Boston Herald columnist Don Feder called for the country to return to the moral and ethical values of the 1950s in a speech last night.
"An ethical reversion to that era would be an absolute blessing," Feder said. "There was a lot less crime, promiscuity, divorce."
Feder delivered the speech, a preview of his forthcoming book, "Who Is Afraid of the Religious Right?" to an audience of approximately 25 people in 3 Rockefeller.
Feder said the religious right represents most citizens of the country, who would favor a return to traditional Judeo-Christian values.
"When the average American looks in the mirror, he comes face to face with the religious right," he said.
Feder referred to polls that found 72 percent of Americans pray daily and 73 percent believe in God. He also pointed out the 1994 elections as a sign of the power of the religious vote.
Feder said the country was founded on religious traditions.
"The Constitution hearkens back to the Mayflower Compact," Feder said, which was a religious document. "This nation was essentially a Christian nation."
The current religious right are more diverse than many people believe, he said.
"The term 'religious right' suggests that those of us so categorized can be easily labeled," Feder said.
Not all members of the religious right are "white evangelical Protestants," he said, pointing to the Rabbinical Council of America as an example of one such group.
"We do want to legislate our morality," Feder said. "It isn't legislation of morality" that the religious right's opponents protest, he said, "but legislation of our morality."
Feder contrasted the views of the religious right with those of its political opposition.
"We believe in God, they believe in Freudian psychology," self-improvement tapes and healing crystals, among other things, he said.
"Our values work," Feder said, while "their" values will lead one to venereal disease clinics and guest spots on the Oprah Winfrey show.
"They believe that mankind is a random cosmic accident," Feder said. And, while the religious right believes that "sex has a moral dimension," they believe it "has none beyond the requirement of consent."
Feder said that in the eyes of the media he is a "contemptible, despicable human being" because of his beliefs regarding such issues as abortion and gay rights.
"I believe that gay rights are neither," Feder said, continuing that there was a difference between a recognized Judeo-Christian marriage and "two men living together, sodomizing each other."
Feder disagreed with pro-choice activists, saying abortion "is not the exercise of choice.
"Choice is when you pick Coke over Pepsi," he said.
The speech was sponsored by the Dartmouth chapter of Ivy Leaguers for Freedom.
