Cynthia Burack

?Where Liberty Reigns and God is Supreme?: The Christian Right and the Tea Party Movement

In this article we argue that the tea party movement is the most conspicuous contemporary vehicle for reconciliation between Christian and economic conservatives. The analysis draws upon participant observation of two recent Christian right events at which the tea party was a central preoccupation. Offering evidence of the dynamics of a shifting framing process, it is argued that the Christian right elites are willing to accommodate strategically the precedence of economic issues but only if these are accompanied by a commitment to familiar Christian right positions on social issues.

Introduction: Right-Wing Populism and the Media

The United States has intermittently experienced leftand right-wing populist movements that challenge established forms of corrupt political authority and that promise to return America to its people. In her germinal study, Populism, Margaret Canovan parses different forms of populism, and her definition of “reactionary populism” provides a starting point for analyzing our most recent manifestation of populist politics—the Tea Party movement—as well as other manifestations in the US and abroad. Reactionary populist movements, for Canovan a subset of “political populism,” occur “in the context of a political culture committed to democratic principles but riven by cleavages between the progressive culture of the elite and the reactionary instincts of the populace.” Contemporary right-wing populists do not use this label, opting in the US to call themselves “conservatives” or by some other appellation, such as “patriots,” that distinguishes them from Republican Party loyalists, Republicans in name only (RINOs), progressives, or Democrats (who today are likely to be suspected of being closeted socialists). Canovan’s empirical cases of populism suggest that reactionary populist movements are likely to be led by a charismatic leader, and although this frequently has been the case, it need not be. For example, far from being the leaderless movement that many who affiliate with it say it is, the Tea Party is a movement with many leaders who occupy different niches of influence and hold diverse forms of formal and informal authority. However, the trope of leaderlessness—often repeated by those who exercise some form of leadership in the movement— functions to reinscribe the idea that the movement is a manifestation of the moral purity and spontaneous will of frustrated patriots who have risen up to save the Republic from forces that threaten to destroy it. The story of the most recent global recession that has sparked or accelerated the consolidation of right-wing populist ideas and movements began in 2007 with a financial crisis linked to risky lending practices of banks and the collapse of a speculative bubble in equities and real estate. In the US, the Bush administration responded to the crisis with a set of policies that included government bailouts of banks and other firms in financial distress dubbed “too big to fail.” President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008 to stabilize banks and restore confidence in markets; the EESA created the Troubled Assets Relief

Origin Stories: Same-Sex Sexuality and Christian Right Politics

In this paper, we examine dominant Christian conservative narratives of the origins of same-sex sexuality. Critics of the Christian right usually focus on a narrative of choice that Christian right organisations and activists use to explain the origins of same-sex sexuality. A choice narrative grounds a range of political positions and, in many contexts, effectively neutralises both claims of discrimination and public support for potential legal remedies. On the other hand, a narrative of development receives less attention from critics of the Christian right. Although it cannot be reduced to its political efficacy, the narrative of development has a political as well as therapeutic function. Indeed, this narrative circulates tacitly through a different set of public debates than those usually associated with the narrative of choice, including debates over programmes geared to eliminate antigay harassment in public schools. The two narratives create tensions within Christian conservative thought that can destabilise antigay social and political projects.

From Doom Town to Sin City: Chick Tracts and Anti-gay Political Rhetoric

The most popular and recognized of all Christian religious tracts are Chick Publications. The comic-book format tracts have been distributed since the 1960s and are now translated into over 100 languages. Some Christian Right opinion leaders regard the tracts with ambivalence, and many outside the Christian conservative community who comment on Chicks career believe that the tracts are no longer available through Christian retail outlets. Not only are the tracts still available, they represent an important form of conservative Christian political pedagogy. The tracts anticipated and continue to reflect Christian Right politics, including the centrality of same-sex sexuality to those politics. On the other hand, the tracts have come to conflict with key dimensions of Christian Right political strategy. This article traces the genealogy of the tracts, examines the anti-gay political rhetoric of Chick Publications and traces Christian Right ambivalence toward the tracts to the movements efforts to “center” Christian Right politics for mainstream audiences.

Keeping government out of my medicare and in her uterus: The paradox of small government conservatism

Many vulnerable U.S. citizens hate big government and vote against their own economic interests. Explanations for why this is so must take into account the often simultaneous desires of these citizens for small government in the economic domain and more muscular government intervention in the moral or cultural domain. One explanation for what appears to be a contradiction in the ideology of purportedly small-state conservatives is that Christian conservative elites prime the emotions and identifications associated with different orientations toward economic and moral issues.

Compassion Campaigns and Antigay Politics: What Would Arendt Do?

Compassionate conservatism is usually dismissed on the American political left as an empty slogan intended to mystify the real roots and aspirations of conservative politics. However, conservative Christian organizations and churches now conduct well-coordinated compassion campaigns on contested social issues such as sexual and reproductive rights. Through compassion campaigns, the Christian right also disseminates particular forms of political pedagogy regarding sexuality and compassion for followers who are subject to the movements influence. Here, I turn to Hannah Arendt to analyze the politics of compassion at work in the ex-gay movement and in antiabortion projects such as Silent No More. This article presents evidence for a turn to compassionate pedagogies on the Christian right, analyzes these projects, and suggests ways that Arendts political thought can inform our readings of conservative Christian compassionate discourse and political practices.

Women and the American New Right

Abstract The American New Right is a complex ideological configuration that combines conservatism positions on social and economic issues. Like other critics of the Right, feminists respond to a web of discourses, policies, practices, and institutions related to “family values” and market fundamentalism. However, feminist scholars also intervene in conservative discourse and practice in unique ways by examining the roles of women and the meanings of gender on the Right, and by analyzing the intersectional consequences on the principal strands of the American New Right. We conclude with suggestions on future directions for feminist theory and research.

From heterosexuality to holiness: Psychoanalysis and ex-gay ministries

The ex-gay movement in the United States has undergone major changes in recent years, including Exodus International’s repudiation of reparative therapies and the organization’s subsequent demise. However, the movement continues to exist even as the efficacy and ethics of reparative therapies are debated. It is possible to identify three intersections between psychoanalysis and the ideology of sexuality that constitute the foundation of the ex-gay movement. The first of these is the role of psychoanalytic thought and clinical practice in constructing the intellectual foundations of ex-gay ideology. The second intersection is the use of psychodynamic critiques that Christian-therapeutic readings of emotional responses associated with non-normative sexualities seem to invite. And the third intersection is the use of psychoanalytic thought to interpret fundamental facets of ex-gay ideology. What these intersections suggest is that psychoanalysis can be a fruitful source of critique of the ex-gay movement and reparative therapies as well as a source of sexual regulation.