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.

Bush's Voting Rights Extension Hypocrisy

On July 27th, 2006 George W. Bush signed into law an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an important bill that came out of the civil rights movement, with a strong endorsement that it "broke the segregationist lock on the voting box." Furthermore, he asserted that "my administration will vigorously enforce the provisions of this law, and we will defend it in court."

Yet at the same time the Bush Administration has been gutting the DOJ's Civil Rights Division that enforces this law. According to a July 23 Boston Globe article, in the Fall of 2002, John Ashcroft changed the hiring system to be overseen by administration political appointees rather than career lawyers. Thus a majority of people are being hired for their ideological stances rather than their experience in civil rights. It shows in the recent hiring statistics: "42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003, after the administration changed the rules to give political appointees more influence in the hiring process, have civil rights experience" as opposed to "two years before the change, 77 percent of those who were hired had civil rights background" in the Division's voting rights, employment litigation, and appellate sections. Furthermore, these hirings since 2003 have had strong conservative credentials including 11 lawyers who were members of the conservative Federalist Society, 7 from the Republican National Laywers Association, and 2 who even volunteered for Bush-Cheney campaigns. Also "several new hires worked for prominent conservatives" including Kenneth Starr (we all remember that dirt bag), former attorney general Edwin Meese, Trent Lott, and Judge Charles Pickering.

This shift in hiring procedures has reflected in the types of cases the Civil Rights Division has taken on. They are "bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians."

Thus Bush's strong support for extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 seems to be just a good PR ploy rather than actually having any weight. He has the power to undermine it when it comes to enforcing the law which is what his administration is doing. This is further illustrated in his administration's support of a 2005 Georgia law requiring that all voters there get photo identification cards (costing $20 if they don't have driver's licenses) which would discourage poorer, mostly minority people. Its important that people remain vigilant over such acts by the Bush administration.

The shifting nature of the Civil Rights Division is perfectly illustrated in this excerpt from a Boston Globe editorial about the debate in the CRD over the Georgia Voting Law:

"Five career officials reviewed the law. Four of them, appointed before the hiring changes, thought the Justice Department should reject it, a power granted under the Voting Rights Act. The one hired under the new rules said the law was fair. His superiors, also political appointees, agreed"

Fortunately, the Georgia law was struck down in Federal Court but it is scary what the Bush administration is doing to undermine the Civil Rights Division and the laws that are within its enforcement jurisdiction.