LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Not every Evangelical Christian is supportive of the actions of the "Hard Right". An in-depth article in "American Prospect" talks about these moderate Evangelicals and how they might vote this year.

Some excerpts:

In early February, 60 minutes' Morley Safer portrayed white evangelical Christians as the carnies of American Protestantism. Nine million viewers tuned in and saw shots of vast "megachurch" congregations swaying hypnotically and raising their hands in song. Tacky cinematic renderings of a fiery Armageddon added some dramatic tension. The slick ringmaster of these goings-on, of course, was the Reverend Tim LaHaye, the famous apocalyptic entrepreneur and co-author of the wildly popular Left Behind novels. (The series depicts the end of the world as prophesized in the Book of Revelation.)

Safer eventually turned his attention to Washington, where he declared that "evangelical ... beliefs have already reshaped American politics." As the visages of George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, and John Ashcroft flitted across the screen, the message was clear: The Republican Party has God on its side.

Except that this year, a considerable group of evangelicals just might swing the vote -- in favor of the Democrats.

Meet the "freestyle evangelicals." Compelled by evangelicalism's conservative theology but averse to the right wing's intolerance and lack of charity toward the poor, they occupy a curious political middle ground. Every four years they independently evaluate the state of the union through the lens of a Jesus-centered faith. But their concerns extend beyond the conservative morality issues of abortion and gay marriage to progressive matters of social justice, America's role in the world, and care for the environment. The sociologist Stephen Hart describes Christian faith as comprising a set of elemental moral "building blocks" that believers "assemble" in countless combinations to construct their social ethics. Freestyle evangelicals have neither an exclusively Democratic nor Republican worldview; they say they often find themselves in the tiresome position of electing officials who will do the least amount of damage rather than the most good. As one believer told the Prospect, "I am a political moderate, not despite my theological conservatism but because of it."

"Freestyle Evangelicals"? Ok- they might be the key to ousting Bush... read more:

Bush campaigned as a moderate with a "compassionate conservative" agenda that attracted Christian voters who firmly believe in the transformative effects of religious conversion. And like Clinton and Carter before him, Bush effortlessly laced his remarks with the parlance of the born-again: During an early presidential debate in Iowa, for example, he famously named Jesus as his favorite political philosopher, adding, "When you accept Christ as the savior, it changes your heart, it changes your life." Call that spiritual red meat for the party faithful.

But this election year, many freestyle evangelicals' votes are up for grabs. This bloc lacks the fervor of traditionalists like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell; indeed, most of its members are offended by the dogmatic and self-righteous antics of leaders of the religious right. These believers might be concerned about gay marriage and abortion, but they will not be found picketing outside the Supreme Court anytime soon.

Neither are freestyle evangelicals wilting lilies, abandoning their faith in the face of an aggressively secular mainstream culture. Rather, their beliefs require that they show tolerance and respect in a diverse society. Christian Smith is a professor and associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want. He explained it this way in his book: "[Many evangelicals believe] Jesus' teachings assumed that his followers would always be a minority surrounded by a plurality of nonbelievers, whom they should not try to dominate, but should love and serve for God's sake."

Evangelical Christianity is a mighty force in the personal lives of nearly 25 percent of Americans today. While mainline Protestant denominations continue to shrink, evangelical churches are flourishing, thanks in part to members' high birthrates and successes at passing the faith on to their children. Contrary to secular conventional wisdom, evangelicalism is highly individualistic: Over and above all else, such Christians believe in a converting, transformative, and deeply personal relationship with a living Jesus Christ. Theirs is an abiding faith in the resurrected Christ as their lord and savior; only through him is eternal salvation achieved. Most evangelicals read the Bible as the inerrant and inspired word of God, trusting that all spiritual truth is found within its pages. And they believe that their faith calls them to lives of service, especially through evangelism -- spreading the gospel, that is -- and mission work. But that is about where the commonalities end.

Secular liberals have long misunderstood the kaleidoscopic diversity of American evangelicalism, thereby granting polarizing figures like Falwell, LaHaye, and James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, too much credit as spokesmen. The media do no better, commonly lumping all conservative Protestants together under the banner of the religious right. This often pejorative labeling blurs the lines between distinct -- and sometimes competing -- religious movements such as charismatic Christianity, Pentecostalism, and fundamentalism. Further, Smith's research reveals that nearly 70 percent of conservative Christians do not even identify with or support the Christian right. But news stories like the one on 60 Minutes perpetuate the idea of an evangelical monolith hungry for political power and marked by intolerance and anti-intellectualism. Ergo, it is not surprising that many Democratic politicians do their best to distance themselves from the very word "evangelical."

H'm... this is a very eye-opening article. It is refreshing and even relieving to know that the Evangelicals are not a single monolithic block. It is always useful to take a closer and more thorough look at people and beliefs that might on the surface seem irrational and abhorrent to some- because it is too easy to fall into the trap of tossing the baby out with the bathwater.

But even the Evangelical hard right 'neocons' assume that all folks proclaiming Evangelical beliefs are in their boat. They are wrong to presume so.

Late in 2001, Karl Rove dropped by the American Enterprise Institute to share his thoughts on the Bush presidency and electoral strategy with a friendly audience. Benefiting from hindsight, Rove lamented that the Bush campaign had failed to rally all corners of the party faithful, particularly some 4 million white evangelicals, fundamentalists, and Pentecostals who stayed home on election day. "[Y]et they are obviously part of our base," he declared.

But that might be an overstatement. Judging from the editorial pages of newspapers in battleground states like Florida and West Virginia, Rove could be taking a little too much for granted. In early January, an editorial headlined "How Would Jesus Vote?" in West Virginia's flagship newspaper, the Charleston Gazette, sharply contrasted the actions of the Bush administration with the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. The writer summed it up, noting, "[A] glaring contradiction exists: Everything that Jesus stood for seems opposed by Republicans now in control of Washington ... . Why on earth do so many churchgoers vote for the opposite of Jesus?"

Florida's Palm Beach Post ran a story in October 2002 headlined "We're Christians and We're Not Stupid." The story profiled an evangelical woman who resented media caricatures of Christianity, saying, "I live a radical Christian life. I take my Bible seriously, and I believe in turning the other cheek." Defying the conventional wisdom about evangelicals, she went on to declare her support and love for her homosexual neighbors. "God tells us to love one another," she said simply.

And in late January, editorial columnist William McKenzie wrote in The Dallas Morning News, a newspaper that wends its way into the First Bedroom each morning, "Administration Neocons Elbow Evangelicals Aside," a piece that exposed the culture (socially liberal, centered in Washington and New York) and motivations (the establishment of an American empire) of the powerful neoconservatives lurking behind cow-eyed evangelicals in the Republican Party. "The way those two sides relate affects whether your son or daughter goes to war, whether peace gets struck in the Mideast, and how the war against terrorism gets run," wrote McKenzie. "At this point, the neocons are winning, hands down."

They say that politics make strange bedfellows. Perhaps so, but if we don't band together to toss these people out of power, we'll be taking our 'dirt nap' far sooner than we want to, if they get their way. No one is safe: even Christians.

Sunfell