One of the issues between Jesus and our culture is the impression about Christianity formed by those who loudly claim to be followers of him. Nothing represents such a movement as much as the Religious Right in the USA. A recent assessment of the future of that movement has been published by David Kuo, who was deputy director of faith initiatives for the George W. Bush White House. He has just published an op-ed piece called "Not Your Father"s Religious Right." It is worth reading and reflecting on. Here is a key excerpt.
"Beliefnet's poll revealed
that a third of all evangelicals now believe that Christian political
activism is "damaging to Christianity." This isn't an isolated poll. As
Christian pollster David Kinnaman writes, "The number of young people in
our culture who now embrace unflattering perspectives about Christians
and politics is astounding. Three-quarters of young (non-Christians)
and half of young churchgoers describe present-day Christianity as 'too
involved in politics.' " Twenty percent of all evangelicals believe
that adopting a conservative Christian political agenda has helped
destroy the image of Jesus Christ.
For a community of believers such as evangelicals, for whom
sharing Jesus's life-giving message is an essential part of life, this
is a shock. It's evidence of misplaced priorities, of focusing far more
on the city of man than on the City of God. So as evangelicals reengage
this election cycle, they are doing so with increased political
shrewdness. In Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina, no
candidate won a majority of evangelicals. They no longer want a pastor
in chief. "
Here is the link to the entire piece, whch has much more to say:
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