By Any Other Name

Ken AshfordGodstuffLeave a Comment

Leaders of the religious right no longer want anybody to refer to them and their followers collectively as "the religious right".  According to John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life:

"People associated it with a hard-edge politics and intolerance. Very few people to whom that term now would apply would use that term."

Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations for Focus on the Family, added:

"Terms like 'Religious Right' have been traditionally used in a pejorative way to suggest extremism."

There is nothing about the term "religious right" that is perjorative.  It only became perjorative when the people associated with it engaged in hard-edge politics and intolerance.  It's not a branding problem.

Anyway, they now want to be called "social conservative evangelicals".

Which likely means that in 10-15 years, that term is going to be associated with intolerance and extremism.