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122 Pol. Sci. Q. 89 (2007-2008)
Between Passion and Deliberation: The Christian Right and Democratic Ideals

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry122 and id is 89 raw text is: Between Passion and Deliberation: The Christian Right and Democratic Ideals JON A. SHIELDS Many thoughtful observers of the American political system have regarded the public activities of religious social movements as a threat to individual freedoms and deliberative democracy. Most recently, social scientists and public intellectuals have denounced the Christian right' for violating the norms of a pluralist democracy. They have even compared it to violent and theocratic movements within Islamic fundamentalism. Although Christian right organizations do arouse moral passions, especially in order to mobilize apa- thetic citizens, they also labor diligently to moderate and inform the passions they have provoked by encouraging activists to embrace deliberative norms, especially the practice of civility, the rejection of theological appeals, and moral reasoning. These labors are undertaken because success in democratic politics requires more than an agitated membership-it also demands deliberative ac- tivism. Perhaps more surprising, Christian right leaders routinely ground these deliberative norms in scripture. From their perspective, Jesus was a reasoning and civil interlocutor rather than a belligerent moralist. To violate these delib- erative norms, then, is not just impolitic; it is also unfaithful. Of course, uncompromising extremism can be found in the Christian right. Contrary to the vast majority of evangelicals and Catholics who comprise the Christian right, some fundamentalists, such as Jerry Falwell, Randall Terry, and Bob Jones, have understood their belligerency through a very different inter- pretation of Christianity and have embraced strategies and tactics consistent with their theology. And although they have proven to be remarkably poor organization builders, some did manage to build direct action organizations, 'I define the Christian right as the movement of theologically orthodox Christians (especially evangelicals and Catholics) that has been mobilized around conservative social causes. JON A. SHIELDS is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University and has published articles on the politics of bioethics, the new left, and Christian con- servatives. Currently he is finishing a book that explores the relationship between democratic ideals and the Christian right. Political Science Quarterly Volume 122 Number 1 200- 89

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