An Evangelical Says: Jesus Is Not a Republican

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 12:29pm

Snippet:

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A number of people have asked me what the religious right wants. What would America look like if the religious right had its way? I've thought long and hard about that question, and the best answer I can come up with is that the religious right hankers for the kind of homogeneous theocracy that the Puritans tried to establish in 17th-century Massachusetts: to impose their vision of a moral order on all of society.

The Puritans left England and crossed the Atlantic in the 1630s to construct what John Winthrop called a "city on a hill," an example to the rest of the world. The Puritans configured church and state so the two would be both coterminous and mutually reinforcing, but only one form of worship was permitted.

Without question, Puritanism in 17th-century Massachusetts was a grand and noble vision, but it ultimately collapsed beneath its own weight, beneath the arrogance of its own pretensions. By the middle of the century, Puritanism had become ingrown and calcified, the founding generation unable to transmit its piety to its children. By the waning decades of the century, in the face of encroaching pluralism — Anglicans and Quakers — and the rise of a merchant class, the Puritan ministers of Massachusetts were making increasingly impassioned, frantic calls for repentance. What frightened them — no less than the leaders of the religious right at the turn of the 21st century — was pluralism.

Despite the best efforts of the Puritan clergy, spirituality in New England continued to languish into the 18th century. The tide began to turn when fresher and more energetic preachers entered the scene in the 1730s. George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, Isaac Backus, and others challenged the cozy relationship between church and state and thereby reinvigorated religion in New England. The force of their ideas and their assault on the status quo spread throughout the Atlantic colonies in an utterly transformative event known as the Great Awakening.

The lesson was clear. Religion functions best outside the political order, and often as a challenge to the political order. When it identifies too closely with the state, it becomes complacent and ossified, and efforts to coerce piety or to proscribe certain behavior in the interests of moral conformity are unavailing.

Thankfully, the founding fathers recognized that wisdom and codified it into the First Amendment, the best friend that religion has ever had. The First Amendment was a concession to pluralism, and its guarantee of a "free market" of religion has ensured a salubrious religious marketplace unmatched anywhere else in the world.
Jesus Is Not a Republican

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 12:45pm

Everything in this article has been rehashed hundreds of times. The Religious Right has given answers for every issue he brings up and backed it up with statistics and beliefs. The problem is that people like the author don't want to engage in discussion, they just want to pound their talking points.

"but evangelicals abandoned Carter by the end of the 1970s, as the nascent religious right forged an alliance with the Republican Party."

I see it more as the Democratic Party abandoned Evangelicals. Jimmy Carter gave the interview in Playboy Magazine, a periodical that many Evangelicals considered porn, and that is one instance where many left the party.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 1:27pm

How does he know? Did he ask Jesus if he wasn't a republican?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 1:38pm

"How does he know? Did he ask Jesus if he wasn't a republican?"

I recently attended a lecture where the author was one of the panelists. He's so full of himself that I'm sure he believes he did ask Jesus.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 1:38pm

I asked, and Jesus is a Republican. In fact, he's very disappointed with the Republican Party. He feels they should be doing more. He told me that anyone registered Democrat, is going to hell.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 1:47pm

Who were the other panelists, Goth? What was the panel on?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 1:52pm

The topic was the relationship between Jews and Evangelicals. The other two panelists were Jewish rabbis, one conservative, one liberal.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 2:00pm

Well, I don't find his writing "full of himself" at all. I think he writes with great humility.

I think the Evangelicals who are trying to influence politics and remove the separation between church and state that is fundamental to our nation--I those are the ones you should say lack humility.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 2:01pm

'Jesus was Jewish' --Avenue Q

seriously, if you look at the platform of the Republican party and the choices being made-the priorities that have been made, Jesus would NOT be a Republican.

Jesus would be pro-environment. He would want more done for the lower classes. He would not be a corporation whore. He wouldn't be fighting for just the rich. He wouldn't be war hungry or oil greedy. He would open his arms to gays and lesbians.

[DG]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 2:07pm

"He would open his arms to gays and lesbians."

Some would say that he did the first time around.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 3:57pm

Jesus would be neither because I don't believe he was an actual person.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:24pm

I tend to not take seriously anyone who quotes their imaginary friends at me.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:29pm

Who quoted imaginary friends?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:33pm

"Jesus would be neither because I don't believe he was an actual person."

You can argue whether the man was divine or not, but historians such as Josephus prove that he lived.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:47pm

The references to Jesus by Josephus have been widely thought to be interpolations by Christian monks, who added many things into his works, not the least of which because a Jew, who never converted, would not have written of Jesus as the Christ of the Jews.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:49pm

jesus sent me a fax stating that this thread makes him cry, then giggle and then cry some more.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:55pm

PapalovesPatRobertson, I know you're lying, because Jesus would use a blackberry.
Or at the very least a Treo.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:59pm

evidently god insisted on going with tmobile over verizon and in yet another example of god's cruel sense of humor, jesus can't get coverage in his office.

Updated On: 6/19/06 at 04:59 PM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:00pm

I'm fighting from saying something horribly sacrilegious.

All I will say is that at least he didn't go with Sprint.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 9:48pm

"an pentocostal"?

"an"?

Jesus sent me a text message saying "cya L8er? turned some h20 in2 ur favrite wine--want 2 watch VOTD or Piazza?"

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 10:00pm

kEwL!!!!

[Effie Im TIRED]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 11:30pm

This thread is well on its way to be nominated for "greatest thread". My sides!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 3:22am

Goth, There may have been some radical teacher who inspired the character of Jesus Christ, but the Jesus we know today (and from the Bible) is nothing but a myth. That's my opinion, anyway. I equate Jesus with Santa Claus, who was loosely based on an actual person.

Updated On: 6/20/06 at 03:22 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 10:19am

Just to make it clear, there is no "Seperation between church and state" in the constitution. That was written in a letter by Thomas Jefferson, I believe. But, I agree that there religion should have no place in politics. All these Christians I know are so upset that Christians in other countries are being killed because of their faith. I always say, "That is what happens when you mix religion with politics. If they don't believe the same thing you do, you must die." That is how it was all throughout history. Now is Jesus a republican? I would put him more as a liberal based on the Bible. I mean, he hung around tax collectors and dirt of the soical food chain back then.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 10:45am

Well, spider, there IS that pesky little first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" but other than that, I take your point about the phrase itself.

Updated On: 6/20/06 at 10:45 AM