I’ve been thinking about this first entry for a few days. When I start reading a new blog and want to learn what it’s about – its mission and the blogger’s vision – I generally skip to the first entry where these things are laid out. Assuming others will do this too I want to very clear about what I have in mind for Christian Watch.
First let me say that I don’t have a problem with Christians. The very nature of this project may seem to communicate something else. But I tell you that as an American most of my friends and family are Christians and I love and respect them. I was raised a Christian, a Southern Baptist to be exact, so I understand from where they are coming.
The second thing that you should know about me is that I’m an Atheist. This isn’t something that I spend a lot of time dwelling on but it’s there. I’m not a Satanist, Pagan or Witch; I simply believe that there is nothing beyond our physical bodies or death.
The third thing about me that you should know is that, despite those first two facts, this isn’t about some bitter, personal thing for me. I’ve already passed through that phase and, fun as it was, I don’t wish to return.
Now that I’ve said that, here’s why this blog exists. It seems to me that a very particular brand of Evangelical Christianity has grown at a disturbing rate in the US. It concerns me and I think that someone should be keeping an eye on it. I’m volunteering myself for that job.
This brand of Christianity has certain recognizable characteristics. As you read this list you will begin to recognize certain Evangelical Christians in it; some that you know personally and some national figures.
- It is almost completely American
- It is mostly Protestant though not all Protestant churches are part of it and some independent Catholics are a part of it
- It prefers to see itself as persecuted
- It celebrates financial gains above all others
- It is intensely political and has been fantastically successful at using grassroots techniques to reach its political ends
- It embraces only certain, convenient teachings from the Bible
- It is quick to forgive even the most vile sins of its members while relentlessly condemning those that it perceives as “outsiders” of every foible
- It considers a devotion to its tenets as necessary to patriotism
Having said all of that I now say this: The vast majority of these Evangelicals are truly sincere. At their core they are committed, dedicated people who believe that the movement they are involved in is good and will benefit humanity.
They are also dupes. I’m sure that most of them would be offended by this assertion – most people would be. But that’s the truth. Ever since Nixon’s Southern Strategy whereby he succeeded in embracing the Dixie-land white racists who felt alienated by a Democratic Party after it helped put the civil rights movement in motion the Republican Party and Evangelicals have continued to move closer and closer. While Nixon’s Southern Strategy was obviously a cynical (and smart) move to appeal to racism, it also had an element of overt Christianity that appealed to not only the Baptists in the South but Evangelicals across the nation.
The joining of these factions was consecrated by Rev. Jerry Falwell in the ‘80’s when he oversaw the marriage between the Republican Party and Christian Evangelicals by wholeheartedly inserting himself into the current administration, despite Reagan’s many transgressions of the code that would come to define the evangelical political movement.
And they were strange bedfellows, indeed. The Republican Party had for a long time been the friend of big business and was, mythically, the standard-bearer for hawk-ism in American. Neither of these conceits fit in any comfortable way with the New Testament’s vision of Christianity. One can point out the Calvinist/Protestant wealth-is-good philosophy but there is really little basis for it in the Bible. Sitting that aside I don’t believe that corporate personhood or favoring the global economy over the American worker are supportable by Calvin. Environmentalism, right to life (which used to mean anti-death penalty), equality among races, and fiscal responsibility – all issues that had once been issues of the Republican Party at one time or another and to varying degrees of universal acceptance – were abandoned for a few very narrow goals.
Since the marriage the Republican Party has been about very few issues. The main thrust of their governing when they’ve been in power has been creating and maintaining instability and suppression throughout the world. They accomplish this by supporting iron-fisted dictators and through war with a goal of keeping America at the top of the heap in an uncertain and dangerous world. Their second purpose has been the relentless support of big business. Their third concern has been the contentment of the American Evangelical Christian. These three things all work to keep Republicans in power. While some of the small time Republican politicians may be sincere people who are trying to support their daddy’s party, most are simply gathering power for power’s sake.
This is why the Christian Evangelicals that have done so much to support this party are dupes. They have supported the power hungry mad-men at the top because they believe that they have common beliefs. While many evangelicals have become increasingly uncomfortable with this marriage as they see it’s manifestations in the atrocities of the G. W. Bush administration one issue keeps them in the party – abortion.
I won’t drag you through the familiar history here except to say that it’s amazing that in a plural society such as ours where nobody can agree whole-heartedly with everything that is allowed that the Christian Evangelicals would allow one issue to make them embrace a party that in almost every other way represents the antithesis of their core beliefs. I get that they view abortion as murder and I can understand their fervor to change the law that allows it. But what I don’t understand is that they choose to join a party that joyfully embraces so many other forms of killing and suppression of human rights and dignity to reach their goal.
But they do and in their fanaticism that, though grounded in sincere and admirable beliefs, leads them to unquestionably support the party and its insane positions. Thus we have Christians doing bizarre, irrational and unchristian things. They believe that when the corporations whose autonomy they support instruct their greeters to say happy holidays instead of merry christmas that this is somehow a manifestation of a left-wing assault on christmas. They believe that harassing and murdering abortion doctors is right. They believe that blurring the lines between church and state is a good thing to do not realizing that their church may one day be found unfit for the state.
I could go on with this list but that is why I’ve set up this blog. These irrational acts of these evangelical dupes are what I plan to monitor here.
A Word About Comments:
I’m establishing this blog with an open comment policy. I ask that your comments be on point and not personal. If they are not they will be edited or removed. I encourage other’s views that disagree with mine but rude and inappropriate language will not be tolerated.