Saturday, November 22, 2008

Obama and the New Evangelicals:"DeJa Vu" All Over Again

There are a new breed of evangelicals which are embracing key platforms of the Democratic party and the cultural left. They are proudly distancing themselves from the "narrow minded and partisan voices" of the "religious right," like Dobson and Robertson. They are represented in part by groups like the Matthew 25 Network and some from the emerging church movement leaders, who are greatly enthused over the presidential victory of Barack Obama. "Climate change" is, now, one of the biggest issues they embrace.

These evangelicals want to move beyond the partisan issues which have "divided" our nation, like abortion and gay marriage. They want to be done with the culture wars. The way they do that is to capitulate to key issues on the Left. These evangelicals, for example, do not like abortion but they no longer believe that it is the job of government "to force mothers to give birth to their children."

This is supposedly a new and fresh approach to help Christians think and act on social issues. But is it really new or fresh? Can anyone remember in 1976 when a "born again" evangelical Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher came to the White House? Anybody up for another round of Jimmy Carter?

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