An Evangelical Backlash
I’ve addressed this issue before, but now I believe we’re starting to see what I’ve been referring to as an evangelical backlash. First it was Reverend Wright and Senator Obama’s connection with him and the church. Now in the latest backlash Senator McCain is rejecting endorsements from longtime preachers like the Reverend’s John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Like Senator Obama, the reason Senator McCain is rejecting these men revolves around some things they’ve said in the past.
Now, I’m not going to address the what of what they said. Instead, I’d like to point out that what we see happening here is something I’ve addressed before on this blog. This is an evangelical backlash as both politicians and the voters, are becoming more and more aware of the fact that the evangelicalism of past White House Presidents is starting to be more of a detriment, than a benefit. Also, before anyone starts ranting at me that the likes of Wright, Hagee and Parsley do not truly represent the evangelical movement, let me clarify something here. I am well aware of this fact. But reality is most people don’t know the difference between an evangelical, a charismatic or a pentecostal. As a matter of fact, those in the charismatic and pentecostal movements often don’t even know what makes them different. As a result, when many hear the word Christian, they usually associate that with the evangelical movement.
That being said, I believe we’re seeing an evangelical backlash for a number of reasons. They range from poor leadership, a misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian, and what we could call the fringe elements of some belief systems. Combine those elements with the fact that we also have the flip-flopping endorsements of people like James Dobson, and suddenly many are timid of the whole evangelical movement and the leaders connected with them. This could get worse, before it gets better. Of course many inside the church will start calling me a heretic. However, the real issue here has nothing to do with separation of church and state, and nothing to do with endorsements from religious leaders. Instead, this has more to do with the fact that many in the church have become so disconnected with the world we live in, that they are no longer relevant. We are called to be “in” the world but not “of” the world. But we find ourselves on a slippery slope of sometimes trying to straddle the “in” and the “of” aspects of the world at the same time.
The bottom line is this, it’s less about what some of these religious leaders are saying, and more about an understanding of what it means to transform the environment we live in. I will agree that the recent statements from men like Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Wright are outlandish. However, when you know their background and their belief system, to them, their statements are no more outlandish than me saying the sky is purple! From my perspective, the sky is purple. Why? Because I’m color blind and I don’t see blue. That color is always purple.
Just my two cents,
Dr. Rus
