October
30th 2007
Posted under Uncategorized
As per usual, the MSM catches up what what’s been written about in the pages of opinion magazines like Chronicles. Nonetheless it’s a very good article and it shows how the war and near slavish devotion to the GOP has split a lot of churches and religious communities.
Kevin Phillips wrote in his latest book that Anglican church begane to decline in England because it too closely identified itself with Rule Britannia which was wrecked by World War I. He warned the sqame could happen to churches like the Southern Baptists if disillusionment about the war spread and right now he looks like prophet.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21508301/
Chris Hewlett on 30 Oct 2007 at 5:29 pm #
Verily, that’s all well and good, but a warm and fuzzy feeling does not ensue about evangelicals moving to the political left. In all that long article not a mention of immigration – or did I miss it?
ERIC on 30 Oct 2007 at 5:44 pm #
“In all that long article not a mention of immigration”
This is one area where I’m dissappointed in most evangelical LEADERS, actually the larger picture of race in general (including affirmative action programs ect.).
The LEADERS don’t address these issues and when picking a candidate to back such as Huckabee, they seem to ignore that Huckabee is horrible when it comes to race issues such as immigration, affirmative action ect.
Patroon on 30 Oct 2007 at 6:13 pm #
Eric, if evangelical leaders are trying to present more “warm and fuzzy” image to the rest of the country, don’t you think immigration would be the last issue on earth they would touch?
Besides, lots of new Hispanics are evangelical Protestants and its doubtful evangelical leaders would want to close the door on them.
ERIC on 30 Oct 2007 at 6:19 pm #
Patroon
What you said is exactly the difference between MAINSTREAM (fake) evangelicals and HARDCORE (real) evangelicals.
There are many mainstream and very few hardcore.
The gospel speaks on these issues and the mainstream leaders ignore the gospel when it comes to these issues, but there are some/very few who do speak on these issues.
ERIC on 30 Oct 2007 at 7:07 pm #
A great article called: Ten Things the Republican Nominee Must Understand to Earn the True Conservative Vote
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DouglasMacKinnon/2007/10/30/ten_things_the_republican_nominee_must_understand_to_earn_the_true_conservative_vote
RedPhillips on 30 Oct 2007 at 7:13 pm #
We have been discussing this a lot at the No Left Turns blog. Evangelicals are not becoming political liberals. That is liberal and MSM wishful thinking. Some of the leadership has tried to switch the focus, but I think that is primarily motivated by PR considerations, not by faith. The rank and file is not following along. I have never met any of these liberal evangelicals. The only liberal “evangelicals” I know are also theologically liberal. So it is part of a package. At some point, if you become theologically liberal you are no longer really an evangelical since evangelicalism is virtually defined by certain orthodoxies.
What is happening is that evangelicals have grown tired of politics and to some degree tired of the culture war. After years of promises and years of frustration, they are just becoming disinterested. But the evangelicals I know are nearly reflexive Republicans. They are not going to vote for Hillary. Some may vote third party. Many will just not be sufficiently motivated to show up to the polls.
I do think some evangelicals are rethinking the War. I hope so. But that is not due to some generalized movement to the political left.
Andrew T. on 30 Oct 2007 at 7:54 pm #
ERIC,
What on earth is classified as a “mainstream fake” evangelical and what is a “hardcore” evangelical?
You really seem to thrive on polarization.
ERIC on 30 Oct 2007 at 8:03 pm #
Hardcore true evangelical leaders are the ones who are not affraid to preach all of the gospel even if it offends anyone.
Mainstream fake evangelical leaders are the ones who water down the gospel so they don’t offend anyone and so they can grow their congregation.
ERIC on 30 Oct 2007 at 8:07 pm #
“You really seem to thrive on polarization.”
I don’t think so, but maybe it’s because I seem to see things others don’t.
The mainstream media is a controled entity and so are mainstream evangelical churches, just like the mainstream/establishment republican party and democrat party.
Harold Crews on 30 Oct 2007 at 8:48 pm #
It might come down to the observation that the fruit of victory often contains the seed of defeat. The Evangelical movement in the last several decades experienced very rapid growth. The current apparent confusion is probably the result of that rapid growth. The mega-church evangelicals, often the most prominant and influential, sometimes sacrificed orthodox Christian teachings to maximize growth. Now the tendancy for some to re-prioritize their outreach or ministries is the result of that. I have read articles outlining ‘marketing’ programs for the Gospel that many of these mega churches embraced. These are only my impressions.
roho on 31 Oct 2007 at 1:19 am #
Eric………………………I know where you are comming from, as I had Southern Baptist Pastors on my mother’s side of the family and Pentacostal Evangelists on my Father’s side…….(Ha-Ha)……..When a true evangelist(For revival)comes in to a Pastors Church, NOBODY is off limits, and the Pastor has to get band aids for the congregation when the evangelist leaves!……(Ha-Ha)….Many great evangelists preach to Preachers that need preaching to after years of focusing on just numbers in the seats. SALVATION is the #1 priority of an evangelist and politics are irrelevant…….I understand this, but also understand that certain races and denominations spend half a day on church stuff and half a day on politics! And they do create voting blocks within the system to benefit their agenda.
Patroon on 31 Oct 2007 at 3:14 pm #
Harold is exactly right. Here’s a another thing we should keep in mind. Paraphrasing the book Dead Right “American Religion does not stand apart from American culture. It participates in that culture. It gets its ideas from that culutre. It reflects and echos the culture.” So if the American people and subsequently the American culture is disillusioned by the war and tied of the Culture War, then naturally, American religion is going to be tired of it as well. This is especially true of evangelicals because without a heierarchy or structure to their religion, which they purposely rejected, they are the most vulnerable to the prevading whims of the prevading culture.
Chris Hewlett on 31 Oct 2007 at 3:47 pm #
The word is prevailing – there is no such word as prevade.