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A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 08:34:31 AM EST
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by TChris

An evangelical Christian, Randall Balmer, takes a thoughtful look at the relationship between evangelical Christianity and the Republican party. Among other questions raised in his essay, Jesus Is Not a Republican, Balmer asks why the religious right hasn't taken a stand against the Bush administration's reliance on torture.

Surely, I thought, this is one issue that would allow the religious right to demonstrate its independence from the administration, for surely no one who calls himself a child of God or who professes to hear "fetal screams" could possibly countenance the use of torture. Although I didn't really expect that the religious right would climb out of the Republican Party's cozy bed over the torture of human beings, I thought perhaps they might poke out a foot and maybe wiggle a toe or two.

I was wrong. Of the eight religious-right organizations I contacted, only two, the Family Research Council and the Institute on Religion and Democracy, answered my query. Both were eager to defend administration policies.

Balmer's conception of Christianity differs from that promoted by right-wing evangelists.

I went to Sunday school nearly every week of my childhood. But I must have been absent the day they told us that the followers of Jesus were obliged to secure even greater economic advantages for the affluent, to deprive those Jesus called "the least of these" of a living wage, and to despoil the environment by sacrificing it on the altar of free enterprise. I missed the lesson telling me that I should turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, even those designated as my enemies.

Balmer fears that evangelical Christians, intoxicated by the power they wield within the Republican party, are promoting "the kind of homogeneous theocracy that the Puritans tried to establish in 17th-century Massachusetts" in order "to impose their vision of a moral order on all of society."

One reading of the religious right is that many evangelicals believed that their faith could no longer compete in the new, expanded religious marketplace. No wonder the religious right wants to renege on the First Amendment. No wonder the religious right seeks to encode its version of morality into civil and criminal law. No wonder the religious right wants to emblazon its religious creeds and symbols on public property. Faced now with a newly expanded religious marketplace, it wants to change the rules of engagement so that evangelicals can enjoy a competitive advantage. Rather than gear up for new competition, as Beecher did in the 19th century, the religious right seeks to use the machinations of government and public policy to impose its vision of a theocratic order. ...

As I argued in my testimony as an expert witness in the Alabama Ten Commandments case, religion has prospered in this country precisely because the government has stayed out of the religion business. The tireless efforts on the part of the religious right to eviscerate the First Amendment in the interests of imposing its own theocratic vision ultimately demeans the faith even as it undermines the foundations of a democratic order that thrives on pluralism.

The entire essay, ending with a call for tolerance of diversity and pluralism, is well worth reading.

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    A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity | 34 comments (34 topical)
    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#1)
    by kdog on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 08:47:19 AM EST
    People can justify just about anything to themselves...

    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#2)
    by Punchy on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 09:00:16 AM EST
    It LONG ago stopped being about "religion" and "Christianity" and is now 100% about power. They back the WH's views on torture b/c the WH gives them POWER. Anger the WH? Kiss these fed dollars, fed programs, and late-night meetings with Bush goodbye. This:
    Balmer fears that evangelical Christians, intoxicated by the power they wield within the Republican party, are promoting "the kind of homogeneous theocracy that the Puritans tried to establish in 17th-century Massachusetts" in order "to impose their vision of a moral order on all of society."
    could NOT have been better stated. That is exactly what they want. Homogeneous theocracy. For all the Jews and various "brown religions", see ya.

    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#3)
    by Richard Aubrey on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 09:27:40 AM EST
    I suspect the real reason for not complaining about the Bush administration's dependence on torture is that they know it's a flat-ass lie. We've been over this ground before and discovered that all you have to go on is skim milk. The infamous memos do not claim what you claim, the techniques documented are not torture, and all in all, it's just crap. So when there's nothing to complain about, not complaining about it seems like the right course.

    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 09:42:10 AM EST
    Or maybe the jesus-patrol is in denial like Richard.

    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#5)
    by desertswine on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 09:48:11 AM EST
    Smashing a guy to death in a sleeping bag looks like torture to me.

    Re: A Dissenting View of Evangelical Christianity (none / 0) (#6)
    by soccerdad on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 10:02:46 AM EST
    The group of Fundamental Christians that are the most vocal in support of Bush and have worked hard to acquire political power have been referred to as Dominionists.
    Its most common form, Dominionism, represents one of the most extreme forms of Fundamentalist Christianity thought. Its followers, called Dominionists, are attempting to peacefully convert the laws of United States so that they match those of the Hebrew Scriptures. They intend to achieve this by using the freedom of religion in the US to train a generation of children in private Christian religious schools. Later, their graduates will be charged with the responsibility of creating a new Bible-based political, religious and social order. One of the first tasks of this order will be to eliminate religious choice and freedom. Their eventual goal is to achieve the "Kingdom of God" in which much of the world is converted to Christianity.
    For an overview of the inroads Dominionism has made in US government see here For an example of its influence on the state level see the Ohio Restoration Project
    A fundamentalist congregation in Ohio is spearheading a right-wing Christian drive to dominate politics in the Buckeye State. Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster has an ambition so great that it caught the attention of The New York Times, which recently reported that the church and its allies are "mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor's race."
    Note not all fundamentalists share these views. Some have split because of a sharp disagreement on the enviornment for example. But the movement