We have documented some of the grim horrors of past problems of Christianity in our Christian Totalitarianism Report.
However, these problems are not confined to the past. Below we document some reports and articles that highlight key issues among the political and religious right today. Now are saying that all Christians are like this? Absolutely not. However, the modern religious problems of today do have deep roots in the literal text of the bible, as well as in the theology of the early church fathers. The founding fathers of Christianity had fairly oppressive ideas on what the roles of women should be and used the bible to support their arguments. The bible has also been used by the white evangelical community in America to promote ideas of racism and slavery. And even after the Civil war, many members of the evangelical community still used the bible to defend the segregation of whites and blacks, along with marital miscegenation laws.
In the 1970's and 80's, the political, religious right in America came together initially not because of the issue of abortion (like many people believe), but actually because they wanted to keep black and white universities segregated. We document this more in our Racist Roots of the Religious Right.
While racism is no longer a major focus of most of the religious right in America today, they still try to use their platform to control people's sex lives (just as the early church fathers did from day one). This comes in the form of restricting access to reproductive health care, to helpful vaccines against sexual diseases and to birth control. They have also been involved in blocking comprehensive sex education in public schools. Such policies not only lead to ignorance, but often result in unwanted pregnancy, disease, rape and death. America is the number one country in the developed world for teen pregnancy. There is also a major campaign among the religious right to oppress the rights of homosexuals and provoke hatred against gays around the world. This has spread to Uganda via the American Evangelical community and has led to laws that criminalise homosexuality with life long imprisonment.
The religious right is also responsible in America for cheering on islamophobia and war mongering in the middle east. Many evangelicals were behind George Bush in his illegal war and self described "crusade" in Iraq.
And yet while the religious right tries to regulate and control the sex lives of every day Americans (as well as others around the world) they themselves are not short on sexual scandal. It was recently discovered that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sexually abusing young boys. Key leaders in the conservative Christian community such as Bill Gothard, Tim Haggard and Jim Bakker were involved in sex scandals. It's also worth noting that the Bible Belt in America leads the nation in the consumption of gay porn.
We also can't leave out the sexual perversions of the catholic church in terms of the rampant sexual abuse of young boys. While this is obviously not supported by most Catholics or catholic priests, the institution of the catholic church itself has not done nearly enough to bring justice against the men who engaged in these acts. If anything, it has done a lot over the years to sweep the issue under the rug.
So should conservative Christians have the right to regulate and control the sex lives of Americans when they don't even have their own sex lives under control? The following articles and reports speak for themselves.
THE SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS HATRED
Religious Problems in Modern America (World Future Fund)
Evangelism, holy war and the global environmental crisis. One million Iraqis died in a war cheered on by top U.S. evangelicals.
Racist Aspects of U.S. Christianity (World Future Fund)
Racism has been a key part of U.S. history. A majority of the white evangelical community supported slavery and anti-miscegenation laws. Interracial marriage used to be a felony in America.
Racist Roots of Religious Right (World Future Fund)
The religious right as a political movement in the United States came together not around abortion, as many believe, but to defend the segregation of universities.
Ugly Realities of Some Evangelical Support for Israel (World Future Fund)
Would the "true friends of Israel" support the death of two thirds of the world's Jews? While this sounds absurd, this is supported by scripture and and key voices in the evangelical community.
Quotes on Islam by Franklin Graham compiled on ReligiousTolerance.org
How US evangelicals are shaping development in Uganda (Aljazeera, 7-25-14)
SCANDAL AMONG THE POLITICAL RIGHT
Dennis Hastert gets 15 months in prison in child molestation case (CNN, 4-27-16)
Former House Speaker was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $250,000 to victims in a case that revealed that he was accused of sexually abusing young boys as a teacher in Illinois. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release once he finishes his prison term. His victims were as young as 14 and speak of the prolonged psychological trauma caused by the abuse.
GOP
Rep. Mark Foley, Chair of House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children,
Resigns Due to Homosexual-Pedophilia Scandal Former
House Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned on September 29, 2006 for
having sent sexually explicit email and instant messages to teenaged boys
(under 18) serving as pages in the U.S. Congress. Foley had made
fighting child pornography a center-piece of his congressional agenda and
in a particularly ironic twist he was serving as chairman of the House
Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children at the time the emails came to
the public's attention. The scandal promises to widen as the Justice
Department investigates Foley and the press continues to question when the
Republican leadership first learned about Foley's conduct. After
all this, "pro-family" Foley now admits he is an active homosexual and
says this was a result of having had sex with a minister. See
story.
(Washington Post, 10-1-06)
The Young Page Who Leaked the Mark Foley Messages (Politico, 11-20-15)
Claude
Allen, President Bush's Domestic Policy Chief, Charged with Felony
Theft (Washington Post, 3-11-06)
In March 2006, Claude Allen, President George Bush's
top domestic policy adviser, was forced to resign in disgrace after being
charged with felony theft in a scam to defraud Target and Hecht's stores
using returned merchandise he did not purchase at those stores.
Allen's resignation came as a deep disappointment to social conservatives
who believed Allen was "a stalwart for
marriage, for family, for abstinence education and ... unwavering in his
dedication to the things that our constituents value."
SEXUAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
Top
Evangelical Leader Discredited in Homosexual Scandal
Tim
Haggard, former head of the National Association of Evangelicals, has
admitted publicly that he has battled a lifelong "sexual problem" (aka
homosexuality), following allegations that he paid a man for sex and asked
the man to procure crystal meth for him. Ironically, perhaps,
Haggard's NAE has been vocal in its support of a so-called "family values"
political agenda which includes a ban on gay-marriage, a policy stance
that clearly conflicts with Haggard's secret life.
(CNN News, 11-6-06)
Bill Gothard, Big Name in American Home Schooling, Revealed as Sexual Predator (Patheos, 2-6-14)
Hobby Lobby Funded Disgraced Fundamentalist Christian Leader Accused of
Harassing Dozens of Women (Mother Jones, 7-2-14)
The Hobby Lobby gave millions to Bill Gothard.
Bill Gothard and Bob Jones University Abuse Scandal Connections: protecting leadership, silencing victims (Watch Keep, 3-31-14)
Bill Gothard Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Investigation (Gleanings, February 2015)
The Sexual Liaisons of Bi-Sexual Evangelist Jim Bakker (Patheos, 12-4-1996)
Jim Bakker is an American televangelist and former Assemblies of God minister and former host of the PTL Club, an evangelical Christian television program. A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry. Subsequent revelations of accounting fraud brought about his imprisonment and divorce. He later remarried and returned to televangelism. The article above discusses the sex scandal along with his homosexual relationships.
SCANDAL IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Cases of child abuse committed by priests, nuns and members of religious orders have led to numerous allegations, investigations, trials and convictions. The abused include boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old. The majority of the abused have been between the ages off 11 and 14. The accusations began to receive wide public attention in the 1980's. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice did an investigation of the matter in which they interviewed 98% of diocesan priests in the United States and 140 religious communities, representing 60% of all religious communities and 80% of all religious priests. From their numbers they found 4,392 Catholic priests who had been accused of sexual abuse. The percentage of all priests with allegations of sexual abuse is difficult to derive because there is no definitive number of priests who were active between 1950 and 2002. Also, in these communities there was tremendous pressure on the victims to keep silent, and much work done by those in administrative positions to sweep the scandal under the rug. So the true number of priests involved in sexual scandal could be much higher. The Vatican itself has revealed that it has defrocked 848 priests for molesting children, and another 2,572 with lesser penalties (CBS News). According to patheos, the sex abuse scandal has cost the Catholic Church over $4 billion. A number of diocese have even become bankrupt as a result of these scandals.
Now obviously most Catholics and catholic priests do not support the sexual abuse of children. Yet the leadership of the catholic church has not done nearly enough to bring justice to the people who have participated in the abuse. If anything, key members of the church have spent years sweeping this problem under the rug. Some of the abusers were simply moved to a different parish once the truth came out. Several cases have been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy for covering up sexual abuse allegations.
In addition to sex abuse, the Catholic church has a rather disturbing historical record in terms of supporting the murder and torture of those who didn't align perfectly with their ideology. (Christian Totalitarianism Report)
While Pope Francis has spread many positive messages about the environment and economic reform, the catholic church itself is still has a long way to go in order to deal with its record of violence and sexual abuse, including the sexual abuse that continues to occur behind closed doors.
The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors By Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950-2002 (John Jay College of Criminal Justice Report)
Sexual Abuse Claims Costs U.S. Catholic Church $4 Billion (Patheos, 11-4-15)
Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal Articles (Huffington Post)
The Catholic Church’s defiance and obstruction on child sex abuse (Washington Post, 4-19-16)
VATICAN SAYS BISHOPS NOT OBLIGED TO REPORT CLERICAL CHILD ABUSE (Occupy The Vatican, 2-11-16)
What’s the State of the Church’s Child Abuse Crisis? (PBS, 2-25-14)
Catholic Church sex abuse scandals around the world (BBC, 9-14-10)
RELIGIOUS INTERFERENCE IN SEXUAL EDUCATION
Jesus, Sex and Death in Modern America
Christian religious delusions about sex are a direct threat to life. (World Future Fund)
Religious Interference in U.S. Sex Education Produces Disaster New York Times 9/6/2008
CHRISTIAN PORN ADDICTION
Bible Belt Leads the Nation in Consumption of Gay Porn (Patheos, 3-13-14)
ChristiaNet Poll Finds That Evangelicals Are Addicted to Porn (Market Wired, 8-7-06)
TROUBLING HISTORICAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
U.S. Puritans and Religious Persecution
Troubling Origins of the "Shining City on a Hill" Quote (World Future Fund)
Christianity and Slavery (World Future Fund)
The Christian support for the American slave trade.
Horatio Alger, Child Molester As An American Hero? (World Future Fund)
Few people have done more in literature to promote the idea of the "American Dream." However, the ugly reality behind this American "hero" is that he was a child molester. (World Future Fund)
John Wesley's Failed Marriage: The Founder of Modern Evangelism Preached About Heaven While His Own Marriage Was in Hell (World Future Fund)
While the founder of Evangelism went around telling others how to run their marriages and sex lives, his own was a personal hell.
THE MYTH OF AMERICA AS A CHRISTIAN NATION
Jefferson on Religious Freedom and Puritans (World Future Fund)
Poll: Christians on the decline in the U.S. (Politico, 12-24-15)
35 Founding Father Quotes Conservative Christians Will Hate (Addicting Info, 7-4-13)