Evangelical Christians Sick of Right Wingers Politicizing their Religion

Evangelical christians may not be a monolithic group of people after all. The guy they profile, Rev. Gregory A. Boyd, may not be someone who I agree with on particular social issues like gay rights or abortion but I do agree with his stance of not forcing his religious beliefs on others through the government.

There seems to be a debate among evangelicals in concerns of their ties with the Republican Party. One pastor, Brian D. McLaren sums up this sentiment of concern over the politicized evangelical movement in the New York Times Article:

“ More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,” Mr. McLaren said. “You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.

“Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.’ ”

I think this has many people on the left so disdained about the dominant strain of Christianity in this country. That they are nothing but ignorant bigots that try to force their religious beliefs on others. I am pretty disgusted at how Republicans constantly politicize religious beliefs. If they really believed in a "culture of life" we wouldn't have the death penalty, we would have a national health care system, we wouldn't be in Iraq, we wouldn't spend so much money on worthless military garbage like the missile defense system, and we would spend more money for those in this country suffering in debilitating poverty.

Another part of the article that I thought was very interesting was this:

"One woman asked: 'So why NOT us? If we contain the wisdom and grace and love and creativity of Jesus, why shouldn’t we be the ones involved in politics and setting laws?'

Mr. Boyd responded: 'I don’t think there’s a particular angle we have on society that others lack. All good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just don’t slap the label ‘Christian’ on it.' " Though I myself am a Jew, I know that this politicized evangelical christian movement has distorted what Christianity means which is what I think the reverend is trying to say. We can't make judgments about people's faith based on the predominant strain of that faith in our country.