Evangelical Political Involvement

Justin Taylor, over at Between Two Worlds, links to First Things for a response to the New York Times on Evangelicals and politics.

I was in college in the late 80s, early 90s. One of my chief complaints everytime some report came out about the "new" political activism of Evangelicals was that reporters failed to note that Evangelicals have been involved politically for a few centuries-- long before there was a Republican Party or a Democratic Party. During the 60s and 70s there was a great deal of civil unrest and, yes, many churches began to focus more on ministries and starting Christian schools. But that didn't make them less focused or less concerned about politics-- just less vocal. Jerry Falwell changed that with the Moral Majority. Unlike the Catholic Church, where there is a central figure (the Holy Father) who gives clear guidance on church teaching, evangelicals have no central figure to unite them behind moral issues. Jerry Falwell did that.

I grew up in a church where my pastor was personally involved in politics on the state and national level almost since day one. It was due to this and the influence of others in my church and university that I became politically active and informed. It is because of those influences, the experiences of friends and my commitment to the right to life that I worked for National Right to Life for ten years.

I don't think Evangelical concerns over various issues issues of the day is a bad thing. We've always worked to combat poverty and homelessness. Where I went to school, for example, the parent church of the university had one of the oldest, longest-running homeless shelters in the U.S.

Conserving our natural resources, for another example, is just plain good stewardship.

I do think that liberal ("progressive") pastors are wrong in trying to refocus what we find morally offensive. Environmental issues, for example, are not of equal concern with abortion. However, if a church maintains that abortion is wrong, works to combat abortion on demand while also working to decrease poverty or AIDS and focuses on spreading the Gospel in all of these approaches, more power to them.

It is when the Gospel is a feel-good add-on, poverty is the new evil and abortion is one of many "concerns" that I think we need to question the priorities and New Testament "evangelicalism" of that particular church.