DangerousTalk

Last year when the whole Proposition 8 campaign was in full swing, all the fundamentalist religious groups raised record amounts of money. Just to give you an idea of what record amounts of money looks like, here are the top two fundamentalist groups:

Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) – $278.7 MILLION Dollars
Focus On The Family – $160 MILLION Dollars

After they won the Proposition 8 Campaign, both groups celebrated with lay offs:

Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) – Cut 60 Jobs
Focus On The Family – Cut 202 Jobs

In other words, these groups raised and spent large amounts of money and won a small victory, which ended up costing them in the long run. Not only that, but last week, while these groups were out spending money fighting Vermont’s legalization of Same-Gender-Marriage (which they lost) they dropped the ball on Iowa. They actually lost a state, which isn’t all that liberal.

The funny thing is that they vastly outspend progressive groups on this issue and they are losing group. Now that Iowa has legalized Same-Gender Marriage, more progressive states will start stepping up out of sheer embarrassment. Within the next few months we will no doubt see an avalanche of states legalizing Same-Gender-Marriage.

As the economy continues to slow up, fewer donations will be made to these Religious Right organizations and yet they will have to step up their spending if they wish to continue their fight on this issue. The Culture War is coming to an end in a similar fashion as the Cold War with the Soviet Union came to an end. The Religious Right has over extended their hand and now they are struggling to keep up the fight. The more we box them in on this issue and similar issues the more money they will have to drain to keep up the fight. Soon they will have to admit defeat on this issue and play the persecuted card. But they can only play that card so often before they completely drain their base of resources.

How does this affect Christianity as a whole? Quite frankly, the Religious Right are the face of Christianity and the more they look silly the more people will distance themselves from Christianity as a whole. Multiple polls are showing the same trends. Christianity as a whole is on the decline, yet fundamentalism is on the rise. More mainstream Christians are becoming fundamentalists and fundamentalists are losing ground financially. Because at the end of the day, fundamentalists still hold the Biblical High Ground when it comes to Christian belief and yet they hold the Moral Low Ground when it comes to the issues.

Filed under: Decline of Religion, Gay Issues, Politics, Religion, sex