The Color of Political Conscience
Half of the country is deeply disappointed with the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, so I began to ask myself, "Why, if I believe in the one and only Living God as The Lord of history, do I also feel saddened by the result?" I found some answers in Ross Douthat's fine book, Bad Religion , in which he argues that the most prevalent heresy among believers is that of a psuedo-christian nationalism where the timeless truths of Scripture conflate with a particular brand of partisanship. Those who lean red, think this is true of the blues, and vice versa. Douthat goes on to contrast this with a robust mid-century American Christianity where pastors spoke prophetically to leaders of both parties about what was right and good—like the Civil Rights Movement—attracting Christian leadership of every political stripe. Where a black Protestant pastor writing from a Birmingham jail could rally conservative white Irish Catholics, not to mention liberal Jews,...