[Rocketfan]

By David P. Gushee


Conservative evangelicals are bringing a version of Christian values into the public arena where every American has to deal with it, like it or not. A recent example of this is the way grass-roots "Bible-believing Christians" in the Republican Party are boosting the candidacy of Mike Huckabee, and quite possibly sinking the campaign of Mitt Romney, mainly because Romney is a Mormon — yet another misunderstanding of the way faith is relevant to politics.


Evangelical politics matter to the general public, which is affected by what conservative evangelicals believe and "value." In the past seven years, we have seen that laws are written based on these values. Supreme Court justices are named based on these values. Executive-branch appointments are made based on these values. And presidential campaigns now seem to advance or collapse based on these values.


So the general public has come to understand that what conservative evangelicals believe and do matter an awful lot to everyone in this country. Many people are furious about it. But these beliefs and values also matter to other Christians, especially other evangelicals like me. Our reputation is at stake, our voice in the culture, and the health of our religious communities. If the most vocal evangelicals get this wrong, it damages all evangelicals — all religious believers, really.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200801 ... I9FsIDW7oF

[El Scorcho]

Our reputation is at stake, our voice in the culture, and the health of our religious communities.

I don't mean this to be snide or smart alecky, but really? Too late, dude. If he thinks evangelicals have any reputation left in the culture at large, he couldn't be more wrong.

[RagingTireFire]

I'm not sure I get the point of what he's trying to say. He's embarassed as an evangelical because other evangelicals are being too evangelical and not evangelical enough?

[Rocketfan]

I'm not sure I get the point of what he's trying to say. He's embarassed as an evangelical because other evangelicals are being too evangelical and not evangelical enough?

- nicely done.

[JeanW]

Our reputation is at stake, our voice in the culture, and the health of our religious communities.

I don't mean this to be snide or smart alecky, but really? Too late, dude. If he thinks evangelicals have any reputation left in the culture at large, he couldn't be more wrong.

EXACTLY!

[Ed Dantes]

I already think there's a shift. The evangelical charge of lately, fanned by politicians, has basically been the "evangelicals need to be in the political arena so we can effectively hate the queers." Politicians like Karl Rove have capitalized on this, painted his party as the one to get those things done for the wrong reasons (evangelicals: "homosexuality destroys the family". Rove: "okay, sure, vote for us")

But there's really a divide of sorts: #1 Evangelicals haven't been outspoken about their beliefs and #2 they've been too outspoken.

I'll address #2 first. Because the Republican party is the only one that'd address the two social ills, abortion and homosexuality, evangelicals have begun to vote Republican. That's led them to take up other Republican causes that aren't exactly in line with evangelical thinking (such as drilling for oil in Alaska, opposing global warming & illegal immigration, being against welfare). Somewhere around the time the Christian Coalition made "tax cuts" one of their big political issues, they should have been forced to cash in their card and say that they're just another political advocacy group.

#1 -- Meanwhile, there have been real social ills. AIDS in Africa kills so many people that it's like the continent suffers from a 9/11 attack everyday. I don't hear Pat Robertson championing that cause. America does suffer from Poverty, but I don't see Tony Perkins on that one. I really don't think Jesus would have waged a war in the Middle East, but I don't see Oral Roberts on that one.

But there is a shift. Rick Warren has taken up the AIDS in Africa cause. That guy from the Southern Baptist convention took up global warming. Jim Wallis opposes the War in Iraq. These are people looking to their faith first, and then political causes second. I think for the longest time, we as evangelicals abandoned that.

[El Scorcho]

I already think there's a shift.

Me too. I've been studying it quite a bit lately. It's fascinating.

[LUconn]

It's climate change!