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| Evangelical Politics in America |
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The Economist: Christian Conservatives "Will be Hard to Stop"
The Economist: Christian Conservatives "Will be Hard to Stop"
This report in today's Economist, asks the question "Why is the religious right as powerful as it is? " Some of the article's findings, which I largely agree with:
"Religious America's switch to the right is rooted in two things: liberal over-reach and conservative organisation."
"The religious right's organisational prowess is impressive. But it still leaves a movement that represents a minority point of view on many issues and is just as capable of over-reaching as liberal judges are."
The Catholic Church, which is still recovering from its paedophile scandal, is much less trenchant on gay marriage than it is about abortion. So are young evangelicals, who dislike any appearance of intolerance."
and then the grand finale. . .
"It seems that the religious right cannot fail to win. Either the Democrats continue to get more secular, in which case middle America will continue to vote Republican, or they will embrace religion a little more fully, and then the religious right will get a little more of what it wants."
Read the article for yourself, and tell me what you think (editor[at]faithandstate.com).
Evangelicals Embrace "New" Global Priorities
Is Helping the Poor a "New Priority" for Evangelicals?
In this Beliefnet article, Holly Lebowitz Rossi writes about Rick Warren's recent campaign against world poverty and the NAE's statements last year as evidence that conservative evangelicals have finally caved in to pressure and criticism from the religious left and decided to take up the issue of helping the poor. While this may seem to be the case from those on the liberal side of the political spectrum, this is far from the truth.
Conservative evangelicals have been huge supporters of organizations and programs dedicated to helping the world's poor for decades - this is nothing new. What is new is that religious conservatives and liberals are speaking from the same perspective on the issue of global poverty. This is due, not to some great awakening on the part of conservatives, but to some clever lobbying on the part of individuals like U2's Bono. For the past several years, the Irish rock singer's organization, DATA, has been carefully building left-right alliances around anti-AIDS and povery proposals by avoiding ideas and language that would be rejected by the White House and Republican-dominated Congress. For example, the acronym of his organization's name was changed shortly after it was founded to stand for: "Debt Relief, Aid AND Transparancy and Accountability." This went a long way towards neutralizing the criticisms of conservatives who complained that debt-relief would simply lead to the further enriching of corrupt governments.
So, in summary, the new consensus on global poverty is not forming because conservative evangelicals have changed their position on helping the poor, it is occuring because the rhetoric of the left has been toned down to become politically palatable to Republicans.
Evangelicals "Bending" the Political Spectrum
Are Evangelicals "Bending" the Political Spectrum?
In today's USA TODAY article, the case is made that by simply engaging in issues other than gay marriage and abortion, evangelicals "could help moderate the bitter tone of the nation's politics." If this doesn't illustrate the rising influence of evangelical Christians in American politics, I don't know what does. At least for the next few years, the political ball is firmly in the evangelical court.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-14-christian-right-cover_x.htm
Moscow Evangelicals Attacked by Police
Moscow Evangelicals Attacked by Police
Evangelical Christians Fight for a Church
U.S. policymakers should take note: the Russian government's gradual
regression towards authoritarianism isn't limited to jailing billionare
oligarchs. That Evangelical churches are being discriminated against in
Russia is nothing new, but there are signs that things are getting
worse. When the parishoners of Emmanuel Church took to the streets to
protest the fact that its repeated attempts to obtain land to build a
church have been unfairly undermined by the government, Putin's
government responded with Soviet-style brutality:
"But on May 30 and June 1, police and special forces violently
broke up the demonstrations, throwing women and children to the ground
and swearing at them, parishioners said. One of them, Marina
Karandayeva, raised her sleeve to show an ugly ring of bruises around
her arm . . ."
The church members were then taken to court and fined for
"participating in an unsanctioned demonstration." Two pastors
were taken to jail for five days.
MSNBC Questions Bush's Salvation
MSNBC Questions Bush's Salvation
This utterly silly article, "Bush, born again or not?"
,was posted last year, but it is a great example of both the huge
misunderstandings and confusion that still exist among journalists who
think they've got evangelical Christianity all figured out.
In this article, the author mentions the fact that President Bush has
never explicitly recited a "day, time & place" conversion narrative
as if it were some great scandal that would disqualify him from being considered an evangelical Christian. "George Bush has not said directly that he was ever born again[!]"
I think the author assumes that this would be healine news if the
evangelical ever got ahold of it. Key to the writer's missing of the
point in this article is a mixed-up understanding of evangelical
theology. Here an excerpt:
"Evangelicalism is a style of worship, not a set of beliefs, and to a
large extent evangelical Protestants are defined by their personal
stories of faith and by whom they choose as their pastor. But core to many evangelicals’ identity is the “born-again” experience
described in John 3:3, when a sinner undergoes an intense conversion
during a personal interaction with the Holy Spirit, often Jesus Himself." HUH??
Liberal Churches Form Alliance in North Carolina
Evangelicals Being Courted by Democratic Party
This article reports of a new alliance of politically liberal congregations being formed in North Carolina, (www.progressivechurches.org),just one of many being formed across the country in response to the much-publicized (but not yet verified) notion that conservative "values voters" delivered the presidency to Bush last year. The assumption that these progressive groups seem to have is that if only evangelicals knew that there was an alternative political philosophy, (i.e. you can oppose abortion and help the poor) then they would abandon the GOP in droves.
The Democratic Party and religious progressives have seized upon this as their great opportunity to bring evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics into their camp. Even Howard Dean himself has been making (often inarticulate) overtures to the evangelical camp. Here's why their strategy won't work:
1) Conservative Evangelicals Won't Budge Religious conservatives didn't become the mainstays of the GOP just last year - they have been around for decades. This group of voters haven't been voting Republican all these years just because of abortion (although that's why many of them started getting involved politics) - they also tend to line up with the party's platform on a wide-range of other issues as well (low taxes, gun ownership, pro-death penalty, etc.) It has taken decades for conservative evangelicals to distrust the Democratic Party as much as they do - it is foolish to think that this can be undone before 2008.
2) Many Centrists Would Rather Not Vote Evangelicals that drift around the center of the political spectrum have a secret weapon that Washington is totally unprepared for: political disengagement. This is not to be confused with political apathy, however. While these voters have a high interest in policy matters, many of them reserve the right to disengage from the political process when it forces them towards violating their convictions. When faced with a choice between unapealling candidates from both parties, many centrist evangelicals will likely retreat to the walls of the church and find other ways of influencing society.
3) Progressive Evangelicals are Already in the Fold John Kerry had plenty of evengelical Christians supporting him last year, just not enough. When Howard Dean and others try to convince evangelicals that the Democratic Party has a lot to offer them, and when political activists are reduced to printing silly (defeatist?) bumper stickers proclaiming "Democratic Have Moral Values Too", they are preaching to the choir. Most of the progressive-minded evangelicals who believe that the Democrats have a lot to offer them are alredy in the fold. Besides the core support of African-American pastors, they are mainly evangelical college professors and those who attend church regularly in places like San Francisco and Boston - they already stick out because of their faith, and they don't want their politics to further isolate them from the communities they live in.
I believe that most of the efforts at evangelical outreach by the DNC are a waste of time and money, much like the Republicans' efforts to reach out to African-Americans. In both cases, the parties are trying to gloss over years of insults, mistrust and policy disagreements with a handful of soundbites and vague campaign promises.
Evangelicals Divided Over Evolution
Finally, an article that reveals a fact that is hardly every publicized: "Evangelical Christians, [although] sometimes portrayed as monolithic in their opposition to evolution, are as divided as much of the rest of the nation."
Evangelicals divided over evolution - The Philadelphia Inquirer
British Christian Groups Protest 1st Human Cloning
This recent article in Christianity Today UK highlights the British Christian community's outrage at the recent announcement by British scientists from Newcastle University that they had cloned the first human embryo. Interestingly, the article cites that "the leading Christian social action charity CARE has been among the very first to speak out about its concerns." In the UK, Christian groups have long engaged their government in calling for social jsutice & poverty-alleviation, and now some of those same groups are beginning to become leading advocates for the sanctity of life. In the U.S., religious conservatives are being noticed for the opposite: moving from several decades of pro-life centered politics to also being more vocal about compassion for the poor. Either way, I think this is a reminder that these issues are all part of the same framework: respect for the life, and the lives, that God has created.
Evangelicals Experience a "New Breed" of Media Coverage
I see a pattern forming here . . .
A new breed of evangelicals joins U.S. elite, New York Times
The New Breed of Evangelicals, NYT Editorial by David Brooks
Evangelicals Rethink Their Public Face, MSNBC
Evangelicals Make Inroads at Ivy League Schools
Faith vs. Finance in the GOP?
Business Groups Tire of GOP Focus On Social Issues
from today's Washington Post.
"A big part of the base is pretty disappointed," - according to Larry Kudlow, because of what is seen as the GOP's focus on social issues at the expense of the fiscal discipline and spending cuts that economic conservatives expect from a Republican president and Congress.
My hypothesis is this: the battle between social and economic conservatives is a purely within-the-Beltway issue. The various conservative policy-promoting organizations that operate in the District of Columbia tend to be organized around narrow policy agendas, but the average American conservative (religious or not) is likely to hold a mixed bag of views on various policy issues. This fight for influence within the GOP does not necessarily reflect the views of voters in coming years
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