Excerpts from Washington Post: Evangelical Christians are selling out faith for politics
Michael Gerson
Oh, God — and I mean the entreaty seriously — the Trump/evangelical summitin New York was just as bad as some of us feared.
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There is a case for reluctant support of Trump over Clinton — a weak one, I think, but embraced by some serious people. Yet this event was not the tortured search for partial truths in a fallen world. It was a sad parody of Christian political involvement, summarizing all the faults and failures of the religious right.
We were reminded, first, that many religious conservatives are a cheap political date. Chuck Colson often described how, during the Nixon administration, religious leaders (as opposed to, say, union leaders) were easily impressed and tamed by proximity to power. After Tuesday’s meeting, the Christian writer Eric Metaxas, in promoting his radio show, tweeted, “I WAS RIGHT THERE!” Why such wide-eyed reactions from some in attendance? A panting desire for affirmation rooted in feelings of inferiority? A disorienting fear of fading cultural influence? Echoes, in embracing a billionaire, of the prosperity gospel? Whatever the motivation, the public has seen a movement content with a pat on the head and a scratch under the chin.
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“I wanna be in the room where it happens!” Aaron Burr in “Hamilton”. This didn’t start with Nixon, not even close.
We are called to be in the world, not of it. For serious thought in this arena consider reading about Rod Dreyer’s Benedictine Option, or for a more nuanced Reformed approach, Carl Trueman’s Calvary Option.
…but whatever you do, don’t fantasize that you can wash your hands of politics. This election cycle may turn out to be existentially important. Casting votes is how the balance is restored or skewed in America.
Unfortunately; the Washington Post, and it appears Gerson are the last place one should go for opinions on who is “selling out Faith for politics”. At least the title is half right, “selling out” meaning going on today, currently because of supporting Trump (really?). The article completely ignores the selling out of Faith and Religion that has been occurring for the last 8 or 9 years under liberal leadership both in the Church and politics of the left. So as the Article somewhat implies when we look at which candidate to support we are to judge based on what one candidate has allegedly done in his past (he might be a sinner) and what he might do in the future; totally ignoring what another candidate HAS done in the past to politicize and demonize religious beliefs and freedoms. Going so far as to demonstrate that if you do not believe the same way they do you are unfaithful. If you do not bend Scripture to fit the modern political interpretation of those Scriptures you are a bigot, or worse. A candidate who today the average Religious person has no idea what her political beliefs are. To choose based on someone who has publicly stated he is Religious (Presbyterian) and one who we have no idea what her religious beliefs are despite being around for 40 years is a no brainier, that is certainly not politicizing anything. It is being discerning and thoughtful. The entire article reeks of politicizing Faith, based on political desires vs Faith based obedience to Scripture and God.
This is the key point of the article, and one over which the Evangelicals need to devote some considerable soul searching to see if it is indeed true, and how to respond if it is:
“It is happening again. Evangelical Christian leaders, motivated by political self-interest, are cozying up to a leader who has placed bigotry and malice at the center of American politics. They are defending the rights of their faith while dishonoring its essence. Genuine social influence will not come by putting Christ back into Christmas; it will come by putting Christ and his priorities back into more Christians. “