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Evangelicals Returning to a Christian Perspective Even on US Wars?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by glynch, Feb 6, 2006.

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  1. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    January 20, 2006
    Op-Ed Contributor
    Wayward Christian Soldiers
    By CHARLES MARSH

    Charlottesville, Va.

    IN the past several years, American evangelicals, and I am one of them, have amassed greater political power than at any time in our history. But at what cost to our witness and the integrity of our message?

    Recently, I took a few days to reread the war sermons delivered by influential evangelical ministers during the lead up to the Iraq war. That period, from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2003, is not one I will remember fondly. Many of the most respected voices in American evangelical circles blessed the president's war plans, even when doing so required them to recast Christian doctrine.

    Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, whose weekly sermons are seen by millions of television viewers, led the charge with particular fervor. "We should offer to serve the war effort in any way possible," said Mr. Stanley, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "God battles with people who oppose him, who fight against him and his followers." In an article carried by the convention's Baptist Press news service, a missionary wrote that "American foreign policy and military might have opened an opportunity for the Gospel in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

    As if working from a slate of evangelical talking points, both Franklin Graham, the evangelist and son of Billy Graham, and Marvin Olasky, the editor of the conservative World magazine and a former advisor to President Bush on faith-based policy, echoed these sentiments, claiming that the American invasion of Iraq would create exciting new prospects for proselytizing Muslims. Tim LaHaye, the co-author of the hugely popular "Left Behind" series, spoke of Iraq as "a focal point of end-time events," whose special role in the earth's final days will become clear after invasion, conquest and reconstruction. For his part, Jerry Falwell boasted that "God is pro-war" in the title of an essay he wrote in 2004.

    The war sermons rallied the evangelical congregations behind the invasion of Iraq. An astonishing 87 percent of all white evangelical Christians in the United States supported the president's decision in April 2003. Recent polls indicate that 68 percent of white evangelicals continue to support the war. But what surprised me, looking at these sermons nearly three years later, was how little attention they paid to actual Christian moral doctrine. Some tried to square the American invasion with Christian "just war" theory, but such efforts could never quite reckon with the criterion that force must only be used as a last resort. As a result, many ministers dismissed the theory as no longer relevant.

    Some preachers tried to link Saddam Hussein with wicked King Nebuchadnezzar of Biblical fame, but these arguments depended on esoteric interpretations of the Old Testament book of II Kings and could not easily be reduced to the kinds of catchy phrases that are projected onto video screens in vast evangelical churches. The single common theme among the war sermons appeared to be this: our president is a real brother in Christ, and because he has discerned that God's will is for our nation to be at war against Iraq, we shall gloriously comply.

    Such sentiments are a far cry from those expressed in the Lausanne Covenant of 1974. More than 2,300 evangelical leaders from 150 countries signed that statement, the most significant milestone in the movement's history. Convened by Billy Graham and led by John Stott, the revered Anglican evangelical priest and writer, the signatories affirmed the global character of the church of Jesus Christ and the belief that "the church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology."

    On this page, David Brooks correctly noted that if evangelicals elected a pope, it would most likely be Mr. Stott, who is the author of more than 40 books on evangelical theology and Christian devotion. Unlike the Pope John Paul II, who said that invading Iraq would violate Catholic moral teaching and threaten "the fate of humanity," or even Pope Benedict XVI, who has said there were "not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq," Mr. Stott did not speak publicly on the war. But in a recent interview, he shared with me his abiding concerns.

    "Privately, in the days preceding the invasion, I had hoped that no action would be taken without United Nations authorization," he told me. "I believed then and now that the American and British governments erred in proceeding without United Nations approval." Reverend Stott referred me to "War and Rumors of War, " a chapter from his 1999 book, "New Issues Facing Christians Today," as the best account of his position. In that essay he wrote that the Christian community's primary mission must be "to hunger for righteousness, to pursue peace, to forbear revenge, to love enemies, in other words, to be marked by the cross."

    What will it take for evangelicals in the United States to recognize our mistaken loyalty? We have increasingly isolated ourselves from the shared faith of the global Church, and there is no denying that our Faustian bargain for access and power has undermined the credibility of our moral and evangelistic witness in the world. The Hebrew prophets might call us to repentance, but repentance is a tough demand for a people utterly convinced of their righteousness

    http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt032.html
     
    #1 glynch, Feb 6, 2006
  2. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    excellent article. thanks for sharing it, glynch.
     
    #2 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  3. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    Great stuff. I think the Democrats would be well served to run a candidate who put Christian values in the front of his campaign, and talk AGAINST the war, and bring morality back to the whitehouse, and speak out against the scandals, and corruption. If that candidate believed that peace, honesty, and integrity were Christian values and put those out in the forefront of his campaign, it would do a few things.

    It would wipe some tarnish off of the image of Christianity that some of the evangelicals mentioned in this article have talked about.

    It would represent what I believe to be main stream Christian values.

    Even if hardcore fundamentalist GOP voters wouldn't vote for a Dem, it might not fire them up so much to vote against one, and lessen the turnout of the GOP base.

    It would make that President at least try to live up to the ideals he mentioned in his campaign, which would be a good thing.
     
    #3 FranchiseBlade, Feb 6, 2006
  4. rhester

    rhester Contributing Member

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    agree

    I am amazed that anyone would think a war is the way to get a missionary into a country.

    Please, in my humble opinion this war is not any Christian mission at all.
     
    #4 rhester, Feb 6, 2006
  5. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    spot on article.

    Look if George decided that this war with Iraq was a holy war of Christian versus Muslim as some of these preachers made it sound to be, then Bush shoulda just come out and said it. But he didnt do that did he, he used fake intelligence reports to justify a BS war. All I know is this, there are such things as holy wars, but I've never heard of the righteous having to be conned into anyhting holy.

    EDIT: Starting a real war to get missionarieis into a country isnt the best thing to do. Theres a reason why we broke away form the Catholic Church in the first place.
     
    #5 hotballa, Feb 6, 2006
  6. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    Might there be not a different reason as to why so many White Evangelicals are supportive of the war? Generally speaking, American Christian evangelism is vastly different from others around the world anyways, and even within America it isn't like there is some unity between evangelicals, although over the past few years, the more vocal stream has been the pro-war crowd, the Jerry Falwells, and the Franklin Grahams.
     
    #6 tigermission1, Feb 6, 2006
  7. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    it's sad to me to see Franklin's name in there. his ministry to children around the world is heart-warming. i hope his statement was taken so far out of context that it doesn't represent his feelings. or i hope he's had a huge change of heart.
     
    #7 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  8. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    Well, not Billy Graham, I meant his son Franklin has been sounding more and more 'divisive' and confrontational with some of the things I heard him say. I think he's less of a visionary and less inclusive than his father was.

    However, that doesn't mean he's a bad person, I am pretty sure that most of these guys (yes, even Falwell) have done tons of charity work around the world, I just think their rhetoric might turn off some people not necessarily in America, but more so in other nations around the world.

    I just think some of these Evangelical leaders come across as preaching not a purely Christian message, but rather a political and American-centric message...I don't know if you understand what I am referring to here, just my .02 on this whole thing from an outsiders' perspective...may be it's just me, and if I am off in my analysis please help educate me on this topic.
     
    #8 tigermission1, Feb 6, 2006
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2006
  9. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    the problem with the Falwells and Robertsons and that type of evangelical is that in the 80's they started cosying up to the Republican party in order to advance their moral agenda and get more of the Religious Right into positions of power.

    This has been a pretty successful tactic, and as such leaves them beholden to the Repubs.

    Therefore, they felt they had to support what their guy in the WH wanted them to support.

    It is nice to see some evangelicals starting to speak out on policies that dont jibe with what a Christian should care about.
     
    #9 Rockets2K, Feb 6, 2006
  10. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    no tiger, you're 100% right. I agree with exactly what you say about it, well except the part about the white evangelical thing. I don't think it's so much racial colors as it is what R2K is referring to.
     
    #10 hotballa, Feb 6, 2006
  11. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    reminds me of God's admonishments to His people in Isaiah to not be too reliant on other people for their needs..particularly to the point of compromising God's work to "payback" others.

    tiger -- i knew you meant Franklin. i've participated in the Operation Christmas Child thing for a while. he seems to head up some great ministries. but it disappoints me to hear him say what he was quoted as saying, above.
     
    #11 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  12. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    No I was just throwing another possibility for that overwhelming support for the war amongst White Evangelicals, I didn't mean to insinuate that it was definitely a race thing.

    I think R2K's post offered a more reasonable explanation than mine did...
     
    #12 tigermission1, Feb 6, 2006
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2006
  13. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    Max, which chapter and verse is this? It's something I want to use for my youth group :D
     
    #13 hotballa, Feb 6, 2006
  14. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    Here's one. There are lots of others. Everytime the Israelites looked to foreign alliances to "save them" it got them into more trouble..and God kept saying, "stop depending on them...depend on me."

    Isaiah 31
    Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt
    1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
    who rely on horses,
    who trust in the multitude of their chariots
    and in the great strength of their horsemen,
    but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
    or seek help from the LORD.
     
    #14 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  15. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    Thanks man, saved me the trouble :D
     
    #15 hotballa, Feb 6, 2006
  16. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    are you a youth pastor??? or do you volunteer with youth??

    youth ministry is my gig at church, too...or at least it has been. i'm in between churches right now.
     
    #16 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  17. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    I'm the youth group counselor actually. I grew up in the Chruch but had a ahem "troubled" 8 or 9 years after I turned 18. I'm hoping to help the kids at my Church avoid some of the potholes I went through. It's a little tough though, I have to work very hard to avoid adopting a "do as I say, not as I did" attitude.
     
    #17 hotballa, Feb 6, 2006
  18. rhester

    rhester Contributing Member

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    Our church needs more Rocket fans.

    When I tell the church I'm on the BBS here I get some strange looks....
     
    #18 rhester, Feb 6, 2006
  19. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    that's awesome. that's the work of Christ alive....not merely a 2000 year old story, but one right in front of them in someone they know.
     
    #19 MadMax, Feb 6, 2006
  20. rhester

    rhester Contributing Member

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    BTW- I think Operation Christmas Child is a great thing. Our church has participated ever since we started.
     
    #20 rhester, Feb 6, 2006
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