Attn Christians! Should Evangelicals Expand Politcal Values?

[Polly]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901084.html

I'm not Christian but I'm wondering how the right on this board views the issues mentioned in the article. Is the enviornment as important an issue as gay marriage or abortion? Should they all have the same religious and political zeal focused on them?

Blessed Be,

Polly:amen

[Lori]

My personal opinion on this is that Christian right groups, which are heavily tied to political interest groups, have a vested interest in keeping people obsessed about issues of personal sexual morality, and that the corporate media has a vested interest in continually presenting that obsession and limiting people's exposure to any other form of Christian religious or political expression. Because, an obsession with personal sexual morality doesn't threaten the powers that be in this country the way that a focus on the evils of greed and violence would. I think it serves very clear political and economic ends to have the only Christian voices given any air time in the media be very conservative ones that make personal sexual morality the only issue Christians should concern themselves with, and as long as the media is run by people who are served by greed and violence, that's not going to change, even if evangelical Christianity does.

The fact that the only time you EVER hear about mainline Christian denominations and churches in the media is when they are having debates and conflicts over homosexuality just makes me feel more strongly about this. It's like there is some sort of tacit ban on discussing anything about Christianity that isn't tied up with personal sexual morality in the media. A mainline church makes some sort of statement about greed or poverty or war, and it's not going to get mentioned at all, but they have a debate about homosexuality, and it makes the news.

[Christine]

I take issue with that Lori and I'll explain why.

It's completely misleading to say that the only issues that Christians get excited about or get air time over are ones of personal sexual morality. I would venture a guess that it's the interpretation of more leftist news outlets that paint this picture, but it's not accurate at all.

I spend very little time watching liberal news media and a great deal of time watching more conservative tv and listening to libertarian radio. Many, many issues are addressed and given coverage - sexual morality is barely a blip on the map.

Truthfully, I take offense at anyone suggesting that Christians only care about sexuality. I could care less, to tell you the truth. Yes, I am very passionate about abortion because I believe it to be a life and death matter. I'm concerned about the environment but not in the "let's worship Al Gore" way that so many people are right now. I'm concerned on a personal level that I do all I can to live "green" but I don't actually believe that global warming is anything more than a normal earth cycle.

I think if you watched conservative tv or listened to conservative radio, you'd be surprised at the variety of issues addressed. It's also not unusual to see issues addressed that are not brought up ANYWHERE else in the news media. It's only on Christian programming that you hear anything at all about the flock of Jews to Israel, the humanitarian efforts in various parts of the world, etc.

Now I don't even know if I answered the question. :giggle

[Polly]

For example, I'm worried about what James Dobson tried to do to a dissenting evagelical minister 2 weeks ago. Dobson tried to make it seem like the minister wasn't truly a born again because the guy felt (and wrote) that taking care of the enviornment was a Christian duty and just as important as ending abortion. (Apparently, Dobson considers himself the moral abitrater on these matters!):nannybooboo

Hey-maybe it is the media stereotyping the right. I wouldn't know. However, maybe the reason the other issues get more press time in mainstream media is because they are different from the mainstream. Journalists rarely seem interested in what people share-it doesn't play as well with readers, etc. and really doesn't give them much to talk about. Can you imagine "Hardball" with Chris Matthews if they all sat around and agreed on everything? Personally, I'd view it as a sign of the End of Days!;)

Anyhoo, that's why I was wondering if the issues that are similar (charity, enviornment, etc) to the mainstream of America are as important to Evagelicals as the issues are that divide us (abortion, gay marriage, death penalty).

Blessed Be,

Polly

[Christine]

Absolutely they are! Most Christians that I know are just as concerned with politics and the environment as any non-Christian. Our views may be different on those matters, but I wouldn't classify Christians as only being concerned with homosexuals and abortions. That would be a gross generalization. Yeah, the James Dobson's get more press in the liberal media, but they are not representative of the Christian community as a whole.

[Lori]

Journalists rarely seem interested in what people share-it doesn't play as well with readers, etc. and really doesn't give them much to talk about.

I agree completely, but I also think that the media tries to create those values we share, and has a vested interest in promoting the idea that all Christians share the same set of concerns (re: outlawing abortion and opposing rights for gay and lesbian couples and individuals) and are ONLY interested in those concerns. I honestly believe that, because of its prevalence, Christianity is the #1 threat to power in the United States, but it's also the primary way to keep people just going along with how things are and actively working to promote systems that are oppressing them. Whether abortion is legal or not, or who people are or are not having sex with and when they are doing it, is meaningless to corporate power. But, whether or not everybody has health care, or affordable housing, or insists on environmentally sound and economically just business practices, or consumes only what they need, or insists that the least in our society be cared for, means a whole heck of a lot to corporate power, and if enough people insisted on it, then that power would be very threatened. But as long as morality is entirely confined to the realm of the sexual--and the economic is considered outside the realm of morality--that won't happen. James Dobson and Pat Robertson and William Donahue pose no threat at all to the powers that be in this country, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that they get the air time they do, when other voices--evangelicals with interests outside the sexual, progressive and mainline Protestants, mainstream and liberal Catholics--are completely silenced by the media, or are only allowed to speak on issues of the sexual. It's really, really important to those in power in this country that people believe that, when Jesus told someone he must be born again to be saved, he was talking to everyone, but when he told someone else he had to sell all he owned to be saved, he was only talking to just that one guy. Theological discussions aside, one doesn't affect the status quo at all (from the perspective of corporate power), and one would create a literal revolution.

I also think the corporate media has an interest in not looking for solutions, but continually rehashing debates. People have been discussing whether abortion is good or bad for over 30 years, and it hasn't done a thing on either side. Yet the only places I've ever seen sustained, serious discussion of actual, concrete ideas for reducing the abortion rate are in small feminist and progressive Christian publications. There's a reason for why the corporate media won't ever discuss abortion from that angle, because at root abortion is not an issue of morality or of rights, but of resources. Women have abortions because they lack the resources--economic, medical, educational, social, emotional--they need to prevent an unwanted pregnancy or to raise a child. But whenever we start talking about providing those kinds of resources, we're right back to threatening the status quo, and the corporate media won't have that, so they're not going to go there, and instead will just have two people rehashing positions that don't get anyone anywhere.

[Christine]

I don't understand how this became an issue of what influences corporate power the most. But, then again, I've been fighting with Direct TV for several days so my brain is a little fried.

Isn't the question whether Christians are only interested in the issues of abortion and homosexuality or whether they are also thinking, feeling people interested in a large array of political issues?

[Polly]

Actually, the question is whether or not the Christian right should publicly expound on other issues (enviornment, charity, etc) as much as it does with gay marriage and abortion. Meaning promoting the other issues in the right's political platform.

Polly

[Christine]

Gotcha.

In that case, yes.

I wish, though, that it didn't have to be the "Christian right", you know? I mean, when I speak about how I feel on an issue (I know I'm not a public figure, but hear me out ;) ), am I representing the "Christian right"? I am a Christian and I am a conservative/libertarian. Do I count or is it only the religious leaders that represent our views?

[Jejune]

I am a Christian and I am a conservative/libertarian. Do I count or is it only the religious leaders that represent our views?

This is a very good point. You're a conservative Christian, but you're not the one who sets the tone. That's both the fault/responsibility of prominent religious leaders and the media.

I do like the fellow (his name escapes me) who is promoting Creation Care, because he seems open to dialogue and the idea that being Christian does not automatically mean Republican or even conservative. I disagree with many things he says, but I think his openness to dialogue is awesome.

[Lori]

I don't understand how this became an issue of what influences corporate power the most.

I'm just not sure that any of this can be separated from the media, because it so fully shapes how religion is viewed in this country. So whether or not Christians actually believe something--or if most do, or who does--seems less salient to me then who the media allows to speak for what Christians do believe.

So to me, the issue isn't if James Dobson represents the views of most Christians (which he doesn't) or even of most conservative Christians (which I still don't think he does), but why he is allowed--with a select few other Christian leaders who all come from the perspective that the sexual is the only realm where morality counts--to speak for what all Christians believe. Honestly, I don't think that gay marriage would be an issue if it weren't for the media allowing the religious leaders they give voice to to make it not only an issue, but one of only two issues that matter. Without the media allowing a few key leaders to turn it into a serious political issue, I honestly think it would be handled by conservative and evangelical churches the same way it is by the mainline churches--as an issue of contention within the church itself in terms of what is appropriate or acceptable behavior for Christians and what relationships should be sanctioned by the church, but with equal rights for gay and lesbian people in the public sphere (which is secular, and where people have a variety of religious beliefs and views on homosexuality) being a given.

I'm just not sure that abortion and homosexuality are as important to most Christians or most conservative Christians or most evangelical Christians as the media makes it out to be. It's true that many Americans honestly believe that being a Christian means wanting to make abortion illegal and hating gay people. But that's just because those are the voices we hear in the media. I know a number of conservative Christians in my neighborhood, and none of them are particularly interested in whether gay or lesbian people have equal rights, and aren't particulary concerned about making abortion illegal, either. That's not to say that they'd actively support efforts to provide equal rights to the GLBT community or to keep abortion legal, because I'm pretty sure they would not, but these aren't issues that, living in the middle of a city with enormous crime and poverty rates, are particularly salient to them. I have to imagine that, for many Christians of whatever theological bent, that's the case as well, and these two issues are not nearly as central as the men who are allowed to speak for all Christians by the media make them out to be.

So I guess my point was that I think that, for the most part, most actual, real-life evangelicals have political values far more broad than the men who are allowed to speak for them. The media just wants to seem as if it's not okay for them to, so that they won't express them. But in the end, very few people are single-issue voters, and I tend to think that many of them would hold the same views no matter what their religion. I could be wrong and optimistic, because I have heard a number of stories about evangelicals who dared to express concern over other issues--or consider the idea that maybe these two issues aren't being framed by conservative leaders in the most productive way--facing a lot of censure, but again, those reports come from the media, who have a vested interest in shaping popular religion toward certain ends. So I just don't think that we can trust that the things the media are telling us are important to people with certain beliefs are actually what is important to them.

[Christi]

Gotcha.

In that case, yes.

I wish, though, that it didn't have to be the "Christian right", you know? I mean, when I speak about how I feel on an issue (I know I'm not a public figure, but hear me out ;) ), am I representing the "Christian right"? I am a Christian and I am a conservative/libertarian. Do I count or is it only the religious leaders that represent our views?

I know that I haven't been getting into the discussions much here, but I just wanted to agree wholeheartedly here. *I*, as a conservative Christian, don't agree with quite a few things that the 'Christian right' say and do. In fact, I really dislike that I am grouped in with people who can sometimes be so judgemental and holier-than-thou.

Polly, you don't know me very well yet, so I hope that in time I prove to you what I hope that I have shown the other ladies here that I've known longer...that being a Christian doesn't have to be what the media presents 'us' to be. I am much more inclined to live by the motto "They'll know we are Christians by our love."

That being said, I do believe wholeheartedly that Christians are concerned about other issues as much, if not more so in their personal lives, than sexually related issues. I certainly don't sit around discussing with fellow Christians how this one and that one are going to hell and why. Education is a HUGE concern of mine as a teacher (and sometimes an area where I disagree with Christian right 'spokespersons'), for example.

I'm also throwing in a HUGE 'yeah that' to Christine in that non-mainstream conservatively-leaning media doesn't concentrate nearly as much on homosexuality and abortion as some would lead you to believe. Christians can be very different in their views, their personalities, their passions, etc. just as anyone can. I hope that as we get to know each other better, that will become more evident! :)