Robert Boston Tours Montana

"The Religious Right is not interested in finding common ground with you; the only ground they want is the ground you are standing on," said Robert Boston, assistant editor of Church and State, the monthly publication of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. A veteran Washington D.C. journalist, Boston appeared in Helena, Bozeman, and Kalispell in a January tour sponsored by the Network and the Montana chapter of the ACLU.

Boston spoke to sizeable and receptive audiences, exposing the religious right's extremist agenda. Boston told the crowds that the Christian Coalition controls the Republican Party in at least half of the states. He argued that the religious right has a political agenda much more threatening to democratic principles than is portrayed by Ralph Reed, director of the Christian Coalition.

Boston referred frequently to points made in his latest book, The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition, in which he contends that the Christian Coalition is a fundamentalist, ultra-conservative political machine that falsely claims to hold mainstream views. Politically active and obviously partisan, leaders of the Christian Coalition disguise their desires to abolish separation of church and state and public education, and to impeach the Supreme Court in a slick and subtle way in order to reach a wider constituency.

Boston said the progressive community needs to stand together against the theocratic state the religious right advocates, "Imagine a wall with all our issues placed on it--gay and lesbian rights, environmental protection, public education and so forth. If the Christian Coalition blows up the wall we all fall together. This is why we must stand together to defend our basic democratic principles."

This legislative session makes it abundantly clear that we need to organize a united front against the attacks from groups like the Christian Coalition. The religious right has succeeded in moving its political agenda--private school vouchers, establishing a theocratic state, mandatory school prayer--into a very public arena. Without a challenge, the religious right will continue to expand its power in the political process.