Evangelical Mutiny

[Sapphire Blue]

Evangelical Mutiny
Paul Waldman
February 08, 2006

(Excerpt)

Most progressives probably cheered when they read in today’s paper that an influential group of evangelical leaders have decided to back an initiative to combat global warming. What they should really be celebrating isn’t just the arrival of people like Rick Warren to the environmental cause, but the split this issue has revealed within the evangelical community. Today’s news comes in the wake of last week’s announcement that the National Association of Evangelicals, contrary to what some in the organization wanted, will abstain from taking a stand on global warming. This came just over a year after the Association issued an Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility , which although it did not mention global warming specifically, was a strong statement of environmentalism:

We urge Christians to shape their personal lives in creation-friendly ways: practicing effective recycling, conserving resources, and experiencing the joy of contact with nature. We urge government to encourage fuel efficiency, reduce pollution, encourage sustainable use of natural resources, and provide for the proper care of wildlife and their natural habitats.

So why should progressives be glad about the NAE’s retreat from one prominent element of what is known as “Creation Care”? Not just because it exposes a split within the organization, but because that split reveals the forces now threatening the unity of the conservative movement. Progressives should be on the lookout for divisions among religious conservative, and between religious conservatives and other conservatives, to find wedges that can be driven home to crack the conservative movement to pieces.

(snip)

It’s one thing for progressives to make an argument to evangelicals that a “Christian” agenda does not begin and end with abortion and gay marriage. This argument, one made often by religious progressives who cite the hundreds of times Jesus speaks about helping the poor, is an important one. But progressives can say something perhaps even more compelling to evangelicals: the Republican Party is playing you for a fool. Every campaign season they come around and tell you all the things that will happen if you only get out and work your tail off for Republican candidates, then come Wednesday morning they pretend you don’t exist. And even some who claim to be evangelical leaders are selling you down the river. Forced to choose between God and the GOP, they put down their bibles and do whatever Karl Rove tells them. You think coastal liberals look down on you? That’s nothing compared to what a bunch of rubes the Republican Party thinks you are. No wonder Jack Abramoff’s partner Michael Scanlon bragged to one of their Indian tribe clients that they could “bring out the wackos” who “get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees” to work on behalf of one casino against another one, without the “wackos” ever knowing whose interests they were serving.

Continued @ http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060208/evangelical_mutiny.php

[gratuitous]

1. It takes a real, shall we say, focused reading of the Bible

It takes a real focused reading of the Bible to avoid all that messy talk about caring for the earth, providing for the sick, the poor, the less fortunate, and all that other touchy-feely librul stuff to get to the kernel of the gospel truth according to the fundies: God told me to hate you. That whole "love one another" thing? Too difficult, unless you define "love" down to removing a speck from your neighbor's eye whilst ignoring the 2x4 in your own. Give without expecting anything in return (see Luke 6)? What are you, some kind of communist?

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Yep

I wonder why they changed their minds? :shrug:

[AndyTiedye]

3. Removing a Speck From Your Neighbor's Eye

with a full aerial bombardment and a ground invasion may not be quite what Jesus had in mind.

[gratuitous]

4. Well, interpretation can be a tricky thing

But I'll take a stab (you should pardon the expression) at a little exegesis:

[madmark]

5. if you believe in rapture why would u give a shit about global warming

or deficits, or anything beyond say a two year horizon.