Religion in American Politics

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that the religious right prevents social progress in America by electing and lobbying religious politicians who legislate on the basis of a Christian agenda. Specifically discussed is gay rights, funding for HIV prevention and research, a possible ban on gay marriage, and impeding gay adoption. Countries such as Canada and those in the European Union are far ahead of us in social legislation due to the religious right's stronghold on American politics.

From the Paper:

"In the book Gay and Lesbian Rights, David E. Newton defines the "homosexual agenda": "the right to publicize the gay lifestyle, insisting that it be accepted and a normal and natural alternative to "heterosexuality," and the right to teach children this kind of information" (22). Now, to a rational many of us, this is not very shocking. Most of us have been taught the value of acceptance our whole lives. So why is promotion of tolerance in our schools so abominable to Christian anti-gay activists? Do they perhaps think that their child can be "turned" gay by being exposed to openly homosexual students, or those who are, as Bennett puts it, "homo-sympathetic"? A ridiculous notion, surely, but what other explanation is there?"

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