Prop 8 and Candidates: Divided Evangelicals
This video moved me. Not because it mentions a candidate or because it endorses a position on anything, but because it speaks to the version of Christianity that I understand and believe.
In contrast…
On Sunday, Dr. James Dobson will be making an appearance at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium to stir up the masses for Proposition 8. In Dobson’s view, he is rushing to California to “save marriage”. Every Yes on 8 person I’ve asked cannot give an adequate answer to the question of what they are saving. What is threatened? What is at stake? Yet, there’s this:
Dobson had to call his son to tell him he couldn’t babysit for his grandson this weekend as planned and his son Ryan then confirmed that God wanted him in California instead. Dobson could barely keep it together when he explained that “the Lord must be involved in this” and then hands over the program to Garlow, who also gets choked up and speaks of their level of spiritual desperation and their constant “crying out to God” to save California because they are “watching the destruction of Western civilization.“
Jim Wallis at Sojourners has a different view of the role of Christians in politics, and what they should be focused on:
Finally, there are biblical roles for both the church and the state, and both are necessary according to scripture, in good Christian theology, and even in the Anabaptist tradition which we are both attracted to (including my living room talks with Yoder). The body of Christ must demonstrate what the kingdom of God looks like and offer a prophetic witness to the state. But churches, by themselves, cannot provide for “the common good” as government is supposed to, in conjunction with many other institutions in society—including the churches.
To be clear: What is at stake here for evangelicals is really the alienation of a generation or more of people they wish to reach.
Proposition 8 is an effort to create two classes of people in California and confer certain rights on only one of the two classes. They use a ‘separate but equal’ argument to justify it, but that argument has already been rejected by the courts.
The choice for Proposition 8 is to discriminate or not to discriminate. It has nothing to do with gay marriage. It’s about creating disparate classes in a society which was founded with equality as one of its core values.
The LDS and Baptists have done themselves no favors with this campaign. They are in very real danger of losing one and possibly two generations of people they should be trying to reach. In the meantime, Jim Wallis’ words are welcome:
I do think you could call upon your listeners to vote, no matter who they vote for, and then ask them to get busy in showing the nation how Christians are supposed to live and hold whoever wins accountable to the agenda of a movement.
Please, vote no on Prop 8. And help them get the word out with a donation or by volunteering.