One by one

The slow die-off of this generation's pantheon of religious right icons continued yesterday as D. James Kennedy followed his colleague Jerry Falwell to the grave. Kennedy was slightly less well-known among mainstream circles, choosing instead to focus his ubiquitous bleating on Christian radio.

Rob Boston of Americans United has a collection of some of Kennedy's greatest hits. Most delightfully, Kennedy had an erstwhile habit of seeing Reds under every rock and bush.

"Just a few years ago, there were as many as ten thousand Communist professors in American universities. The average person never saw any of them, and many would doubt the truth of that statistic. But I can assure you it is true."

"Not all the educators in our public schools and universities are deliberately deceitful, not all of them want to destroy this nation, but many do. The major teachers' unions certainly do."

"Modern secularists and agnostics do not want to admit that the Christian religion is true, because that would mean that they are sinners; and they have no intention of giving up their right to sin."*

It will be interesting to see how the Christian Right, which is largely built around a cult of personality surrounding its leaders, reacts in the wake of the Old Guard fading away (Robertson and Dobson will likely follow within a few years). The younger generation is considered less politically extreme, but there is resistance.

*I'm particularly fond of this trinket, and would like to do a post on this general idea someday.