I just found this article on Larry A's facebook page. It is so right on and describes my thoughts so well, I had to post it. Some highlights:
“Since about 2005 we have seen a sharp decline in the number of people calling themselves Republicans,” reported Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, based on surveys released in early September. “Evangelical voters have displayed a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current state of things, including the Republican Party,” said John C. Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
To get a better picture of how evangelical views are changing, Sojourners interviewed 21 people from nine cities—including Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Leawood, Kansas; Atlanta; Houston; Pittsburgh, and Boise, Idaho—representing six different ethnicities and ranging from ages 26 to 66. The conversations suggested a significant shift in evangelical viewpoint—a transformation with the potential to shake up not only political assumptions but the very face of evangelicalism in the years to come.
Many evangelicals, especially among those born since the 1970s, are coming to understand “pro-life” in broader ways, and the impact of that new perspective remains to be seen. As Time Magazine’s Amy Sullivan put it in early September, “While Palin is inspiring rhapsodies from the lions of the Christian right, her appeal to more moderate and younger evangelicals—as well as independent swing voters—may be limited.”
For instance, a self-described anti-abortion evangelical commenting on “Jesus Creed,” a leading blog of the emergent church, wrote that policies that fight poverty, work for health-care justice, and generally improve economic conditions for poor and working-class people will likely result in the number of abortions decreasing much more than under an administration that simply declares itself opposed to Roe vs. Wade—and thus supporting the former initiatives should arguably be considered more “pro-life” than the latter.
For some evangelicals, even those who consider themselves strongly pro-life, the issue of abortion doesn’t have a lot of influence on how they vote in presidential elections. For example, Bo Lim, a member of Quest Church in Seattle, said that abortion, along with several other moral concerns, “don’t rise to the top of my list of issues in regard to the election because of the limited role the president or our government can do in regard to these issues.”
Evangelicals across the country tell stories of their own transformation from a narrow concern for one or two issues to a broader understanding of the Christian call. Eugene Cho in many ways exemplifies these “new evangelicals.” "Personally, I don’t want to be defined by one or two issues,” Cho says. “Obviously two of the bigger issues that are highlighted by certain groups of the Christian segment are gay marriage and abortion. And while I acknowledge that they are important to me, I simply don’t elevate them over other issues. I must juxtapose them with the war in Iraq, local and global poverty, and human rights.”
That opinion is shared by Rich Nathan, pastor of Vineyard Church of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, and host of last spring’s Justice Revival, co-sponsored by Sojourners. As the pastor of one of the largest churches in the Vineyard movement, with more than 6,500 members, Nathan considers the importance of the sanctity of life and the “least of these” when thinking about the upcoming elections. “I believe that the measure of a culture is how we treat the weakest person in the culture, the most defenseless,” Nathan says. As a result, a serious abortion-reduction plan remains one of the most important issues for Nathan as he decides whom to vote for in November. But the weakest and most defenseless people in a culture do not only include unborn children, Nathan says. “God is always on the side of the marginalized, the people who are the weakest and poorest. That includes the unborn and their mothers, but it also includes people who lack health insurance and folks who can’t find jobs in a global economy. It includes children and women who are being trafficked into sex slavery, and it includes the people of Darfur,” Nathan told Sojourners.
Support for the sanctity of life affects the views of many evangelicals on the Iraq war. That’s the case for Sokol Haxhinasto, a member of Park Street Church, a historic evangelical church in Boston, founded in 1809, where William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major public address against slavery. Since 2003, Haxhinasto has been dismayed by America’s presence in Iraq. “From the Christian point of view, the war does not send a message of loving your enemies,” Haxhinasto, a doctoral student at Harvard Medical School, told Sojourners. “The war is certainly not pro-life, and so I wonder, how can you be pro-life on abortion and then go into a war that isn’t pro-life?”
Considering oneself a citizen of the world, as Nathan says, has compelled many evangelicals to also view the environment as an important issue for the upcoming election—an issue that has, until recently, been largely considered a “liberal” cause. For many evangelicals, caring for the creation is inextricably linked to God’s mandate to Adam and Eve in Genesis.
“Creation care has certainly grown to become an issue of greater importance for me, more so than previous elections,” says Jason Chatraw, a member of Vineyard Boise church in Boise, Idaho, “but it has for every candidate in every local, state, and national election—which I believe is a good thing and probably a result of the growing number of evangelicals involved in this movement.”
Tri Robinson, pastor of Vineyard Boise, began to see environmental matters in a new light after an eventful conversation with his two young-adult children. “They came to me and said, as Christians, they had nobody to vote for,” Robinson remembers. “On the one hand, they would have to vote against the sanctity of life, and on the other hand, they would have to vote against caring for the environment.” This conversation launched Robinson into a deep and careful look into the scriptures, where he was surprised to find an overwhelming call from God for creation care. This led to his writing several books about the Christian call to creation care, including Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship.
Robinson represents many of the new evangelical voters who are coming out of their conservative traditions and challenging themselves to see the world in a different way—as a world where one issue is connected to another through a series of systems. The fragile environment contributes to a broken economic system that creates a society of haves and have-nots. The resulting injustice is what is compelling most, if not all, of these new evangelical voters to look beyond wedge issues to fight for the rights of all people.
Finally, I realize I am not alone. Thanks Larry.
I also completely agree with this article.
So do I. However, our voices are still not the first ones being heard from the “evangelical” segment.
You’ll want to check out Eugene Cho’s blog and some of the links on this entry. Interesting and hilarious.
http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/the-new-evangelical-voter/
I am glad the the evangelical world is broadening.
I remember Wendell and Iverson talking about their attendance at the Bush inauguration in 2000 like it was the triumphal entry. I found it odd then and even odder after some of the things that have happened in the past 8 years.
I am still considering voting for a third party candidate. Do not want McCain and GOP but have many of my same concerns about the dems. I mention that because maybe like my faith walk, my political walk needs to be a bit less one size fits all.
At the risk of sounding silly, while the anti-war equals pro-life is legit, I don’t find it to be a moving argument. I have other reasons that I think we should not have been there and need to be out of there.
After having been a staunch, right-wing, conservative Republican for thirty years, I am giving up the hope of that party’s ever doing what it says it is going to do or following any agenda that is even remotely associated with correct Biblical interpretation.
I am also convinced that Obama, if he is not assasinated, might be a catalyst for change in this country that could turn it into a country that is admired and respected for its peace-making in the world rather than hated for its arrogance and war-mongering; even tho many of my brothers in Christ consider Obama as the antichrist.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I left the Republican Party, so I decided to share my reasoning here, and maybe offer some enouragement to others feeling the same way.
I grew up with a liberal mindset. Coming from Oregon and raised by an atheist mother who was as liberal as they come, I was taught to care about the environment, to look out for the poor, gay is not bad, abortion is a woman’s right, war is wrong, etc. Then I became a Christian at 13 years old. For my 4 years of high school I was surrounded by the very prosperity driven, typical non-denominational, evangelical church — City Bible Chruch. When it came to politics, all I was taught was hardcore republican values. James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh were the voices of reason, Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy were the devil. Then in 2000, my wife and I left the MFI church system for good with anger and frustration at the way things were done and how we were treated. We were even told we should not be married because I was half black and blackness was a curse from God and our children would live a tough life (I’m not making this up!). I stuck by my guns politically however, and even though I was changing my spiritual outlook, I hung in there with the GOP. I voted for Bush twice, stuck with the GOP’s agenda on all state measures, and voted for republican Congressmen, Governors, State reps, and city Mayors. But by 2006 nothing had changed, in fact things were getting worse. This made me re-evaluate my stance on all of this stuff. First and foremost was my realization that moral issues are changed from the bottom up and not the top down. Second was my wondering why I believed what I believed. Did I really feel that way or was I voting that way because that’s what I had always been taught? Third, I asked myself why was I participating in a party that did not fully represent me. That’s when I switched my registration to independent (democrats do not fully represent me either). So now I think I’ve found my spot – I am liberal socially and conservative fiscally, or properly states — a moderate/progressive conservative.
I left the Republican Party because deep down I don’t ever think I was truly a republican. The last 8 years has proven that for me. So now I’m 29 years old and have spent the 11 voting years of my life picking candidates and measures based on my heart (passion) and not with my head (smarts). Just because I believe abortion is wrong doesn’t mean I should avoid all candidates who don’t. Just because I like small government doesn’t mean there are not some instances where government programs are needed. Just because I think, war is a needed thing to ensure certain freedoms doesn’t mean our country should just invade any land we pick and choose. For me true conservativism has lost its way, specifically at the hands of the Republican Party, which has been hijacked by radical right wing Christian types who think in narrow minded, one track thought processes, and leave no room for change. I still hold fast to conservative values but with an openness to change. And I do hope that someday moderate conservatives (not the George Bush/Sarah Palin types) will become a powerful third party that would break away from both far sides and bring people together under a cause of working together rather then hating each other.
“We were even told we should not be married because I was half black and blackness was a curse from God and our children would live a tough life (I’m not making this up!).”
Reformer, who told you this??? Who actually said that? A CBC pastor? That is ridiculous.
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I really don't want to name any names directly at this stage. It was over 10 years ago that this happened and one guy has apologized. Lets just say, it was a lay pastor who first told my wife's parents this (before we were married), then it was a youth pastor who again tried to talk me out of it with the same reasoning, then it was the main pastor who sat down with an advocate on my behalf and re-iterated this belief. If you were around in the mid-90s, it’s not too hard to figure out. Pretty sad huh?
I wasnt around CBC at that time. I am shocked that a pastor or anyone professing to be a follower of Christ would actually say that.
When I was in PBC, I heard many racist/sexist comments and jokes. Most were said by the sheltered types that have not seen the world beyond their church or Christian school. Here’s an example – I was talking about a gorgeous guy that I liked at work. The girl asked me what he looked like and I was describing him. He happens to be black. She said “Dont go for black guys, they are rude, lazy and abuse their women…” WTF!
About 60% of the time I heard really bad sexist/misogynistic comments about women from other PBC girls. To this day, I still havent figured out why any girl would demean herself or be terribly stupid enough to believe that women are inferior to men in many ways.
And those are supposed to be future MFI pastors and wives. Go figure.
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Ah, yes the subtle mind control of PBC / CBC on women and minorities. I remember those days well. It was pretty harsh stuff for a high school kid to handle. In fact my wife was one of the very prominent BT darlings of that day and she had to face all that garbage growing up. She went to the high school and to PBC. She was well groomed to fit right into that perfect little MFI pastors wife life…then I came along. I’m pretty sure that was part of the reason why I faced such harsh attacks from many of those leaders and pastors. One of my best friends came from the same background as me and he too married one of the CBC darlings, except he has played the CBC game and is now a youth pastor and elder at the church. He never faced the same scrutiny as me because he conformed to the gentleman they wanted him to be, whereas I bucked the system. And getting in the claws of CBC is like a black whole; the deeper you dig in the harder it is to find your way out. I still pray for my friend often, that God will guide him to not make the same mistakes with the kids he works with.
To be fair however, I was just as young and immature as they were back then. I said and did a lot of things that I now regret and I know some of those people do as well.
Have you looked into the Libertarian Party?
You guys are disgusting human beings and will be judged accordingly I would not want to be in your shoes on the judgement day.
But you have no problems jumping into God’s shoes right now?
Strange.
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And I would not want to be in your shoes right now!
How sad that you think calling us “disgusting” is of some social value. Funny how you think we are the ones in trouble, when it is you that is practicing the hate. Jesus was probably referring to you when He spoke in Matthew 7:3-4 about forgetting what’s in your own eye.