#ProudWokeHistory Religion in America The Abortion "Myth" After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, several agencies, including the EOC and IRS, had sought to penalize schools for failure to abide by antisegregation provisions, and one of these targets was Bob Jones University. Their tax-exempt status was at risk after a court case in 1971 that forbade institutions to qualify as a tax-exempt institution if they practiced segregation. Bob Jones University forbade interracial marriage. To the Evangelicals, the IRS attempt to deny tax-exempt status to segregated private schools represented an assault on religion, and many evangelical leaders mobilized against it. One of their earliest architects and leader was Paul Weyrich, and he saw the evangelical discontent over the Bob Jones case as the opening he was looking for to start a new conservative movement using evangelicals as foot soldiers. According to Weyrich, what caused the movement to surface, “was the federal government’s moves against Christian schools.” The IRS threat against segregated schools," he said, “enraged the Christian community.” He used this to mobilize others for a broader political movement. The Religious Right arose as a political movement for the purpose of defending racial discrimination at Bob Jones University and at other segregated schools. To provide you a historical example of how far the religious right has become more extreme, I'm going to end with a quote from W. A. Criswell, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, expresses his SATISFACTION with the Roe V Wade ruling: “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed." One must wonder now that Roe V Wade having been overturned where they will turn to next politically? If history is any indication, we are already seeing this with anti-tran laws.
@DemSoldierJr “To the Evangelicals, the IRS attempt to deny tax-exempt status to segregated private schools represented an assault on religion, and many evangelical leaders mobilized against it.” Because nothing is more Christ-like than blatant racism. 🤬
@DemSoldierJr @kathrynresists Interesting...
@DemSoldierJr Religion in the United States needs an exorcism urgently !