Deceptions and Fallacies Of the Religious Right

By George R. Kaplan

Every so often the religious right looks unstoppable--divinely inspired and poised to reverse our national lurch to perdition. Then there are the other times, when it turns mean-spirited and judgmental. Sometimes, the sides converge or blur, and we wonder where these people want to take us and what they expect of our schools.

Right now, fresh from its boisterous "Road to Victory" convention in September, Pat Robertson's five-year-old Christian Coalition, the engine of the "pro-family" movement, is in great shape. With its membership nearing 1.5 million dues-paying activists in nearly 1,000 chapters, it is attracting the attention of a punditocracy that worships political clout. Few Republican Presidential aspirants dare pass up an opportunity to visit with its movers and shakers.

Angry, determined~, and capably led, this vanguard force of the religious right is single-minded. It means to spark a decisive shift in the way Americans think, act, and educate their children. And now, more than ever before, its leaders are prepared to fog over their harsher messages if that...