 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 902 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Sat May 17th, 2008 10:38 pm |
|
Looks like Jim Dobson & Co. must be thinking the authors of the recently introduced "Evangelical Manifesto" are singing the "Internationale" with gusto. The article would be a lot more amusing if the stakes weren't so high for the unborn, keeping marriage as the holy union between men and women, fighting embryonic stem cell research and so forth.
What I linked is an article written by a Detroit-based evangelical minister/columnist, Paul Edwards. The article appeared on the conservative Town Hall website which acts as a sort of "grand central station" for prominent conservative columnists, bloggers, et al. (I've got one on file there but I rarely get around to working it up. Believe me; I'm not prominent!)
Edwards makes some excellent points and I'm sure they're going to sting the evangelical religious right wing--and for good reasons: One of them being the lack of success for all their activities during the past 30 or so years. Writing directly about the Manifesto, Edwards said;
For one, it calls into question our own allegiance to an entrenched political philosophy that has been extremely effective at electing conservatives yet equally ineffective at implementing substantive cultural change. As a case in point, Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land in spite of 35 years of conservative evangelical political engagement. During this same time one state has legalized same-sex marriage while nine others provide the legal rights afforded married couples to same-sex unions, stopping short of calling it marriage. America has seen no substantial change in rates of divorce or the abortion rate. Sexual promiscuity is still encouraged in our public schools through “health clinics” and condom distribution. Our children still have unfettered access to the most virulent forms of pornography in the name of “freedom of expression.”
But the next line had to really hurt --
What have conservative evangelicals to show for our political efforts in terms of real change? The “Manifesto” forces us to face up to some very inconvenient truths and we naturally recoil.
It's an interesting article, thought-provoking and really makes one sit up and wonder what all these well-groomed, slick-talking and superbly networked religio-political operatives done to show for all the trust, not money many good solid Christians across the country entrusted them with.
I'm not talking about corrupt practices here. But why does it always seem that the things that really matter closest to our hearts never seem to get any closer to fruition when the people, the organizations and of course, the funds were sent there to get the legislation necessary to protect the least and weakest among us?
One hunch: the business of perpetual political recycling of issues to keep one's organization, job and power intact. It's one thing to imagine a possible problem for the sake of solving it in a way that could really lead to better things. Inventers do this every day. But saving the lives of the unborn, the aged, embryoes, and the institution of marriage among other key issues that touch upon those moral third rails we can't afford to avoid repairing is far too important to be left in the hands of mere politicians who are "only in it for the beer." I could go on forever on this and won't. But Edwards' column, and the Manifesto edited by Oz Guiness, a respected evangelical Anglican--there are a few left--and let's be thankful for them--should wake some people up. Or it'll be more of the same old circular firing squad, with no results but (temporarily) "killed off careers" and the perpetual DC-fear mongering money-raking machine. 
Time for another Holy Week table-smashing session.
____________________
For anybody interested in reading commentary from a Catholic's socially conservative/fiscally liberal viewpoint, go to my new blog at http://www.politicsramble.com/ .
|
|
|
Current time is 05:05 am | |
|
|
|
|
|
