The Evangelical Coalition
The election of Barack Obama has revealed a new coalition of evangelicals that have ended the dominance of the old fundamentalist religious right. I have written months ago the reasons why Obama would win the Presidential election. They proved to be right. (See: http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2008/09/12/how-barack-obama-will-change-our-politics/).
I had also indicated months ago that with the death of Rev Jerry Falwell, we would also see the death of fundamentalism. (See:http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2007/05/23/christian-fundamentalism-dies/) I was emailed by people who could not believe in the death of fundamentalism which had been so influential in US religious circles for almost a hundred years. But because it lacked the Biblical balance and true exegesis of the Bible, eventually, a more Biblical evangelicalism would arise. Now it has.
The Obama campaign was supported, as I had predicted, by a massive number of American churches and individuals who were interested in putting moral issues at the heart of the most intense presidential campaign in decades. The thundering rhetoric of the religious right was narrowly focused against abortion and gay marriage. But the new evangelicals focus on poverty, justice and peace. Eliminating poverty is a principal Biblical political issue. Stewardship of the earth with a realistic approach to Climate Change is also there.
These evangelicals are theologically conservative, but forceful on poverty, the environment and peace in Iraq. Inspired by William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King, they believe theirs can be a popular movement to transform US society. Evangelicals are known by a belief in salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.
There are 2,000 verses in Scripture that deal with poverty – this is now the dominant social concern. There is even a new Poverty and Justice Bible with those verses highlighted (See: http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2008/11/07/poverty-and-justice-bible/) From these verses stems a passionate commitment to social justice. From Jesus’ ideals of peace, comes a heartfelt opposition to the Iraq war which cannot be seen in imperialist terms, but as an ethical issue.
Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback megachurch in California and author of the 25-million selling The Purpose Driven Life, rated abortion, gay marriage and medical ethics as the central moral issues of the 2004 election. But he has since dramatically refocused on an energetic campaign on poverty and AIDS in Africa. Richard Cizik, an otherwise traditionally conservative vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals, now declared by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, has led attempts to make the environment a religious issue by defining it as “creation care”. (See: http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2008/11/07/earthy-evangelist-speaks-in-parliament-house/)
Barack Obama has been most comfortable talking about faith. The title of his political testament, The Audacity of Hope, was taken from a sermon by the pastor of his church. Obama’s call for change and renewal, itself a standard evangelical theme, has resonated. Obama has promised internal changes to Government responses to climate change, to close down the Guantanamo prison, to abolish Government torture of prisoners, to withdraw carefully from Iraq, to double international aid to fight poverty, to work as one world in dialogue and co-operation to bring real and lasting change.
Having visited the USA every year or so for nearly forty years to complete my teaching responsibilities as Adjunct Professor at Emmanuel School of Religion in Tennessee, I must say that every visit appalls me with the numbers of poor that I see in the streets of every city, and in the trailer homes camped alongside every creek in rural areas without adequate sewerage or electricity, meaning that 1 in 8 people living in the US live in poverty and in suburban areas 1 in every 5 homes now have a net value less than the debt owed on them. Intensive Government intervention is required and Obama has a clear mandate to act.
He is supported by church and Christian agencies. The only demographic not to support him in their voting poll was the white over 70 years age group. This seems to be also the Australian group who preferred McCain over Obama. These new evangelicals are hardly liberal on issues like abortion, but are anxious to “move away from endless symbolic legal debates which never change anything,” as Rev Jim Wallis puts it. The Australian Prime Minister visited Wallis in Washington D.C., to seek advice from him before the last Australian election.
Wallis advocates practical methods of making abortion rarer, such as better support for low-income women. And he says that “the sanctity of life is a broader, deeper concern that includes Darfur, that includes the 30,000 children who will die today from hunger and disease.”
This attitude, says Dr Tony Campolo, is in tune with a younger generation of evangelicals. “Young people have a broader agenda and are interested in poverty and environmental issues. Gay marriage and abortion are at the bottom of the list. They are conservative on them but they have gay friends and don’t want to start a crusade against them.”
John C. Green, Senior Fellow in Religion and American Politics at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, agrees that younger evangelicals are increasingly concerned with “new issues”, like HIV/AIDS and the environment, and that their traditional leaders are not speaking to these concerns. “There is a good bit of support in evangelical circles for these issues right now,” he says.
Who will now advise Obama on moral and spiritual issues? Joel Hunter, who leads a church in Orlando prayed with Obama on Election Day and delivered the benediction on the closing night of this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver. Caldwell pastors Windsor Village United Methodist Church, the largest United Methodist congregation in North America, and frequently participated in conference calls with the Obama campaign. With Billy Graham unavailable due to illness, someone else is required to pray at the new President’s inauguration. We will know when this announcement is made.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.