Are Huckabee supporters really voting for a religion? December 20, 2007
Posted by Zack in Iowa | 2 comments
Most of the pundits on both right and left are writing about evangelicals as though they are robots, supporting Huckabee because of a simple If statement in their programming:
if isBaptistPreacher(candidate_x)
then voteFor(candidate_x)
Yesterday, Ruben Navarette, at the San Diego Union-Tribune, challenged that picture:
Note the headline in a Newsweek cover story about Huckabee’s strong showing in Iowa: “Holy Huckabee!” On the same cover are references to other stories in the magazine such as “God and the GOP” and “the Mormon-Evangelical Divide.” The lead story, written by editor Jon Meacham, is titled “A New American Holy War.” Even a profile of the Iowa front-runner’s spouse, Janet Huckabee, is dubbed “Wife of the Preacher Man.”
Conflict helps sell magazines. But Newsweek went overboard in framing the Huckabee-Romney contest as an exercise in religious strife.
There are at least three problems with this narrative – it’s dangerous, insulting and likely untrue. Dangerous because it provides yet another way to divide Americans – who have already been split into warring camps based on race, class and education. Insulting because it paints a large swath of the Iowa electorate as religious bigots. And likely untrue because Newsweek’s own polling data suggest that Iowans are more open-minded than national political commentators give them credit for being.
Iowa is beautiful September 29, 2007
Posted by Zack in Iowa | 1 comment
Eternity in the heart September 27, 2007
Posted by Zack in Iowa | 1 commentI’ve been mulling on something someone said to me in a Heartland Innovators interview last week.
Elizabeth and I are traveling slowly all over the country gathering stories of and making connections with leaders who are serving their communities directly—and who are succeeding in unusual ways.
We started this blog about the Christian movement partly because so many of the leaders we’re meeting are Christians who seem to draw incredible power from their faith. They have nearly all explained their successes with three simple words: “It’s all God.”
One of those leaders was describing a particularly impressive, all-volunteer program that operates annually in more than 100 American cities. As he was breaking down how it worked for us, he flipped through an enormous binder full of brilliant training and support materials from the programs’ national headquarters as well as other Christian leadership resource centers.
It was just one more glimpse into the vast Christian infrastructure of leadership development for us in recent weeks.
“This program is just so big. But you’re acting like it’s nothing,” I said.
And he said, “No, I see this as being so, so small. Because I know how many people are not being served.”
I asked, “Why is it that the Christians we’re meeting are so humble about the programs they run, even though some of them are incredibly impressive? In the [secular lefty] movement I come out of, we’d be bragging and sending out press releases and winning awards and all kinds of stuff for these kinds of achievements.”
And he said, “Well, I have seen that among many non-believers—and many Christians who’ve lost their way too. And I have a theory about it.”
“Tell me!” I said.
He explained—and I’m paraphrasing, unfortunately—”God made humans in his image. An so we’re walking around with this huge, God-sized sense of meaning and purpose and importance in us—and a feeling of being entitled to that sense importance.
“In addition, we walk around with all these amazing God-given abilities. It’s amazing what I’ve seen people do. Just amazing. And you’ve seen that too.
“Now, if you know God, then you know where that power comes from. And you know where that feeling of importance and purpose comes from: you know you’re here to do God’s purpose.”
(Earlier he had explained in no uncertain terms that “God’s purpose” is for people to take care of each other.)
“If you think all that power comes from you, then you’re going to get pretty cocky about your successes. And if you think that your purpose belongs only to you, then you’re going to get pretty vicious any time anyone gets in the way of you and the exact way in which you think you’re supposed to be doing good in the world.”
It’s so interesting, because, of course, many Christians throughout history—including very powerful ones—have been incredibly arrogant and have even killed for what they believed was God’s purpose. (So have non-believers.) But this rising movement among Christian born agains and evangelicals today is obsessed with humility—and “giving it all to God” is the way they seem to pull it off and maintain it, even when their heads should be swelling according to their successes.
I grew up thinking that Christians believed that people didn’t matter. I thought that was the basis of their opposition to “secular humanism.” What I never guessed was that Christians may have a greater sense of the importance of humanity because they attach divine importance to it.
Something rings true about what that leader said about non-believers getting carried away with their egos. Once upon a time, the secular left used to see itself in the context of a larger movement and purpose. Back then, individuals could locate themselves as the upholders of an ancient tradition, with a great world-historical purpose that each revolutionary had a duty to complete. They dreamed a collective dream. They knew their successes belonged to past generations, not themselves. And they knew that their sacrifices meant something much bigger than electing someone, passing some law or even temporarily improving the lives of millions of people.
The secular left has lost that sense of having its own “great commission.” It doesn’t even know it ever had one.
That leader quoted a lot of scripture in his conversation with us. I think (but I might be remembering wrong) that he quoted from Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
Building leaders September 25, 2007
Posted by Elizabeth in Iowa | 1 commentOne of the things we’ll be doing with this blog is discussing key concepts, trends and fads that are important in evangelical Christianity today. Today’s topic, and one we’ll be returning to frequently: leadership.
Evangelical Christians value few things more than grassroots leadership. Leadership development opportunities within churches and Christian communities that I’ve been involved in have always been open to everyone (literally—I once saw a homeless man who attended a small church encouraged to lead a Bible study of middle- and upper-class churchgoers because of his extensive knowledge of the Bible). And usually these opportunities are designed to draw on and build upon the different strengths of each person.
As a college student, for example, I went to Mexico as a missionary in the colonias along the border, building houses and relationships. To prepare me to be a student leader, before I even left my dorm room, I was provided with a huge list of tasks that I needed to do to mentally prepare myself. And then, before I was allowed to go out into the field, I had to take a lengthy battery of tests to identify strengths and weaknesses. The findings from those tests were used to place us in appropriate leadership positions. Once we began our work in the communities, we had a huge amount of intensive on the job training, with constant re-evaluation of how we were doing with our day-to-day tasks.
That’s just one example. To take a deeper look at evangelical Christian leadership development concepts, check out this article which landed in my inbox today. The deliberate, methodical and deeply intellectual approach that the article suggests is typical of many Christian efforts at leadership development and organization building.
ALSO, today Zack and I signed up for two Christian leadership-training conferences: the Mission American Coalition’s and the Christian Community Development Association’s annual conferences. These are just a few out of countless leadership-development conferences—for pastors, lay-leaders, women, men, college students, teens and others—that take place each year designed to support and develop Christian leaders.
Infectious stupidity September 21, 2007
Posted by Zack in Iowa | 2 commentsToday I posted an article at The Huffington Post about an evangelical Christian Obama supporter we interviewed in South Carolina. I’ve written several articles about about Christian “revolutionaries” at HuffPo and other secular progressive spots. Usually, a heated discussion in the comments follows. Each time, it underscores why a blog like this is necessary.
For example:
Christians can have all the “revolutions” they want. Doesn’t change the fact that organized religion is a form of infectious stupidity that endangers us all.
I’m sorry - perhaps I missed something in the interpretations here, but how can an evangelical be “progressive”? An evangelical, by their own definition, believe in the absolute accuracy of the bible….An evangelical, by their own statements, say that the only way to salvation is through a man called Jesus Christ. That is Christian, not progressive. Now, can you please explain that oxymoron again of a “progressive evangelical”?
But so many believers speak up too, who are out there dying to get out from under the stereotypes:
Thank you. Of course, you’ve probably put the “Believers, go home” crowd in a state of shock. Not only do they insist on stereotyping evangelicals in the manner you describe, but they love to paint ALL believers as conservative and intolerant. Maybe the bigots will learn something from this. Or, more likely, not.
Tags: barack obama, South CarolinaYes! Hallelujah!! My point is that the religious left exists, we are just clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, welcoming the stranger; not talking non-stop about how great we are. In fact, I posit the religious left is way, way bigger than the religious right. We are quietly following our Lord and Master as he instructed us, while the modern day Pharisees are clamouring on the street corner… Same old, Same old.
American politics upside down September 21, 2007
Posted by Elizabeth in Iowa | write a comment
Today, Christian magazine Relevant (required reading for secular progressives who want to get to know their Christian counterparts) republished online a story from their Nov/Dec 2006 print issue called “The New Face of Politics: How young Evangelicals are turning America upside down.”
Some religious voters are second-guessing their political commitments. In particular, twentysomething evangelicals are tuning in to issues related to social justice, fighting poverty and protecting the environment. And it’s starting to affect how they think about politics.
Don’t misunderstand. This isn’t about Christians switching political parties. The author says, “…our generation is hungry for something fuller and deeper. We are tired of the status quo. We want a better conversation,” and quotes Jim Wallis,
Tags: Jim Wallis, party politics, Relevant[Twentysomething evangelicals] are certainly turning away from the politics of conservative religion and the Religious Right,” Wallis says. “But they’re not necessarily becoming Political Left. They actually want a deeper kind of moral politics that doesn’t conform to left or right, but that challenges the selective moralities of both.
