Evangelical Christian Fundamentalism and American Politics

December 1, 2003
UN on AIDS: 'Live and Let Live'


Today, December 1, is "World AIDS Day," yet too many health policy-makers, both in this country and internationally, remain unwilling to do what is really necessary to conquer this deadly epidemic.

Buried in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper was the latest report on HIV infections from the Centers for Disease Control. New infections among men who have sex with men climbed 17% between 1999 and 2002 - the largest jump of any exposure category. Men who have sex with men constituted 59.7% of the new HIV infections among males - more than ten times the percentage of the U.S. adult male population that has ever engaged in such behavior. Yet despite its deadly consequences and the fact that fighting AIDS has cost taxpayers billions, the U.S. Supreme Court says that criminalizing such behavior is unconstitutional, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court wants to reward it with society's ultimate affirmation - marriage.

It is true that overseas heterosexual transmission plays a larger role in the epidemic. Yet even there, it is clear that behavioral change - abstaining from sex outside of marriage or from illegal drug use - is the key to stopping AIDS. Uganda is an excellent example of how abstinence education has helped stall the AIDS outbreak. But is that the focus of the U.N.-sponsored World AIDS Day activities? No. The U.N.'s theme is "eliminating stigma and discrimination," and the slogan is "Live and Let Live."

While it is true in one sense that "stigma" surrounding a disease can sometimes prevent people from seeking needed testing and treatment, re-stigmatizing the reckless and immoral behavior that spreads the disease in the first place is the key to prevention.

Senate Dems' Tactics on Bush Nominees Exposed


Last month a series of memos showing the coziness between liberal interest groups and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were "leaked" to the press.

However, whenever the mainstream press covers the memos they focus on chastising the Republicans for supposedly leaking the information and they ignore the downright nastiness of the Senate Democrats' strategy. These liberal organizations tell Democrats which judicial nominees to go after and vote down, how many hearings to hold, and ground rules for allowing floor votes. The memos even state that the groups persuaded Democrats to delay nominations in order to affect an affirmative action case in Michigan.

The memos go on to detail how to conduct personal attacks on Bush's judicial nominees, at one point writing "most of Bush's nominees are Nazis." In talking about Miguel Estrada, one memo identifies him as "especially dangerous" because "he is Latino." Another memo admonishes Democrats not to make the mistake they made with Clarence Thomas, in allowing Estrada to get on the Federal Courts at all.

What would Jonathan Edwards think of suburban Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church, where every weekend some 17,000 congregants arrive in their Chevy Tahoes and Toyota minivans to worship in the enormous brick-and-glass auditorium? More specifically, what would the 18th-century Puritan preacher who penned the fire-and-brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" make of "seeker-friendly" services that use "drama, multimedia, and contemporary music" to serve "individuals checking out what it really means to have a personal relationship with Jesus"? Gazing across the packed rows, would Edwards recognize the modern face of the religious movement that he played such a key role in launching?

On the 300th anniversary of the great theologian's birth, the questions are hardly academic. From Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., to Bellevue Baptist Church outside Memphis, evangelical megachurches dot the American landscape like the Wal-Marts, Home Depots, and other big-box stores that so many of them resemble. But this is only the most visible sign of the growing sway of evangelical Christianity, a tradition that includes both the Pentecostal and Southern Baptist churches, as well as an ever growing array of nondenominational and even some mainline Protestant congregations. From the White House and the halls of Congress to a vastly expanding spiritual self-help movement to the most vigorous Christian missionary effort in the developing world, the growing influence of evangelicalism is everywhere.

Today, according to a Gallup survey, roughly 4 out of 10 Americans identify themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians. (emphasis PDiddie's) And, as Boston College sociologist Alan Wolfe argues in his book The Transformation of American Religion, many characteristics of the evangelical style--its strongly personalist and therapeutic tendencies, its market-savvy approaches to expanding the flock, and even a certain theological fuzziness--have permeated other faith traditions in America, including Roman Catholicism and Judaism. Wolfe says, only half facetiously, "We are all evangelicals now."

"If, rather than employ the spiritual power of the gospel, the Church returns to take up the sword of earthly political power, then according to Jesus' own words of warning, the Church is destined to be trampled upon by that same power. It may be that the much-dreaded final persecution of the saints at the close of this age will be only the harvest of evil seed now being sown by the Church. Let us reason together. It is an indisputable fact that the majority of this nation's and the world's citizens are on the "broad way which leads to destruction." If the saints, being in the minority, resort to the earthly weapon of majority rule, common sense - not to mention the Holy Spirit - screams to us the incontrovertible truth that we are bound to be outvoted and defeated, unless, of course, we "water down" the gospel message or downplay its demands in order to persuade those on "the broad way" to join our cause. But in that case, what has actually happened is that we have become one of them, no longer separated from the world for the honor and service of Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, God forbid that the Church should ever distort or neglect the gospel for the sake of any earthly gain, be it fortune, fame, friendships, or political power.

Quote:
It is true that overseas heterosexual transmission plays a larger role in the epidemic. Yet even there, it is clear that behavioral change - abstaining from sex outside of marriage or from illegal drug use - is the key to stopping AIDS. Uganda is an excellent example of how abstinence education has helped stall the AIDS outbreak. But is that the focus of the U.N.-sponsored World AIDS Day activities? No. The U.N.'s theme is "eliminating stigma and discrimination," and the slogan is "Live and Let Live."

What do they do in Uganda to enforce this abstinence-from-sex-outside- of-marriage thing? Again I say, WOW.