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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT Sunday Review, Peter Wehner: Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican
Found this thanks to a tweet from MSNBC's Kyle Griffin:
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/wehner-evangelical-republicans.html
Ive been a part of both for my entire adult life. These days, though, in many important ways they are having harmful effects on our society.
The latest example is in Alabama, where Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate, stands accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct by nine women, including one who was 14 years old at the time. Mr. Moore leads in most polls, and solidly among most evangelicals, heading into Tuesdays election.
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Just the other day I received a note from a friend of mine, a pastor, who told me he no longer uses the label evangelical to describe himself, even though he meets every element of its historical definition, because the term is now so stained as to ruin my ability to be what evangelicalism was supposed to be.
Another pastor who is a lifelong friend told me, Evangelical is no longer a word we can use. The reason, he explained, is that its become not a religious identification so much as a political one. A third person, who heads a Christian organization, told me the term evangelical is now a tribal rather than a creedal description. In October, the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship, a campus ministry for more than 80 years, changed its name to the Princeton Christian Fellowship. Were interested in being people who are defined by our faith and by our faith commitments and not by any sort of political agenda, according to Bill Boyce, who has led the campus group for decades.
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Assume you were a person of the left and an atheist, and you decided to create a couple of people in a laboratory to discredit the Republican Party and white evangelical Christianity. You could hardly choose two more perfect men than Donald Trump and Roy Moore.
Both have been credibly accused of being sexual predators, sometimes admitting to bizarre behavior in their own words. Both have spun wild conspiracy theories, including the lie that Barack Obama was not born in America. Both have slandered the United States and lavished praise on Vladimir Putin, with Mr. Moore declaring that America today could be considered the focus of evil in the modern world and stating, in response to Mr. Putins anti-gay measures in Russia: Well, maybe Putin is right. Maybe hes more akin to me than I know. Both have been involved with shady business dealings. Both have intentionally divided America along racial and religious lines. Both relish appealing to peoples worst instincts. Both create bitterness and acrimony in a nation desperately in need of grace and a healing touch.
I hoped the Trump era would be seen as an aberration and made less ugly by those who might have influence over the president. That hasnt happened. Rather than Republicans and people of faith checking his most unappealing sides, the president is dragging down virtually everyone within his orbit.
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Institutional renewal and regeneration are possible, and Im going to continue to push for them. But for now a solid majority of Republicans and self-described evangelicals are firmly aboard the Trump train, which is doing its utmost to give a seat of privilege to Mr. Moore. So for those of us who still think of ourselves as conservative and Christian, its enough already.
50 Shades Of Blue
(10,004 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)They have done so much damage to this country and the world, damage that Satan would be proud of.
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.
Oh, and I like the gratuitous slam on atheists. Thanks, Mr. Ustabee!
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)would create either Donald Trump or Roy Moore.
matt819
(10,749 posts)We in the reality based universe have seen this crap for two generations while you threw your religious, political, and academic support to the republicans. You are part of the problem. Your so-called come to Jesus moment is too little too late.
Maybe if you had the balls to abandon your party and throw your support to Dems, it might mean something. Until then, youre just another shitbag who couldnt see what the rest of us have seen for more than 40 years.