The Growing Threat of the Non-Existent Theocracy

Today's column:

Over Christmas break, a few friends and I headed to the theater to catch Jesus Camp. For those who have not seen the film: get thee to a movie store. Briefly, the movie is a documentary, focusing on Evangelical Christians. Specifically, the film focuses on the lives of three young Evangelicals: Levi, Rachael, and Tory, and their role in Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota. The documentary has been described as even-handed, and, for the most part, it is. Many of the scenes from the camp are disturbing; for instance, young children break down crying as an adult bemoans the pervasiveness of the abortion holocaust. But the Evangelicals get a chance to defend themselves as well. By handing the Evangelicals some rope and allowing them to hang themselves, by virtue of their own words, the filmmakers score big.

My two friends left the theater flustered and shocked. My indefatigable pessimism ensured that I wasn't entirely surprised at the depths of nonsense to which people commonly descend, but I felt the movie was intriguing and informative. Although I have no problems with parents exposing their children to the faith which they share, I thought it unwise that parents allowed their children to be frightened about the evils of the world at so young an age. Children should be allowed to be children before they have to become bitter and jaded adults like the rest of us.

I did, however, have one slight qualm with the presentation of the film. Scattered throughout were clips from Mike Papantonio's weekly radio show, Ring of Fire, which is syndicated on the perpetually struggling Air America Radio. Papantonio, like many of his left-leaning colleagues, believes that Evangelicals are to be feared. They have, apparently, taken the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court for “a generation”. And yet...

Bush is an Evangelical, but his faith has not prevented him from invading Iraq; nor has he seen fit to do anything significant about abortion—and no, a wimpy ban on partial birth abortion doesn't count, especially since the law was thrown out by a couple of judges who believe that the Founders formed a more perfect union to allow for infanticide. Congress had been re-captured by the Democrats, and the Republicans have nothing to show for it. Tax cuts are nice, to be sure, but I don't recall Christ mentioning them in the Gospels. As for the High Court, let's not forget that seven of its nine justices were nominated by loyal generals in the GOP prior to Bush's election. Replacing two Republican nominees with two Republican nominees will suffice to maintain the status quo, which is precisely what the GOP most desires. If abortion were made illegal, the Republicans would no longer have a carrot with which to dangle in front of the docile pro-lifers, Evangelicals being a subset thereof.

In short, while the Evangelicals have been influential in recent elections, and though they may continue to be for some time in the future, they seem to have little luck in achieving anything tangible in their ostensible capture of the GOP. The party hopes that they remain unaware of this obvious fact.

Many liberals have a tendency to speak down to the religious, especially those who take Paul's condemnation of homosexuality to heart, oppose abortion as per Moses' command, and believe that private charity, and not government, should take care of the plight of the poor. But a survey of history—Augustine, Aquinas, Lewis, Newton—should demonstrate that not all religious are mindless cretins.

Yet some apparently are, as the Evangelicals show no signs of abandoning the Republican beast which has brought them nothing over the last several decades. Then again, the irreligious left isn't very sharp either. Believing that the Evangelicals are a real threat to the American way of life is bit like bemoaning Jefferson's thoughts on the Declaration of Independence. And yes, that famous deist did speak of the importance of the Separation of Church and State; but he was in the minority on that one. The America of 1776 was distinctly and markedly Christian. Should the Evangelicals succeed—they won't—we will return to an older, and, dare I say better America.

The secularization of America is a recent phenomenon; the Evangelicals can but hope to restore the institutions degraded and destroyed by liberalism, first and foremost by the courts. They have barely a prayer, but the divide between the religious right and the secular left is actually good for both parties. Liberal fears of a theocracy and conservative fears over secularization ensures we all bow to the supreme god of democracy. Irrational and stupid belief isn't confined to Evangelical Christians.