Smart, and Not-So-Smart, Thinking
First the Smart . . .
“Out of Ur” is a blog of Leadership magazine, which is a publication from the Christianity Today people. Yesterday, they posted on a forthcoming book The God Strategy. There is some pretty smart thinking in there:
In other words, we seem to either buy the God strategy and cozy up to a candidate or doubt a candidate’s sincerity and oppose him or her. In either case, we avoid the issues and are swayed by the candidate’s personality and appearance of authenticity.
Domke and Coe identify four strategies politicians use to win, or dupe, religious voters. These points are a basic summary of the God strategy:
- Acting as political priests by speaking the language of the faithful
- Fusing God and country by linking America with divine will
- Embracing important religious symbols, practices, and rituals
- Engaging in morality politics by trumpeting bellwether issues
Politicians can’t take all the credit for the effectiveness of the God strategy. Ministers encourage their congregations to view politicians as priests when they imply that having the right president or the right party in control of Congress will result in legislation that will deliver our nation from its sin.
I love that quote, “In either case, we avoid the issues” It seems like we use religion to save us from doing the hard work of being citizens.
I am not sure I agree with the analysis of this book wholly. Party loyalty is very important in doing politics right. If Christians are to be serious about doing politics, they have to be serious about party politics. But the general point that we cannot hide behind religious labels is a darn good one and a darn smart one.
And The Truth…
The New Statesman publish a very smarmy analysis of the role religion has played in this election. At times you want to smack the guy upside the head. Hoever, his near concluding paragraph is a winner:
All of which, I am beginning to suspect, could make this a landmark election that will put America’s religious freedom and tolerance to the test every bit as much as its attitudes towards race and gender.
Which brings us to this piece out of Woscester, MA analyzing Super Tuesday in terms of religious demographics. One of the biggest problems with playing religious identity politics is it reduces religion to mere demographic. religion is so much more than that, and if there is a loser in all this, it will be the reduction of religion to label.
And then the Not-So Smart . . .
Huckabee continues to fuzz the line quite a bit.
A Christian nonprofit says a Texas televangelist turned a national ministers’ gathering last week into a fundraising opportunity for Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, a newspaper reports.
The Trinity Foundation, a charity that monitors televangelists and viewed a live Internet broadcast of the event, said the fundraiser took in $111,000 and generated pledges nearing $1 million, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in a copyrighted article Tuesday.
The fundraiser was held at Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ campus in Newark, Texas.
The Copelands and Huckabee are old friends. What is more important, from my perspective, is that they are under congressional investigation regarding their funds handling, luxurious lifestyle, the sort of stuff that just makes one feel a little slimy with televangelists.
To the Sublimely Silly . . .
This popped up in the internet searches, and is notable only because the conspiratorial tones and the simple “Huh?” factor exceed even the usual raving stuff. Personally, I think it is proof that LSD and politics should not mix.
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One Response to “Smart, and Not-So-Smart, Thinking”
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4thnephite on 31 Jan 2008 at 12:40 pm #
I was born and raised as a Democrat, became a UAW auto worker, I was raised with good values, why did I switch, that is not the question. The question should be why did the Democrat values go downhill in the ’60’s.
Ronald Reagan was a Democrat as the State Governor, as President he was a well loved Republican. President Reagan was asked why he switched parties, he replied his values did not change but theirs did.
John McCain is not uniting the core values of the Republican party, his stance on many issues is positive proof he is far from those precious issues that this nation was founded upon.
Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin had a discussion.
Some people in the media has said Arnold is not an insider, I beg to differ with that statement, anyone that close to a Kennedy is an insider.