Kudzu Ain’t Roses 🥀

#Maddow: Far-right media has never convinced Americans that conservatives are good https://t.co/9aIR93eWeM

— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 25, 2023

And in the '80’s there were the “cable evangelicals.” Before FoxNews there was Pat Robertson and his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). The main show there was Pat’s “700 Club,” He was the Tucker Carlson of his day. He claimed to speak for God, and he pronounced a decidedly hard-right vision for America. He discovered and promoted Jim and Tammye Faye Baker, who were so wildly successful at getting strangers to send them money even Robertson was impressed. Trump wishes he was as good at it as they were.

The whole point of cable evangelism was money: all the TV preachers begged for money. And they all claimed authority based on their audience size and their fundraising abilities. Robertson had his network; Falwell raised enough money to start Liberty University and claimed his “Moral Majority” gave him political strength. The Bakkers turned “The PTL Club” into a cable network and a powerful financial base. Oral Roberts had a TV audience he could shill for his hospital.

And then Roberts cashed in his popularity by running for the Republican nomination for president. It wasn’t the cause of the collapse of evangelical cable television, but it works as the beginning of the end. Robertson failed miserably in his quest, and his reputation as a power broker and an important figure never recovered. Outside of his bubble even the GOP wasn’t interested in him. The Bakkers were convicted of fraud, Oral Roberts demanded Tulsa pay for his hospital when he couldn’t (they declined), and he told his supporters God would take him if they didn’t pay. They didn’t, and God didn’t, and his hospital was eventually shuttered. Liberty University survived Falwell’s death, but his Moral Majority didn’t. The university survived his son’s disastrous tenure as President. It still operates, but does it really matter? All of those who were “winged with awe, inviolable” are, 40 years later, absolutely forgotten. “Slow on the leash! Pallid the leash-men!”

I would contrast that with the hospital, orphanage, mental health care facility, and support facility for ship workers on the Mississippi organized by German immigrants in the 19th century as Christian missions, in St. Louis and Biloxi, Mississippi. All of them continue to operate and serve to this day. The founders were good, kind people trying to help others as part of their Christian witness. Their works far outlived them. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t due to some mysterious metaphysical power, or because they use modern technology to ceaselessly beg for money. There is a power behind the universe that works for good; but humans are an important agency of that power.

Rachel is right: the far right wing in America persists, like kudzu. But it’s never more effective, nor admired, than a weed. Weeds will always be with us: but they’ll never be gardens.