Christian Coalition losing chapters

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

Three disgruntled state affiliates have severed ties with the Christian Coalition of America, one of the nation's most powerful conservative groups during the 1990s but now buffeted by complaints over finances, leadership and its plans to veer into nontraditional policy areas.

And

The coalition, which claims more than 2 million members, was founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and became politically powerful under Executive Director Ralph Reed before he left in 1997. Robertson, who turned over the presidency to Combs in 2002, has been criticized for provocative public statements, while Reed lost an election in Georgia last month after being linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Jim Backlin, the coalition's vice president for legislative affairs, said the Reed situation harmed the organization because of heavy media coverage that constantly mentioned his past role with the coalition.

Backlin insisted, however, that the coalition remained influential among conservatives in Congress.

Click here for the rest.

Lately, I've become hopeful regarding the prospects for Christian failure as an American political force. Like conservatism in general, it is now appearing that the fundamentalists, who are really the only major Christian players on the US political scene beyond the few remnants of the Civil Rights Movement, are overplaying their hand. Ralph Reed's stunning loss in his attempt to enter elected office is but one example; Bush's callow attempts to push the religious right's agenda, which has created massive opposition on stem cell research and in other areas, is another.

But it's not recent events that have made me so optimistic. It's this history show I've been watching online, The Western Tradition, made available by the same people who host episodes of Ethics in America, on which I posted a while back. The show is essentially a series of lectures covering the history of the cultures, philosophies, and economics of the West, delivered over Ken Burns style pans and zooms of art from each respective era--if you're a Civilization player, it's a must watch. The lecturer is UCLA professor emeritis of history Eugen Weber. I've recently watched the episodes covering the fall of Rome and rise of Christianity. Weber argues that as long as Christianity offered an alternative to mainstream society, it remained pure as a religious ideology, but once the new religion became entangled with, and then eventually replacing or combining itself with state authority, it was no longer able to remain true to its own system of beliefs. That is, once all society considered itself believers, Christianity as philosophy became simply a political tool--it wasn't until Martin Luther's reformation that this trend was reversed, but only to an extent.

I feel like I'm seeing something similar happen now in the United States. Certainly, Christianity has always played an important role in our republic, but it was not until the late twentieth century that the religion began seriously inserting itself into American political life. After a couple of decades of major gains, the movement is showing some signs of disarray. If history is any indicator at all, and I think it is, this can ultimately only lead to fundamentalist self-destruction: it appears that the nature of Christianity cannot abide a quest for real power. Unlike Dark Ages Christianity, however, we now have a relatively rational, literate, and well-informed population, which includes rank-and-file fundamentalists. As their leaders continue to misstep on the political scene, it seems to me that disillusionment can be the only result. Disillusionment should result in political withdrawal in the long run.

I just hope this scenario plays itself out sooner rather than later. I don't know how much more damage we can take from these Jesus Nazis.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$