Comments on TalkingDonkeys: Dems and the Evangelical Vote

"Evangelical" used to have a much broader meaning ...

2006-06-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

"Evangelical" used to have a much broader meaning than "fundamentalist and political far-righter." When I was a teen in the 1970s, fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell refused to use the term "evangelical" and claimed it was too liberal! (That didn't change until after fundamentalists helped Reagan win in 1980). Most evangelicals voted for Carter in 1976--which Time magazine heralded as "Year of the Evangelical." Although a large section of evangelical Protestants have always had conservative politics, this was by no means uniform or even close to it until the mid-1980s. There were many Evangelicals who supported the civil rights movement and many who were involved in anti-war/pro-peace efforts. Evangelicals were among the first to call attention to the environment in the '60s and '70s. I grew up as part of the "Evangelical Left." Now, people forget that such a phenomenon ever existed and when cracks begin to show in the solid control that the Far Right has over conservative Protestants, it is proclaimed an amazing development! I see it as the first sign of awakening from a long nightmare.

I do understand your confusion. The moral equation...

2006-05-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I do understand your confusion. The moral equation that the religious right folks use that process all the problems in the world and somehow spits out abortion and gay marriage as the two biggies, while ignoring so many others can be mystifying.

(For instance, how many sermons or religuously based outcries have you heard over the US as the worst post-natal death rate among all industrialized countries? Such defeaning silence lends credence to sharp tongued Barney Frank's observation: "The right-to-lifers believe that the right to life begins with conception and ends at birth." As the divorce rate among evangelicals -- as high as it is among non-churched folks -- call into doubt the deeper evangelical concern over "defense of marriage.")

That said, I do hope that the current level of thinking of many evangelicals is in a sense an early or immature stage of social concern.
I'm not saying that when it's "mature" it will see things my way. But I think when it is more mature, it will be broader. I say that because it would seem hard to argue that God's concern for the world's problems and suffering wouldn't be so much more broad.

That abortion or homosexuality top the current list of important evangelical sins -- both sex based you'll notice -- is because they touch the most "nerves."

Maybe over time they can see how concern for life can extend accross a whole "seemless garment" of issues, and how concern for supporting families, can extend way beyond the narrow issue of homosexuality...

The beginning of "creation care" or environmentalism showing up on the evangelical radar is perhaps a sign of that broadening process.

Too bad the evangelicals can't get as excited abou...

2006-05-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Too bad the evangelicals can't get as excited about "the unborn" in the shape of the future generations who are going to have to survive in the world we're leaving to them. While it's good to know a lot of them care somewhat about the environment and poor people, they somehow can't rouse themselves to the same heights of moral passion that they rise to in order to prevent gays from marrying or protect stem cells.

I honestly don't get the Christian far-right - what kind of mental or psychological aberration is responsible for making them tick. I would't believe it could exist, but the proof is staring me in the face in the newspapers every day.