Monday, February 11, 2008

Evangelicals & Presidential politics

As much as mainstream media misunderstand evangelicals, one thing is sure: evangelicals are confused and divided on a Presidential candidate. Why? Because there is not any real leadership out there which identifies with us. Except for dear brother Mike, of course, who is running a race he says he cannot win.

And so many evangelical leaders have sold out their principles for a seat at the political power table, for example, Southern Baptist Richard Land sidling up to John McCain, a man whom Land has blasted as a despicable liberal until now.

This evangelical attitude of "I am pro-life but I got to eat, too" has caused the politicos to view evangelicals as no different than anyone else: power hungry and basically selfish. I actually heard an Upstate South Carolina evangelical man say those conviction-less words on NBC News outside his church sanctuary the Sunday before the SC Primary. Mike Huckabee had just spoken to his congregation.

The candidates see this attitude. As a result they have no real respect for all of the evangelicals' vaunting values, and are content to keep on using evangelicals for their own aspirations or ignoring them as the winds of political change blow.

Now some like Focus on the Family's Jim Dobson are threatening to lay out this presidential cycle, protesting the hollowness of the Presidential candidates across the board.

If evangelicals do not vote in this presidential election, are they abdicating their Christian duty of citizenship? Or is it better to protest the whole slough of dancing idiots by refusing to vote for a candidate who is the lesser of the evils?

What do you think? Click comments below and tell me.
You can choose to respond anonymously if you wish, but please don't make it an anonymous letter. I get enough of those already.

Dobson: If McCain is the Nominee, I Won’t Vote
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson spelled out on Super Tuesday why social conservatives don’t accept McCain: “I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.” Dobson went on to say that if McCain is the nominee, he’ll sit out a presidential election for the first time in his life.

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