Compassion Campaigns and Antigay Politics: What Would Arendt Do?

Abstract

Compassionate conservatism is usually dismissed on the American political left as an empty slogan intended to mystify the real roots and aspirations of conservative politics. However, conservative Christian organizations and churches now conduct well-coordinated compassion campaigns on contested social issues such as sexual and reproductive rights. Through compassion campaigns, the Christian right also disseminates particular forms of political pedagogy regarding sexuality and compassion for followers who are subject to the movement's influence. Here, I turn to Hannah Arendt to analyze the politics of compassion at work in the ex-gay movement and in antiabortion projects such as Silent No More. This article presents evidence for a turn to compassionate pedagogies on the Christian right, analyzes these projects, and suggests ways that Arendt's political thought can inform our readings of conservative Christian compassionate discourse and political practices. COMPASSION CAMPAIGNSOver the last 15 years, the Christian right has matured as a social and political movement, and its compassionate pedagogies on contested moral/ cultural issues such as sexual and reproductive rights are one manifestation of that maturation. In some of its ideology and activism on sexuality, the Christian right has added softened rhetoric and a variety of