."
Falwell wrote that Littleton was a "window of opportunity" given to them by God and that "the answer is getting godly moral principles back into our schools and society!" With the presidential campaign heating up and the 2000 elections right around the corner, we can expect both politicians and the Religious Right to further exploit the Littleton tragedy. Stay tuned. Right Wing Watch On-Line Archives: www.pfaw.org/issues/right/rwwo/ Learn more about the Radical Right and what you can do to help fight their extremist agenda. Go to PFAW's website: www.pfaw.org/issues/right/ About People for the American Way Foundation People For the American Way Foundation is committed to defending democracy and bringing the ideals of community, opportunity, diversity, equality and fairness together in a strong, united voice. To achieve this, PFAWF conducts research, legal and education work, as well as monitors and researches the Religious Right movement and its political allies. The organization is a premier source of vital information for policymakers, scholars and activists nationwide. Subscription Information Subscribe to Right Wing Watch On-Line by signing up for its Activist Network: www.pfaw.org/activist/ Or send the following email message: To: majordomo@lists.pfaw.org Subject: subscribe pfaw-rww Body: subscribe pfaw-rww |
