Posted on 06/28/2005 9:19:57 AM PDT by voletti
THIS week, for the fourth year in a row, President George Bush broke from affairs of state to address the Southern Baptist Convention. He promised the strict evangelical group, which has 16m members, that he would work hard to ban gay marriage and abortion, and that their “family values” were his values, too.
In the 1960s, many liberal Americans thought they had banned religion from the public square for good. Yet nowadays the president, the secretary of state and the House speaker accept the evangelical label. A packed prayer breakfast takes place every Thursday in Congress. And liberals regularly contend that one of America's two great parties is bent on creating a theocracy—backed by a solid core of somewhere between a quarter and a third of the population.
Why is the religious right as powerful as it is? The question puzzles even Americans. Their country, as a whole, is not getting more religious. The gap between it and European countries has increased, but largely because of Europe's growing godlessness. Most Americans say that religion is very important (60%) or fairly important (26%) in their lives, but Karlyn Bowman, a polling analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, points out that the figures were 75% and 20% in 1952.
What has changed is, first, the make-up of Protestant America and, second, the realignment of religious America's politics. The generally liberal mainline churches have declined, while harder outfits like the Southern Baptists have spurted forward. White evangelicals, who see the Bible as the literal truth (or darned close to it), now make up 26% of the population.
It is not just a matter of numbers but of confidence. Born-again Christians are no longer rural hicks; they are richer and better educated than the average American.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
To compare traditional Catholics with Evangelical Protestants is somewhat asinine.
Many practices that traditional Catholics believe are O.K are regarded my the majority of Evangelicals as "Evil, Sinful, etc"
Evangelical Protestants have a much larger breadth of specific "faith-based" issue than do Catholics, traditional or otherwise
Now... if we could only do away with all those church 'legalisms'.
OK, here is your chance to show your knowledge of Catholicism.
Be specific. What practices?
OK, here is your chance to show your knowledge of Catholicism.
Be specific. What practices?
Just as a matter of historical interest, "evangelical" was the 19th century term for what we now call Christian "fundamentalist." Today's Bible fundamentalists view today's "evangelicals" as being the thoeoligical liberals, whimps, worldly and carnal set of religionists. President Bush is actually far too liberal for most Bible-believing independent Baptist churches and peoples. (But we wouldn't fellowship with the likes of Fred Phelps, either)
So noted.
Alcohol, Tobacco Use, Gambling, among other things. For example, how do you think the SBC would react if an Archbishop decided he wanted public school students to pray "Hail Mary" each day.
And I know this because I am a Catholic, and I live in a city where we do have an Evangelical community, and one religion in general, the name prude, and the name for the denomination are synonymous
The religious right also represents more than just evangelicals. At the last election Mr Bush won the Catholic vote by snaring 72% of self-styled traditionalist Catholics. Private polls also suggest that he won significant numbers of Orthodox Jews. Rather than being split between the parties, religious people of all faiths are now pretty anchored in the Republican Party. A Zogby poll last November put the national figure for “religious traditionalists” at 29%, but they accounted for 58% of Republicans.
During the height of the Terri Schivo controversy this spring, secular conservatives were telling me, and other religious conservatives here on FR, that we were ruining the Republican Party, and that we should "take a hike." If we take a hike, the Republican Party is dead, or will be as dead as it was circa 1940. Republicans of religious convictions have had to bend quite a bit to accomodate the objectives of secular conservatives; they're going to need to learn to peacefully coexist with us, or there will be no conservative movement.
Which version of the Bible is the correct version?
Don't smoke, don't chew or go with girls that do.
Sure, there are still many differences between Evangelicals and Catholics, and no doubt many suspicions and lingering bad feelings. But the working relationship between these two groups has grown closer and closer.
Catholics used to think of Episcopalians as the nearest thing to Catholics, and Evangelicals used to think of Catholics primarily as idolators. No more. No doubt some of this still lingers, but that kind of kneejerk reaction no longer predominates. We have too many basic beliefs in common, including the inalienable because God-given right to life, the importance of stable families, and the importance of traditional Christian morality in public life. Plus, in our different ways, a firm commitment to Jesus Christ which underlies all these other agreements.
Alcohol, tobacco use, gambling, among other things, may still be issues in Backwater, USA, but one point of the article is that evangelicals, in general, are more sophisticated, educated, inclusive, and less legalistic that the fundies of 80 years ago. I've circulated in evangelical circles for 30 years, and I've never seen alcohol or tobacco use, or even gambling, to be much of an issue, because salvation does not turn on whether one does or doesn't engage in these things. Whether the diminishment of these issues is a good thing is up for debate.
Very many SBC church members and churches with we are familiar would not offend their congregations by hard preaching on ANY subject. Give me the name of just one SBC pastor who would preach an entire message against tobacco use. I'm not sure you could find one. Maybe not even anymore against alcohol use...I mean, an entire 30 to 40 minute sermon. Most of them would get run out by the deacon boards.
But I am interested to see a few Baptists coming to the surface on Free Republic upon the Fred Phelps thing, and the President speaking to the SBC.
"Why is the religious right as powerful as it is? The question puzzles even Americans. Their country, as a whole, is not getting more religious."
And you answered your own question. The left wants someone to demonize with a label. And since they currently don't have Dan Quayle, or Newt Gingrich, or Trent Lott to use as a lightning rod for their hatred they coined the term religious right.
The Greek one.
What do you mean by "born again?"
I partialy agree.
But in Europe you might distinguish France from others countries.The french government demanded to cancel the mention of the christian roots of our culture,civilization and society(Poland,UK,Italy,Austria...and former comunists countries are not on the same side!)
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