Politics and Christians - now there's a can of worms
Right. Left. Evangelical. Liberal. Religious. Non-religions. The polarization that has occured in this country due to religion fascinates me. - Amen?
Like Superman and Lex Luthor, Christ and Satan, "right" and "left" have been cast as mortal enemies in a saga that has played out like a good vs. evil B movie. This apparent divide has become excruciatingly obvious since G.W. figured out how to speak evangelical Christianese and started pulling the "religion card" to get elected. And it wasn't long after that the press finally discovered that, yes, there are people in the U.S. who really do believe that a God-man was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago. And, psst: these same people also believe this same God-man is still alive, and they worship him too. YIPES!
It was almost like the press corp finally became aware that Martians exist. And while that was shocking enough, they also found out that instead of being green, Martians are really pink.
I think I've seen more documentaries and news shows dedicated to "finding the 'real' Jesus" and "what does a captured evangelical really look like in its own habitat?" than I care to reflect on.
And so the Republicans have learned to speak Christian, the press has learned to disect Christian, secular society has learned to demonize Christian (as many Christians have unfortunately learned to do to unbelievers) and the Democrats have learned to ignore Christian.
Despite the liberal, or (let's use the new in vogue term) progressive, evangelical Christian intention to clean up their less politically correct evangelical kin and make them look presentable in public, this group of affluent middle-American Bible-thumpers doesn't quite seem to fit anywhere in the public arena, and I'm not sure they should. They don't identify with the fundamentalist right-wingers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who always seem to be able to offer the press an abominable quote about the latest world happening and how it is directly tied to the "end times." But these evangelicals don't quite seem to fit in with those Christians who are OK with abortions and such either. Some come across as hateful because of those stances, but they're the same people who take several weeks off work to travel to the Gulf coast to help with clean up efforts after hurricanes or send hundreds of dollars out of their household budgets to foreign countries devastated by natural disasters. Average middle-American evangelicals are admittedly tough to figure out if your not an average middle-American evangelical.
And now they're not only being courted by the Republicans, it seems as if the Dems are trying to get in on the action: http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/religion/14926802.htm
While evangelicals seem tough to define, I think that both Republicans and Democrats have made a fatal error. They have turned the average evangelical into a swing political vote that will sway left or right depending on how well you convince us you have morals or if you talk nicely to us in that sweet Christianese.
But Christianity is not a political party. It's a way of life. As a politician, you can't tell us that religion doesn't fit into the public arena and then try to convince us you're moral and you'll vote those morals just so you can get a political seat. You can't tell us that religion is a private matter between an individual and his or her God and then tell us that we need to create more faith-based groups to help with the ills of society. It's like telling a preacher to lead a church but he's not allowed to preach.
And these inconsistencies that religious and non-religious alike have been told to simply accept have placed such a divide between the non-religious and the evangelical that I'm not sure the gulf will be traversed any time soon. And over what? Two political parties that are more interested in getting their own side into power than they are about making sure that disasters like Katrina don't isolate an entire region of our nation or making sure that old folks don't have to decide between eating and taking their medicine or simply making sure the national budget is balanced.
Like Superman and Lex Luthor, Christ and Satan, "right" and "left" have been cast as mortal enemies in a saga that has played out like a good vs. evil B movie. This apparent divide has become excruciatingly obvious since G.W. figured out how to speak evangelical Christianese and started pulling the "religion card" to get elected. And it wasn't long after that the press finally discovered that, yes, there are people in the U.S. who really do believe that a God-man was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago. And, psst: these same people also believe this same God-man is still alive, and they worship him too. YIPES!
It was almost like the press corp finally became aware that Martians exist. And while that was shocking enough, they also found out that instead of being green, Martians are really pink.
I think I've seen more documentaries and news shows dedicated to "finding the 'real' Jesus" and "what does a captured evangelical really look like in its own habitat?" than I care to reflect on.
And so the Republicans have learned to speak Christian, the press has learned to disect Christian, secular society has learned to demonize Christian (as many Christians have unfortunately learned to do to unbelievers) and the Democrats have learned to ignore Christian.
Despite the liberal, or (let's use the new in vogue term) progressive, evangelical Christian intention to clean up their less politically correct evangelical kin and make them look presentable in public, this group of affluent middle-American Bible-thumpers doesn't quite seem to fit anywhere in the public arena, and I'm not sure they should. They don't identify with the fundamentalist right-wingers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who always seem to be able to offer the press an abominable quote about the latest world happening and how it is directly tied to the "end times." But these evangelicals don't quite seem to fit in with those Christians who are OK with abortions and such either. Some come across as hateful because of those stances, but they're the same people who take several weeks off work to travel to the Gulf coast to help with clean up efforts after hurricanes or send hundreds of dollars out of their household budgets to foreign countries devastated by natural disasters. Average middle-American evangelicals are admittedly tough to figure out if your not an average middle-American evangelical.
And now they're not only being courted by the Republicans, it seems as if the Dems are trying to get in on the action: http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/religion/14926802.htm
While evangelicals seem tough to define, I think that both Republicans and Democrats have made a fatal error. They have turned the average evangelical into a swing political vote that will sway left or right depending on how well you convince us you have morals or if you talk nicely to us in that sweet Christianese.
But Christianity is not a political party. It's a way of life. As a politician, you can't tell us that religion doesn't fit into the public arena and then try to convince us you're moral and you'll vote those morals just so you can get a political seat. You can't tell us that religion is a private matter between an individual and his or her God and then tell us that we need to create more faith-based groups to help with the ills of society. It's like telling a preacher to lead a church but he's not allowed to preach.
And these inconsistencies that religious and non-religious alike have been told to simply accept have placed such a divide between the non-religious and the evangelical that I'm not sure the gulf will be traversed any time soon. And over what? Two political parties that are more interested in getting their own side into power than they are about making sure that disasters like Katrina don't isolate an entire region of our nation or making sure that old folks don't have to decide between eating and taking their medicine or simply making sure the national budget is balanced.
posted by Jeno at
2:09 PM
2 Comments:
I e.mailed my comment to you about the fleece-wearing wolves and how in essence we're letting the White House and the courthouses blow us away. Next time I'll go right to the comments...sorry.
By
Anonymous, at 11:28 AM
I've read a few of your posts about Christians and politics. I thought you might be interested in The Politics of Heaven.
By
Ben Bush Jr, at 8:25 PM
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