"A Christian Looks
At the Religious Right"
The Religious Right and Family Values
One of the most infamous stories to ever come from the Midwest is an intriguing story about a newly-wed couple from Billy James Harris' Christian college. According to accounts, the young lady tearfully confessed to her husband that he was not the first. She confided that she had slept with brother Billy Hargis while in his college. The husband, taken agasp with shock, recoiled and confessed to his wife that she too was not his first. He had also slept with brother Billy! Needless to say scandals like that made Jimmy Swaggart's escapades pale by comparison.
The interesting point about Billy Hargis is that he has been credited with founding the Religious Right. His friend, Carl McIntire, gives him the honor of starting the movement. McIntire ought to be an expert. His early Right Wing ventures claiming divine mandates for his extreme politics made him a national figure. McIntire worked closely with Hargis and the notorious Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy is a peculiar running mate for preachers like McIntire and Hargis. McCarthy was known to lead a rather promiscuous lifestyle. Joe died from alcoholism and was seldom known to restrain himself from gambling, drinking, or womanizing. Perhaps the furthest right of all the right wing journals in the U.S. was "The American Mercury", which blasted Hargis' alleged homosexual tendencies. The point to be taken is that the movement Billy supposedly gave birth to is billing itself as concerned about family values.
Another friend of Joseph McCarthy and bankroll for the Religious Right was H.L. Hunt. H.L.'s libido was world famous. Some biographers claim Hunt believed he had a special genetic trait that was a gift to the world. He wanted to thus spread this gift around the planet as much as possible. Some suggest this is the reason for having two secret families. Others suggest he was always a guy with an eye for the ladies. Some writers have H.L. hiring prostitutes to follow his mentally ill son around the house. These "nurses" were to tend to his needs. Hunt was one who enjoyed gambling.
He once gambled with Al Capone. Sources claim he was still gambling away hundreds of thousands of dollars the weeks before he died. To preserve his superior genetic traits, he is supposed to have sent an aid out to find a blond German woman to help carry on the family name. Hunt's political ties and philosophies were such that he is one of the first people investigated by the FBI after John Kennedy's death.
No less notorious in family values is Colen Davis. A recent movie highlighted the life of the wealthy Texan who once hired Race Horse Haines to defend him in his murder trial. In an earlier white version of the O.J. "trial of the century", Davis' legal encounters had almost the exact same accusations and results. Davis used his bankroll to fund the founding of the Council on National Policy. This secretive organization reads like a whose who among the Religious Right. Hargls' influence, blazing trail of political activism and literature combined with Hunt's and Davis' money helped to provide the foundation for the modern movement. These men's idealogy can be seen in contemporary features of the movement. They provide a peculiar backdrop for a movement billing itself as the family values alternative.
Republican "family values" faithful might forgive Gingrich's and Dole's moves to check in the first mate for a newer more compact model, (Or as William Bennett called it, "going for a trophy wife"). Ronald Reagan's track record might be bushed aside in these issues. (Reagan once failed to recognize his own son at the son's graduation from high school.) But, Hargis, Hunt, and Davis have a lot of history to overcome if anyone is to take family values that seriously.