Who is "The Religious Right?"

"The Religious Right" is the constant punching bag of individuals who usually fall on the left side of the political spectrum but hardly do these individuals ever actually define which bag they are punching at. Sometimes "The Religious Right" seems to be anyone who is a Christian and has right-leaning views on politics. At other times "The Religious Right" is a small group of extremists who yield enormous power over the rest of America's backwood plebians.

Whoever "The Religious Right" are, they are usually the cause of almost all the world's problems. When abortions supposedly increase, it must be because of the economic downturn caused by "The Religious Right." When bloodthirsty terrorists fly planes into buildings, it must be because "The Religious Right" is a friend of Israel and stations troops in the Middle East. When an enormous tsunami kills hundreds of thousands of people, it's because "The Religious Right" has failed to be caretakers of God's creation. When sharks attack human beings, it's because "The Religious Right" has failed to teach its children to respect an animal's natural habitat. Just kidding about that last one.

The latest rant against "The Religious Right" is by Peter Ludlow, a philosophy and linguists professor at the University of Michigan.

Ludlow's treatsie is entitled "95 Theses of the Religious Right."

By reading his completely unsourced diatribe, I now understand that "The Religious Right" has a doctrine of institutionalized hatred and violence, shows no compassion to the poor, encourages violence against gay people, revels in anger, encourages the harassment of women and bombing of abortion clinics, fails miserably as parents, teaches their children to be hateful of gays and people of color, ignores the message of the cross, and is a "vile heretical movement, wholly outside the teachings of the Word of God."

I've now come to the conclusion that "The Religious Right" does not really exist since I doubt you could find a single person on the face of this earth that comes anywhere near meeting Ludlow's Theses. Rather "The Religious Right" is a much discussed bogeyman created out of irrational fears so left-leaning Christians and non-Christians can have some impotent bag to beat on during cocktail parties and faculty meetings.

Ludlow invites individuals to discuss his 95 Theses. He can be reached via e-mail at ludlow@umich.edu.