E. J. Dionne Jr. has an excellent article on The New Evangelical Politics. He writes:
Anyone who still doubts that the evangelical Christian world is going through a political revolution was not watching Pastor Rick Warren’s presidential forum this weekend. The era of reducing Christianity to a narrow set of ideological commitments is over.
Just a few years ago, who would have imagined that Barack Obama and John McCain would hold a discussion of this sort in a church? Who would have thought that the session would be moderated by an evangelical pastor who was emphatic in counting both the Democrat and the Republican as his “friends”? Who would have predicted that in such a setting, the issues of abortion and gay marriage would not dominate the pastor’s queries? …
In 2004, Warren took the view that Christians should vote on a short list of “nonnegotiable” issues, including abortion. But in 2006, on Fox News, of all places, Warren declared: “Jesus’s agenda is far bigger than just one or two issues. . . . We have to care about poverty, we have to care about disease, we have to care about illiteracy, we have to care about corruption in government, sex trafficking.” That is the new politics of evangelical Christianity.
Read the article then come back and let Eclectic Christian know what you think.
Michael Bell
Joshua Hearne
Tim Melton
Joel Black
I’m not too thrilled about using the Church for political purposes.
I think church members ought to be very involved in politics and form groups and organize, etc.
But the Church ought be for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and His forgiveness of sins.
I am a firm believer in the Two Kingdoms Doctrine.
Thanks!
Good points Steve (theoldadam).
I particularly liked what happened here because the church was standing aside from politics, and just acting as a venue where people could be reasonably informed on the sorts of questions that Christians might have, and form their own opinions.
This is quite different from what we had a number of years ago under the guise of the “moral majority”.
A plea to Evangelicals
Please help me.
I’m trying to understand.
I know you believe in the Jesus Christ. He was called the Prince of Peace.
I cannot figure out how or why so many Evangelicals support war. Or do they?
Here are my questions.
1. Do you believe in pre-emptive war?
If so, how does that reconcile with what Christ taught us?
2. Do you consider Bush to be a supporter of your principles?
Last night on 60 minutes, reporter Bob Woodward describes his book in which he indicates Bush has been fascinated with the death counts in the Iraq war. He keeps asking how many we have killed. He is quoted as saying “Kill the b@$t@ards! Kill the b@$t@ards!”
3. Are those attitudes by Bush something the Evangelicals support?
4. Do you think Sarah Palin, like Bush, supports warfare in general, or this war in Iraq?
5. Do evangelicals support the war in Iraq?
Christian Liberal,
Some evangelicals are pacifist. Most are not.
Just like liberals have both pacifists and non-pacifists among them.
One of my favourite musical artists is Bruce Cockburn who would probably be best described as being in the Christian Liberal camp.
Here is what Bruce had to say about war.
“I was never a pacifist,” he says. “I think peace is better than war and that non-violent solutions are much better if you have the option of finding those… But I think sometimes it comes down to you have no choice.
“I can say for myself, ‘You go ahead and shoot me; I don’t care. I’m not going to raise a hand against you. The guilt’s on you.’ But I can’t say that on behalf of my granddaughter … If I’m in a position to try to defend her, I have to exercise that choice. This is where the notion of pacifism breaks down for me… Sometimes you just don’t have the choice.” (From Alex Roslin )
So, to answer your questions, evangelicals are too broad a group to be put into one camp. My views on war are probably close to that of Bruce Cockburn. I think for both Iraq and Afghanistan there were other options.
If you peruse my blog archives you will find that I have written a fair bit on how evangelicals may have quite different political views and yet still be called evangelicals. Ultimately being evangelical is a theological term, and not a political one.
Christian Liberal,
I support it. I think it would be a very un-Christian thing to do to A. let people suffer and be tortured by Islamofacists in their own country and not lift a finger to save them and B. Let our own people here be murdered and not be allowed to practice their faith because Islamofacists want to do us in.
I also think that the Revolutionary War was a good war. WWI and WWII. The Korean War (they are still safe and living freely in the South because of us).
Although Vietnam was lost to the Communists who eventually murdered millions in SouthEast Asia, I believed that was a noble effort to save a free people as well.
What a shame that all the pacifists and isolationists delayed doing something about Hitler until it was almost too late. Untold millions of lives could have been saved by going to war a year or two earlier.
Eclectic Christian,
I think it’s a shame that your topic was interrupted by one trying to make political gains.
I think that is the goal with Liberal Christian. I didn’t notice too much interest in the ultimate issues of the day…just a political agenda.
To the extent that I gave in to the ploy…I apologize.
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Thanks for the traceback Joel. I accidentally deleted your comment to my about page.