A
challenge to Evangelicals
"By
their fruits ye shall know them"
(written
in the aftermath of Bush's presidential win/resultant right wing
glee and read as commentary on the local public radio station)
I'd also suggest you read some other writer's thoughts and here
and here
Since
Bush won in large part from a strong religious right turnout, the press
has been 'trying to get a handle on' the apparent rising tide of moral
values, and there have been numerous interviews with
evangelicals, all of whom are rightfully jubilant and many of whom are
smugly self-righteous.
Now
normally, I make
no comment about people's faiths: I see us all as God's children, who
worship (or not) each in our own fashion. But
the evangelicals have politicized their faith; they will forthrightly
tell you that they are looking to preside over the triumph and
enforcement of their faith, and they have politically organized and
acted to make it happen. One of their own is the
Attorney General of the United States; he is self-righteously smiting
the sinners based on his religious vision...and giving his co-religionists a free pass
on their transgressions.
So evangelists are fair
game for comment on the honesty and integrity of their 'moral values'.
To us in the North and
elsewhere, the evangelical movement is new and exotic, and, to some,
compelling. In the South, it's everywhere, it's
been around a long time, and, too often, it's a lot of talk and not
much walk.
As someone who grew up
in the South, in the town where The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary is located, I have a longstanding challenge to evangelicals:
Show me the goodness and
worth of the evangelical faith as revealed in the last century of the
life, culture and society of the South, where evangelical Christianity
has been dominant for a century or
more.
Apply
Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount, 'by their fruits ye shall
know them' to the South's history and show me how the South surpasses
the other less godly parts of our country in brotherly love, in racial
harmony, in peaceable conduct, in respect and cherishing
love of women and children, show me how better the poor are fed and the
sick healed in the South. Show me this Eden of
Christian works and deeds that should put the rest of the country to
shame.
I've never had an
evangelical show me, and I've had few that can honestly admit to its
failures and face that
shame. They'll argue that faith is the essence,
that all men
are sinners, so...uh...well...the committent to Christ is what's
important,
not the sins. Sorry, but the fruit of the tree makes it a lie. Oh, I've met many true humble, practicing Christians
whose faith and works and decency is a
shining
witness; I bow to them. I've also met far too
many
evangelicals that
loudly
proclaim their righteousness: most of the time, the louder they
profess, the nastier
they are to their fellow man...and the more snakes are in the closet.
Evangelistic moral
values: oh yes, if you're from the South, you know all about the God
shouter and the Bible
thumper and just how really Christian their moral values are.
Like Bush, the
evangelicals profess morality, humility, Christian faith and family
values but too often walk a walk
far from the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount, a walk of
intolerant small-minded
self-righteousness. The fruits of the tree elsewhere
in the nation, where governments of law and justice, of pluralistic
religions and ethics hold sway, quietly puts the South of the
evangelicals to shame. And it was that same law
and justice, not 'moral values', that finally brought the blacks their
civil rights, equal education and opportunity.
God is not an
evangelical, he's not a Republican, he's not Democratic...and people
who presume to speak for him are presumptuous beyond all measure.
