The word "evangelical" gets thrown around a lot these days concerning various Christian groups. Some of the groups mentioned are honest-to-Jesus Bible-thumping hellfire-spouting missionary types, but some of them are just exceptionally conservative Christianists who go to church every Sunday, sit up straight, sing in the choir, and refrain from dancing or drinking. There's a difference, I think. Coming from the Carolina Bible Belt---and being related to a number of Southern Baptists and Republicans----I'd say there is a difference between those and, say, the Pentacostalists.
But I don't suppose it matters. I'm not going to tabulate and classify them; I'm just going to pray that more of them get the prodigious mess in their heads (where the words of Jesus get all mixed up with what their Daddies told them about taxes, capitalism, and the flag) sorted out so they don't keep yanking the country further down the path to dysfunction and dishonor.
There's some reason to believe that some of them are hearing the pleas (or that God is hearing the prayers) of some of their more centrist or even leftward-tilting brethren.
The National Association of Evangelicals, representing roughly 45,000 churches across the U.S. endorsed on Tuesday a declaration against torture put together by Evangelicals for Human Rights – an organization of 17 evangelical scholars – in a striking break from the Bush Administration's policy.
"Tragically, documented cases of torture and inhumane and cruel behaviour have occurred at various sites in the war on terror, and current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue," the evangelicals' statement declares.
Continue reading "Can I Hear You say Hallelujah? Evangelicals Step Up. " »
