I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too

Chuck Baldwin ^ | 12/15

[ambrose]

I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too

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By Chuck Baldwin

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The Covenant News ~ December 15, 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those readers who are unfamiliar with my biography, let me here provide a thumbnail sketch of my conservative bona fides:

I attended, graduated, or received degrees from fundamentalist Christian schools such as Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan, Thomas Road Bible Institute (now known as Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University) in Lynchburg, Virginia, Christian Bible College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida.

I am currently in my thirtieth year as the Senior Pastor of the Crossroad Baptist Church (Independent) in Pensacola, Florida. I was the Executive Director of the Florida Moral Majority in the early 1980's. I was an active member of the local Christian Coalition.

I have marched and protested against abortion clinics. I have led several pro-life rallies and even led our church to construct A Memorial To Aborted Babies. I have conducted small and large (some drawing crowds numbering in the thousands) pro-life, pro-family rallies and meetings in the Pensacola area and in many towns and cities across the state of Florida.

When Ronald Reagan was running for President, I helped Dr. Jerry Falwell register more than fifty thousand new conservative voters in my state. I have attended White House functions with former President Reagan and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.

I supported and defended Chief Justice Roy Moore and his fight to display a Ten Commandments monument at a pro-Ten Commandments rally in Montgomery, Alabama and even on national television.

I am an annual member of the National Rifle Association and a life member of Gun Owners of America. I have been the featured speaker at several pro-Second Amendment rallies.

No one can honestly question my commitment to pro-life, pro-family, conservative causes. That being said, the Religious Right, as it now exists, scares me.

For one reason, on the whole, the Religious Right has obviously and patently become little more than a propaganda machine for the Republican Party in general and for President G.W. Bush in particular. This is in spite of the fact that both Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have routinely ignored and even trampled the very principles which the Religious Right claims to represent.

Therefore, no longer does the Religious Right represent conservative, Christian values. Instead, they represent their own self-serving interests at the expense of those values.

It also appears painfully obvious to me that in order to sit at the king's table, the Religious Right is willing to compromise any principle, no matter how sacred. As such, it has become a hollow movement. Sadly, the Religious Right is now a movement without a cause, except the cause of advancing the Republican Party.

Beyond that, the Religious Right is actively assisting those who would destroy our freedoms. On the whole, the Religious Right comports with those within the Bush administration and within the Republican Party who, in the name of "fighting terrorism," are actually terrorizing constitutional protections of our liberties.

The Religious Right offered virtually no resistance to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the Patriot Act, or the recently created position of National Intelligence Director. Neither did the Religious Right offer even a whimper of protest as President Bush and Republicans in Congress created a first-ever national ID card in the new intelligence bill, which eerily has more in common with early Twentieth Century German and Russian intelligence institutions than anything envisioned by America's Founding Fathers.

Another disconcerting feature of today's Religious Right is its attempt to Christianize political entities which it supports and to demonize political entities which it opposes. This trend is especially scary.

When people are told that they are voting "Christian" by voting for Republican Party candidates, it is being intimated that they are voting non-Christian by voting for any other candidate. This is not only silly on its face, it is downright dangerous!

I don't remember anyone saying people voted "Christian" when they elected the outspoken Christian candidate, Jimmy Carter, President. Yet, Carter, in his personal life, demonstrated as much, if not more, Christianity than does George W. Bush. If you recall, Carter even taught Sunday School in a Southern Baptist Church while President.

However, in spite of the fact that President Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have repeatedly supported copious unchristian (not to mention unconstitutional) programs and policies, Christians act as if Bush and his fellow Republicans have ushered in the Millennial Kingdom.

More than that, the Religious Right appears to believe that G.W. Bush is the anointed vicar of Christ. But instead of wearing the garb of a religious leader, he wears the shroud of a politico and a military commander-in-chief.

As such, in the minds of the Religious Right, Bush's war in Iraq is a holy crusade. America is fast taking on the shape of the old Holy Roman Empire and President Bush is quickly morphing into a modern day Caesar.

The willingness of the Religious Right to give President Bush king-like subservience is easily seen in the way they demonize anyone who dares to oppose him. This is very unnerving.

Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the Catholic Church but by the Religious Right? Are we witnessing the type of marriage between Church and State that America's founders originally feared?

I used to believe that liberals were paranoid for being fearful of conservative Christians gaining political power. Now, I share their trepidation.

Of course, the sad truth is, neither George W. Bush nor the Republican Party in Washington, D.C. represents genuine Christian or even conservative principles. If they did, they would take their oaths to the Constitution seriously and then neither liberals nor conservatives would have anything to fear, for the U.S. Constitution protects the rights and freedoms of all men.

Unfortunately, when the seed of Bush's unconstitutional policies come to fruition, it will produce large scale fallout economically, socially, and politically. And sadder still will be that, instead of blaming Bush's infidelity to constitutional government and conservative principles, people will blame Christianity and conservatism itself. The result of this miscalculation will doubtless be a massive tide of support for more and greater unconstitutional government, but only under a different name.

Chuck Baldwin chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com Chuck Baldwin Live http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com

[rdb3]

That's what bothers me about him. The minute he corrects that mistake is the minute he gets one shred of credibility back, as a politician and particularly as a pastor.

That's one of the benefits of being on the fringes. You never have to say you're wrong. You never have to say you're sorry.

[hellinahandcart]

I don't remember anyone saying people voted "Christian" when they elected the outspoken Christian candidate, Jimmy Carter, President.

Nice straw man, Pastor Chuck.

What they did say, and I *know* you must have heard it because there were even articles in magazines with this as a title, was "It's like putting God in the White House".

Always said with daffy ecstatic smiles on their faces.

And if I heard it once in 1976, I heard it five hundred times.

[pepperdog]

"I Am A Conservative Christian"

No, no you aren't!

"And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too"

You are a pretend Christian conservative and as such have every right to be very scared. God knows what is in your heart and if you pretend he is not going to look kindly on you. You need to admit you are a liberal and ask for forgiveness for using the word "Christian conservative" as a cover. You are a liberal Christian. Now how a person can be that isn't for me to understand or explain. Personally I think you're nuts, but that's just my opinion.

[pepperdog]

I need to correct myself! He is not a Liberal Christian, he is some sort of strange amalgamation that I can't identify, but evidently has done some good things. However I think he is way off base with his opinion of the President and the Republican party as being the directors of all Christians.

[dighton]

Why, on this long recitation of his conservative bona fides, is there no mention of his being the Constitution Party's 2004 VP candidate?

His . . . . . . deep humility, yeah, that's the ticket!

[ExGeeEye]

Making my point for me.

[GrandEagle]

No point in virtual yelling.
I believe that you are the one who missed the whole point of Chucks article. His point is that the "religious right" has crowned our President as "God's anointed" , thereby placing him above his responsibilities to our Constitution. The very thing that you have done.
accusing him of using the Religious Right for his own political purposes. I'm not sure that I wholly agree with Chuck here, but his point is not without merit.
the text in Psalms says - KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT ABOUT OTHER CHRISTIANS...
David wasn't just "commenting" - he was warning people not to mess with GOD's anointed. GOD's anointed
Ok I'll give you that he was doing more than commenting. He was reminding the nation of Israel how God had preserved them in their flight from Egypt. Giving praise to God. Hardly a "warning" of any kind.
I find it interesting that the context of the scripture has no meaning to a Pastor.

Psa 105:5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
Psa 105:6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.
Psa 105:7 He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth.
Psa 105:8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
Psa 105:9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;
Psa 105:10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant:
Psa 105:11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:
Psa 105:12 When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
Psa 105:13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;
Psa 105:14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes;
Psa 105:15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
Psa 105:16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
Psa 105:17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
Psa 105:18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:
Psa 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
Psa 105:20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

What on earth does that have to do with the fact that America has a President and not a King ..??
I understand how you got lost here. No real point in trying to explain because, according to my understanding of your position, we already have our "anointed one", so I should just sit down, shut up, and hang on for the ride. - Chucks point exactly.

Cordially, (although it may not seem so - it is true)
GE

[CyberAnt]

And .. I'M NOT YELLING - it's just to make a point.

"the scripture has no meaning to a Pastor" ???

BECAUSE IT'S MEANT FOR EVERYONE!! When David explained that GOD said, "touch not" - that meant EVERYONE! You didn't have to be a Pastor to get the admonition to leave GOD's children alone.

And the words "TOUCH NOT" appear to be a little strong for just a "comment".

The "religious right" DIDN'T CROWN OUR PRESIDENT AS "GOD'S ANOINTED". Our President, by reason of his "born again status" IS .. GOD's anointed (as is every other "born again" person). But .. what others who can't be bothered to study don't realize is that GOD does anoint people to stand in certain offices of leadership. Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Pastors, Teachers, Preachers of the Gospel; GOD does this regardless of whether the Religious Right agrees or not.

This "crowning" does not in any way put the President ABOVE THE CONSTITUTION. And .. the President does not believe he is ABOVE the Constitution. I do not believe he's ABOVE the Constitution.

And .. I don't agree with Chuck Baldwin on anything.

"I should just sit down, shut up, and hang on for the ride"

How in tarnation did you come to that conclusion. And .. don't use your condescending tone that it's just too difficult to explain - because you're quite confident I'm to addled to understand; oh please.

[j_tull]

Send Chuck a nice note?

Here's mine...
"Boo Hoo. Are you suggesting Kerry would have been a better choice? Your bona fides notwithstanding, this pathetic rant not only does nothing to further the conservative cause, it gives the lefties a chance to point (at us) their bony, blood-stained fingers while laughing at the "right wing wackos" eating each other alive. Nice work, Chuck. Merry Chistmas anyway, or are you one of those so-called Christians who don't belive in Christmas?"

[TChris]

Most conservatives I know will gladly vote for a conservative-minded Democrat if the opposing Republican lacks character, honesty and true conservatism. It just so happens that most frequently, it's the Republican candidate who has the honor, integrity, common sense and respect for the US Constitution that are the hallmarks of true conservatism.

Among conservatives of all stripes, there are plenty of critiques voiced about GWB and other Republicans, at least on FR. "Right-wing wackos" are getting neither the support of the majority of Christian nor non-Christian conservatives, AFAIK.

[L.N. Smithee]

He's hit the nail on the head.

I think maybe he's hit a nail into his OWN head.

[GrandEagle]

don't use your condescending tone that it's just too difficult to explain

My apologies. After re-reading my post it did sound a bit out of line. No insult intended, please forgive me.

It appears that we severely differ in view on these particular scriptures.
One thing that I've had a really difficult time with is letting Gods word tell me what it says. It is really easy to start out with a belief and elasticize Gods word to fit my belief.

I'll leave you with one last scripture reference:
2 Peter 1:16-21 (KJV)
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
[17] For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
[18] And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
[19] We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
[20] Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
[21] For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.


Cordially,
GE

[sarasota]

Excellent!

[RightOnline]

Ohfercryinoutloud, Chuck..........you damned well should know better.

You're starting to sound like the MSM......treating us as idiotic children. Don't go there.

[aruanan]

I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too

The Religious Right isn't anywhere as scary as secularists who look on government as the means by which their eschaton will become immanentized (in this sense). Such secularists have usually never seen anything as a limitation on what they'll do to achieve what they think is best for everyone else, even if it means wiping out millions of everyone else. This was the big fear of those who wrote the Declaration and the Constitution. And in today's secularist world view, most of the least outspoken Christians of the framers of the Constitution would be described as "Religious Right".

[CyberAnt]

You are forgiven.

As far as using God's Word to fit your belief .. we all do that. I try to use this system: If the first scripture agrees with me .. I still keep searching. I have a Bible program on my computer which helps to find all the scriptures on the same subject - or on similar statements. Once you've read all of them, you'll see a pattern of thought developing - not always in the pattern you first believed. But .. that should lead you to study it out further - perhaps by some of the key words in the scriptures.

I love verse 21. Although David was speaking .. it was under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That would make the statement "touch not" a requirement for all .. not just Pastors.

Regards,

[k2blader]

This guy is too bitter.

He has to realize politics was never the answer. It's nto worth getting so upset over. Things will be fine in the end, and happily it won't be our doing.

[MahaMarty]

The government should not separte church and state, let the people do it if they choose to. Did anyone vote for Jimmuh Carta because he was a Christian? I hope not, because Mista Carta sucked, no matter HOW righteous and holy he seems.

[dzzrtrock]

I see a lily-livered nazi armadillo...

[woofie]

LOL