I have a question that’s been bumping around in my head for a while.
Over the past 20 years or so, there’s been a resurgence of support for fundamentalist Christian theology in the United States, especially in politics. I believe it’s well accepted that the Religious Right got Dubya elected; the fact that he then abandoned virtually every promise he made to them to get their support is irrelevant (see “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo—he was second in command of Bush’s “Office of Faith-Based Initiatives” from 2001 to 2003; in his book he voices his opinion that the office was mostly smoke and mirrors and that none of the initiatives he was supposed to promote actually got put into action). And today I think it’s safe to say that any candidate who doesn’t express a deep and abiding faith has a short political future.
Where does this come from? In Europe, a candidate’s religious beliefs are almost never even brought up; talk to a few people from the Continent (or even the UK, Canada or Australia) and they express mystification over this religiosity rampant in US politics. And not just politics (although that’s where it’s perhaps most visible); school systems are being pressured to teach creationism and a “young earth” view as an alternative to evolution, even though there’s nearly unanimous agreement among earth scientists that evolution is established fact. (The arguments over why it’s called a “theory” when most scientists view it as established is the subject of another posting.)
And note here that I want to differentiate between religiosity and fundamentalism. What we’re seeing is not simply a desire to express faith, but a specific brand of Christianity. As is true in most of the major religions, Christians come in a number of different flavors, all the way from those who interpret the Bible literally, to the view that the Bible is simply a book of allegories and general guidelines for one’s life. The brand of Christianity that seems to be ascendant in politics today is fundamentalism, which takes the Bible as the literal word of God, and believes it should be viewed as historically accurate in every detail and used as a set of specific instructions on how to live our lives.
Fundamental Christianity has interesting roots in the US. In the mid- to late-1800’s a number of religions developed an attitude of activism around politics; they felt that it was their duty to bring Christian values to the country by becoming a part of the political system. Evidently the Biblical mandate to be “in the world but not of it” was superseded by the desire to change society to match their ideal vision. At the time this was a splinter view; today it seems to have taken over as the majority position.
So why is it that this activist attitude continues today? And is there something unique about our society here in the United States that allows, or even promotes this attitude? As you might anticipate, I have some thoughts about that; so stay tuned.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
Christian fundamentalism and US politics
I have a question that’s been bumping around in my head for a while.
Over the past 20 years or so, there’s been a resurgence of support for fundamentalist Christian theology in the United States, especially in politics. I believe it’s well accepted that the Religious Right got Dubya elected; the fact that he then abandoned virtually every promise he made to them to get their support is irrelevant (see “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo—he was second in command of Bush’s “Office of Faith-Based Initiatives” from 2001 to 2003; in his book he voices his opinion that the office was mostly smoke and mirrors and that none of the initiatives he was supposed to promote actually got put into action). And today I think it’s safe to say that any candidate who doesn’t express a deep and abiding faith has a short political future.
Where does this come from? In Europe, a candidate’s religious beliefs are almost never even brought up; talk to a few people from the Continent (or even the UK, Canada or Australia) and they express mystification over this religiosity rampant in US politics. And not just politics (although that’s where it’s perhaps most visible); school systems are being pressured to teach creationism and a “young earth” view as an alternative to evolution, even though there’s nearly unanimous agreement among earth scientists that evolution is established fact. (The arguments over why it’s called a “theory” when most scientists view it as established is the subject of another posting.)
And note here that I want to differentiate between religiosity and fundamentalism. What we’re seeing is not simply a desire to express faith, but a specific brand of Christianity. As is true in most of the major religions, Christians come in a number of different flavors, all the way from those who interpret the Bible literally, to the view that the Bible is simply a book of allegories and general guidelines for one’s life. The brand of Christianity that seems to be ascendant in politics today is fundamentalism, which takes the Bible as the literal word of God, and believes it should be viewed as historically accurate in every detail and used as a set of specific instructions on how to live our lives.
Fundamental Christianity has interesting roots in the US. In the mid- to late-1800’s a number of religions developed an attitude of activism around politics; they felt that it was their duty to bring Christian values to the country by becoming a part of the political system. Evidently the Biblical mandate to be “in the world but not of it” was superseded by the desire to change society to match their ideal vision. At the time this was a splinter view; today it seems to have taken over as the majority position.
So why is it that this activist attitude continues today? And is there something unique about our society here in the United States that allows, or even promotes this attitude? As you might anticipate, I have some thoughts about that; so stay tuned.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.