"A Christian Looks
At the Religious Right"
Joseph McCarthy's Link with the Early Religious Right
My interview with Billy Hargis, the fireball Disciples preacher from Tulsa, entertained me with some enlightening information. Hargis bragged to me about having Joe McCarthy into his home in Oklahoma. Billy told me what a kind gentleman the politician was. I knew that Billy had gone on public record as having claimed that McCarthy had been exonerated by history.(1) This is a common position found in the Religious Right. Texe Marrs, a right wing author from Austin, Texas is a noted author amidst the militia minded in the movement. Texe advises his readers that history has now vindicated Joe McCarthy from the ugly accusations made about him in the modern media.(2)
McCarthy is a natural link with the Religious Right through the zeal to fight world Communism. Preachers Billy Hargis and Carl McIntire worked closely with McCarthy seeking to expose ministers who were secretly Communist. Fundamentalism in America during this time often crossed over denominational lines in order to fight what was considered the Red Menace. Men like Baptist J. Frank Norris, who fought against Catholics as avidly as he did evolutionists, joined hands with Catholics in order to attack Communism. Attacking Communism appears to have been a cardinal doctrine of American Fundamentalism.
H.L Hunt, the wealthy oil baron who often funded right wing causes became personal friends with McCarthy.(3). Hunt brought McCarthy onto his right wing radio program on more than one occasion. The Hunt family funds many popular Religious Right movements even today. H.L. often equated integration with Communism which is a political position shared with preacher friend Hargis. Preachers McIntire and J. Frank Norris also shared that political viewpoint. McIntire once promoted the idea that the Revised Standard version of the Bible was a red plot. (4)
Christian Identity leader Wesley Swift once wrote the anti-semite fundamentalist pastor Gerald Smith thanking him for a picture of McCarthy. (5) McCarthy never publicly aligned himself with anti-semitism but ran in circles with such characters. Many anti communists leaders linked world Communism with Jewish leadership. Anti-semitism in America had a natural link with anti-communist leaders like McCarthy.
J.Frank Norris once accused Louie Newton, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention of being tainted by Communism. Author Barry Hankins claims Norris supported McCaithy.(6) The 1963 book on the Radical Right published by Columbia University claims the John Birch Society early on supported McCarthy.,(7) Birchers are a common thread in the many Religious Right groups around the nation. Articles supportive of McCarthy being unfairly attacked by the liberal media are found throughout the literature.
The linkage between McCarthy and American Fundamentalism is a curious one. McCarthy was a known womanizer, gambler and died an alcoholic. Moderate preacher Robert McCarken of Riverside church in New York City, was one of the few leading ministers to come out against McCarthy. (8) Other more mainline pastors non aligned with the Fundamentalist movement were apparently skeptical. Of particular interest is the presence of Ronald Reagan in McCarthy's camp during the fifties. (9) This factor might explain modern fundamentalisms' embrace of Reagan while it disdains the very name of Jimmy Carter.
Many experts say that McCarthy did more harm to the fight against Communism than good. He actually aided the spread of Communism by his crazy character assassinations. The same thing might be true of Fundamentalism. In its zeal to protect the Christian faith it might be doing the church more harm than good.
ENDNOTES
1. Billy James Hargis, "Declassified Soviet Cables Reveal Joe McCarthy Was Right", "Christian Crusade, May 1996, pg. 14.
2. Texe Marrs, "Flashpoint".
3. Chandler Davidson, RACE AND CLASS IN TEXAS POLITICS, Princeton Press, N.J. 1990, pg. 210
4. Gary Calbaugh, THUNDER ON THE RIGHT, Nelson Hall, Chicago, 1974, pg. 185.
5. Michael Barkun, RELIGION AND THE RACIST RIGHT, Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C. 1994, pg. 61.
6. Barry Hankins, GOD'S RASCAL, Univ. Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 1996, pg. 154.
7. Daniel Bell ed., THE RADICAL RIGHT, Doubleday, N. Y., N.Y., 1963, pg. 376.
8. David Oshinsky, A CONSPIRACY SO IMMENSE, Free Press, N.Y., N.Y., 1983, pg. 305.
9. Ibid. pg. 98.