I'm going to be as forthcoming as I can with you. The biggest problem with evangelicalism today is that so many of us are trying to serve two masters - but not God and money. The biggest stumbling block that we have, and a cause of many of our other problems, is that we have pledged our allegiance to the Republican party. Like the Roman Catholic Church of early Christian history, we've tried to unite God and government, and that corrupts both our religion and Republicans. We get the worst of it, though, because most politicians are already corrupt.
Now, before I go on, I want to make one thing clear: very little of this is because of what happens in our pulpits Sunday morning (though there is a little of that in every church, and a lot of that in very few churches). We get it from Christian books, Christian colleges or school curriculum, Christian radio, Focus on the Family voter guides, and various issue groups. It's nebulous, and it's probably not your pastor's fault. Having said that, let's talk about the problem.
The union we have began, essentially, in the late 1970s and early 80s, for what I believe was a good cause - putting a stop to abortion in the wake of Roe vs. Wade. The origins are a bit complex and darker than that, but we'll save that for another post. Reagan's pro-life presidential run was when most evangelicals got on board with the Republican party. Before that, evangelicals were not a coherent voting block as they've become today.
There are two big problems with this alliance. The first, and easier to see, is that evangelicals haven't gotten much out of the deal. Take a look, for the easiest and most recent example, at the Bush years. I believe president Bush is a Christian, and I voted for him both times. From his election until November of 2006, both houses of Congress had Republican majorities. During that time, what did we see done about abortion? We did see a ban on partial birth abortion, a procedure that had been done 2,000 times per year. That's it. Now, that's something, but it amounts to less than .2% of the million abortions we have a year. Further, it didn't ban late term abortions, but one method of late term abortions. Whichever category of women sought those abortions in the past are likely still getting late term abortions, just by a different method. So, that's what we saw, in return for electing a President twice and who knows how many congressmen. Effectively, nothing. A cynic might point out that if the Republicans dealt with abortion, many of us might stay home, and there may be something to that idea in terms of explaining why they promise so much but deliver so little. So, first problem: voting Republican doesn't get us much, if anything.
The second problem is this: our desire for Republicans to succeed forces us to make a difficult choice whenever God and Republicans disagree. And we often make the wrong choice, or follow the wrong leader. Evangelicals supported preemptive war in Iraq, we're the group most likely to support torture, we (loudly) denounced a free-market attempt to provide healthcare to all Americans, we're currently fighting for lower than record-low taxes on the top 1% while shouting that the national debt is too high, we unconditionally support military spending which we could cut in half and still be ahead of Russia & China combined, we complain about people being on food stamps (a program I personally think God is delighted with) when unemployment is the highest it's been since the Great Depression, and let's just say that our views on immigration widely diverge from "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 19:34)". I know I've painted with a broad brush, we're all individuals, etc., but many of us have held or hold views that are entirely at odds with scripture, because it's easier to support Republicans wholesale than to say, "I'm voting for Romney, just because he's pro-life, but there are a lot of things I like better about the Democrats." Pledging allegiance to the Republicans, to whatever degree that you do so, blinds you to the areas where they ignore what God cares about.
Now, if we did the opposite, and just switched to Democrats, in 30 years we'd have the same problem. That's no long-term solution, although it could certainly make waves if Democrats thought there were votes to be had by appealing to believers. Right now, neither party has to compete for those votes, because they're essentially locked up. I'm not saying you have to switch sides. I would suggest becoming an honestly independent voter, though. Make a list of major issues, and try to figure out, honestly, which party is on God's side with each one. If you come up all Republican, your worldview may be infected and you might need to clean it out. Same thing goes the other way, if you're all Democrat. Keep in mind the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who we would likely say today was on the right side: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Only about 35% of Americans consider themselves Republican. Let's not alienate the other 65% from Christ by clinging too closely to Republicans, and let's not give Republicans a free pass when a particular policy (or many, as I'll likely argue in a future post) are simply against Christian teaching. There's a lot more to talk about here, but that's a start. Let me know how you see it in the comments.
Now, before I go on, I want to make one thing clear: very little of this is because of what happens in our pulpits Sunday morning (though there is a little of that in every church, and a lot of that in very few churches). We get it from Christian books, Christian colleges or school curriculum, Christian radio, Focus on the Family voter guides, and various issue groups. It's nebulous, and it's probably not your pastor's fault. Having said that, let's talk about the problem.
The union we have began, essentially, in the late 1970s and early 80s, for what I believe was a good cause - putting a stop to abortion in the wake of Roe vs. Wade. The origins are a bit complex and darker than that, but we'll save that for another post. Reagan's pro-life presidential run was when most evangelicals got on board with the Republican party. Before that, evangelicals were not a coherent voting block as they've become today.
There are two big problems with this alliance. The first, and easier to see, is that evangelicals haven't gotten much out of the deal. Take a look, for the easiest and most recent example, at the Bush years. I believe president Bush is a Christian, and I voted for him both times. From his election until November of 2006, both houses of Congress had Republican majorities. During that time, what did we see done about abortion? We did see a ban on partial birth abortion, a procedure that had been done 2,000 times per year. That's it. Now, that's something, but it amounts to less than .2% of the million abortions we have a year. Further, it didn't ban late term abortions, but one method of late term abortions. Whichever category of women sought those abortions in the past are likely still getting late term abortions, just by a different method. So, that's what we saw, in return for electing a President twice and who knows how many congressmen. Effectively, nothing. A cynic might point out that if the Republicans dealt with abortion, many of us might stay home, and there may be something to that idea in terms of explaining why they promise so much but deliver so little. So, first problem: voting Republican doesn't get us much, if anything.
The second problem is this: our desire for Republicans to succeed forces us to make a difficult choice whenever God and Republicans disagree. And we often make the wrong choice, or follow the wrong leader. Evangelicals supported preemptive war in Iraq, we're the group most likely to support torture, we (loudly) denounced a free-market attempt to provide healthcare to all Americans, we're currently fighting for lower than record-low taxes on the top 1% while shouting that the national debt is too high, we unconditionally support military spending which we could cut in half and still be ahead of Russia & China combined, we complain about people being on food stamps (a program I personally think God is delighted with) when unemployment is the highest it's been since the Great Depression, and let's just say that our views on immigration widely diverge from "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 19:34)". I know I've painted with a broad brush, we're all individuals, etc., but many of us have held or hold views that are entirely at odds with scripture, because it's easier to support Republicans wholesale than to say, "I'm voting for Romney, just because he's pro-life, but there are a lot of things I like better about the Democrats." Pledging allegiance to the Republicans, to whatever degree that you do so, blinds you to the areas where they ignore what God cares about.
Now, if we did the opposite, and just switched to Democrats, in 30 years we'd have the same problem. That's no long-term solution, although it could certainly make waves if Democrats thought there were votes to be had by appealing to believers. Right now, neither party has to compete for those votes, because they're essentially locked up. I'm not saying you have to switch sides. I would suggest becoming an honestly independent voter, though. Make a list of major issues, and try to figure out, honestly, which party is on God's side with each one. If you come up all Republican, your worldview may be infected and you might need to clean it out. Same thing goes the other way, if you're all Democrat. Keep in mind the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who we would likely say today was on the right side: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Only about 35% of Americans consider themselves Republican. Let's not alienate the other 65% from Christ by clinging too closely to Republicans, and let's not give Republicans a free pass when a particular policy (or many, as I'll likely argue in a future post) are simply against Christian teaching. There's a lot more to talk about here, but that's a start. Let me know how you see it in the comments.
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