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Evangelical Does Not Mean Conservative Voting Bloc
The Evangelical leaders who issued “An Evangelical Manifesto” do not mince words: Evangelical does not mean “useful idiots” for one political party or another. Well, that’s frank and frankly refreshing. These Evangelical leaders have come to rue the day they were discovered as a voting bloc by Republican strategists. They have been manipulated and “that way faith loses its independence.” All people of faith should heed this warning.
The term "Evangelicalism" really describes a huge tent that covers many very different kinds of Protestant groups in this country. What ties these groups together, broadly speaking, is their foundational reliance on the scripture. The term Evangelical originates in the Greek word evangelion, meaning "the good news," or, more commonly, the "gospel."
The pastors and teachers who wrote and/or signed “An Evangelical Manifesto” clearly intend to take back the theological meaning of evangelical from politicians, political strategists, media celebrities and those who run the parasitical “faith-based” organizations like Focus on the Family. While Evangelical, in a theological sense, means the centrality of the Bible, it also includes an emphasis on conversion, what some call being “born again,” and on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. In addition, Evangelicals believe in taking their faith into the world. Now, however, they want to regain the missionary and good works sense of faith in action and tamp down on the idea that faith in action means political activism, especially for only one political party.
There are many reasons why the meaning of Evangelical is being debated in this particular time, and why these particular Evangelical leaders felt compelled to enter this debate with such a cogent statement.
First, it is inaccurate to portray Evangelicals as wholly conservative Republicans, or even as Republican at all. Faith in Public Life, the faith-based group who sponsored the recent “Compassion Forum” on CNN and of which I am a board member, started tracking exit polling during the Iowa caucuses and after. In a blog post called “Exit Polls Pigeonhole Evangelicals Again,” on January 8, 2008, a blogger noted, “They did it again! Just as in Iowa, yesterday’s media-sponsored Election Day poll failed to ask Democrats in New Hampshire if they were evangelical. Voters from both parties were asked about their church attendance and if they were Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Other Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Something else, or None. But only Republicans were asked if they were born-again or evangelical Christian”.
This blogger went on to note, “Asking only Republicans about their religion shows that the media is still stuck on the outdated and false notion that evangelical Christians are the GOP's political property. No party can own any faith. Evangelicals have broadened their agenda to include care for the planet, the poor and the stranger, and as a result are increasingly independent politically. Exit polls need to abandon the hidebound frames of the culture war -- evangelicals already have.”
It is surely the case that many Evangelicals have abandoned the “culture wars” already; Richard Cizik, nicknamed “the green Evangelical” is a leader in raising climate change issues in a specifically Evangelical theological context called “Creation Care.”
Poverty has become a central concern for Evangelicals as well. Many Evangelicals and religious observers locate this shift in the testimony of returned missionaries from abroad. These Evangelical missionaries are rotated back to the states more frequently than in the past, when previously people sent out on missions could spend decades abroad and only return to retire. When these younger missionaries return to the U.S., they are raising the issues of clean water, food, HIV/AIDS and a host of concerns related to poverty and disease among the peoples of the world with whom they have ministered. Their witness in turn influences the broader American Evangelical community to broaden their social agenda.
I have worked with members of the Evangelical community for decades on issues of peace and justice and I welcome “An Evangelical Manifesto” as a way for Evangelicals to take their faith back and claim their roots in the Gospel as the true meaning of Evangelical. It is no wonder that the political types such as James Dobson or Richard Land were apparently not asked to sign it.
By
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
|
May 19, 2008; 6:25 AM ET
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Posted by: Mark W. | May 19, 2008 1:22 PM
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Dear Professor Thistlethwaite
I wish you a Happy Holy Trinity Day! The Catholics as you know love to feast and fast at various times of the year and think up some excuse to do it. Today we use it to reflect on the mystery of the Trinity (for me best expressed in John 14-17).
Soja John Thaikattil
Sydney, Australia
Posted by: Soja John Thaikattil, Sydney, Australia | May 18, 2008 7:34 AM
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Uh Mr. Rich we have a name in this country who believe that all people belonging to a given group are the same. The name is bigot.
Susan and I disagree about almost everything but we are both Christians.
Posted by: garyd | May 16, 2008 10:54 PM
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Let me be blunt here: you don't get to "redefine" yourselves just by your say-so, those of us who don't belong to your movement have to define you by what we see and what we hear, and up to now what we've seen and what we've heard is a 30-year-long succession of right-wing Southerners and rural types damning the rest of us to hell for not accepting their political views, praising Republican political figures as though they were religious figures, and taking part in improper schemes to seize control of the government and take away the secular civil rights of the rest of us. So it's refreshing that a minority of you want to change that, but you haven't done it yet, so your "evangelical" tag for me continues to indicate a right-wing political movement, and I don't buy your contention that "high church" protestant denominations are "evangelical" because they don't seem to be a part of this movement. You can tell me you've decided to be a zebra, but if I still see a donkey then I call you a donkey...
Posted by: Rich | May 16, 2008 10:09 AM
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Unfortunatly "Evangelical" in America = Pat Robertson or James Dobson.
Do Envangelicals in America care about poverty? Boy what a surprise!!! In Pittsburgh Pa, Evangelicals are social Darwinists
Posted by: Dave Ish | May 15, 2008 9:20 PM
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Unfortunatly "Evangelical" = Pat Robertson or James Dobson in America
Do Envangelicals in America care about poverty? Boy what a surprise!!! In Pittsburgh Pa, Evangelicals are social Darwinists
Posted by: Dave Ish | May 15, 2008 9:19 PM
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Sure does seem like there is going to be a lot of people being very surprised that God's Plan is, shall we say, inclusive.
It sure is a shame that so many people, of all persuasions, can't seem to get it thru their heads and into their hearts that God really does care about us.
Take care, be ready.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
Posted by: Thomas Baum | May 15, 2008 7:08 PM
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Susan,
James Dobson was invited to sign the Manifesto and did not and I agree wholeheartedly that he didn't sign it.
Posted by: Angela | May 15, 2008 1:55 PM
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Studying modern entertainment at University level I came away knowing the best movies of the day reflected America's perceptions, values and emotions.
Dark heroes come along when things are not looking too good. The Godfather series were bad guys who America loved when the good guys were not so loveable. Dirty Harry captured a spirit as in "I don't give a rat's behind about corrupt systems, I catch bad guys". And that brings me to No Country for Old Men, dillusionment and evil.
No Country captures a certain kind of dillusionment which reflects a Ben Laden still at large. How can God allow pedophiles, serial killers and seemingly traitors roam the earth with freedom ? I suppose it's nothing knew as Billy the Kid was celebrated. The papers back east hungered for wild west stories and when the legend was larger than the truth, the legend was printed as the gospel.
There was a problem with me that in No Country for Old Men, a threat to the common man, was apparently carried out after the common man was gone. A very weird set of morals and values was displayed through that movie, a reflection of modern day perceptions ? But in the end the psyco immediately experienced bad karma taking a very innocent life. And vanity too was exposed as a noble but ego driven need.
Nobody knows da trouble God's seen caring for his Children.