Rise of the ‘Teavangelicals’

Will the Tea Party bring new life to the religious right?

From OneNewsNow

By Ed Vitagliano

Since the rise and triumph of Ronald Reagan, Christian conservatives have had a hot-and-cold love affair with politics in America. But with Barack Obama’s rise to the White House – along with two straight winning elections for Democrats in Congress in 2006 and 2008 – some predicted the collapse of the religious right.

   

Of course, that forecast was made simultaneously with grim prophecies concerning conservatism in general and the GOP in particular.  When the historic 2010 midterm elections were over, however, the Republican Party had made sweeping gains in the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures, and solid gains in the U.S. Senate. (See AFA Journal, 1/11.)

How did doom-and-gloom turn into a GOP rout?  Enter the Tea Party movement, which appears to be the latest incarnation of a still-vibrant political conservative movement and, in the words of one analyst, a clear “game-changer.”

What is the nature of this movement, and are social conservatives a part of it?

Christian Conservatism Just Getting Started

From OneNewsNow
By Star Parker

There are some today who suggest that Christian conservatism as a political force is over.

Those who make this claim point to the fact that liberal Democrats now control the White House and both houses of Congress; that the number of Americans self identifying as Democrats compared to Republicans has increased; that the direction of public opinion, particularly among young people, on social issues is liberal; and that the Republican Party itself has been divided over the conservative agenda.

But those who write off Christian conservatism as a political force have underestimated the driving compulsion behind traditional faith and American freedom. Just looking at who is in power does not reveal the depth of division in the country today and for the reasons that the nation is so deeply divided, may I suggest that Christian conservatism will not only survive but will thrive.

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Newt Gingrich Steps Up Efforts to Mobilize Religious Conservatives

The former House speaker has launched a group that aims to unite social and economic conservatives

From U.S. News & World Report
By Dan Gilgoff

At a time when many religious conservatives say the Republican Party is ignoring their issues and taking their support for granted, former House speaker and GOP idea man Newt Gingrich is turning his attention to the concerns of conservative Christians like never before.

Gingrich has launched an organization devoted to bringing conservative evangelicals and Catholics into the political process and to strengthening the frayed alliance between economic and religious conservatives. Called Renewing American Leadership, the group is led by Gingrich's longtime communications director and includes some of the country's top conservative Christian activists on its board.

This spring, Gingrich will speak to a handful of large gatherings for politically conservative clergy that have been organized by David Barton, an influential evangelical activist who spearheaded the Republican National Committee's rigorous outreach to pastors in 2004.

And this fall, Gingrich is planning to release a movie about the role that Pope John Paul II's 1979 trip to Poland played in bringing down the Soviet Union.

"In the last few years I've decided that we're in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans," Gingrich said in a phone interview on Thursday. "You've had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty."

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