Reply #15: I would venture to guess that part of what you are seeing is a relatively [View All]

[salin]

new phenomenon (in the larger scheme of things)... the intentional politicization of the pulpit.

I do not doubt that the role of churches manifesting in terms of prayers in work meetings and at meals probably has long been a cultural part of the fabric of the community - as churches do often play a role in social organization in small communities. However the merging of the political into the religious message, in this country, and at the level that it is done today - is relatively new and very intentional. Certainly there have long been individual pastors who have done this, but the organizing done by the Christian Coalition starting back in the eighties has been very intentional - selecting individuals within a congregation who are seen as having influence both on the congregation and on the pastor to get involved and to slowly start pushing the congregation and pastor towards politics from the pulpit (begins with the benign leaving of voter guides... then to the allowing of individuals in the church to meet for political purposes as a subset of the church... and then takes on a more active role). As the right began to see the potential power, in terms of an easy way of getting massive numbers of voters to the polls, the effort became even more concerted - where members of clergy exerted influence on others... and more recently were some powerful groups (think: southern baptist convention) started almost purging members who didn't toe the line... in ways that blurred some of the political into the theological.

My point is that the dangerous element - and what is new - is the merging of the two points together.

What is also tragic is that by having done so, there is a disconnect between the economic realities of the policies of this adminstration, and the communities long-term way of life and thus the messages that translates through families and the schools to students... that these high paying factory jobs will be here when you finish (or don't school) and thus there is no value in higher education and expanding ones' career options. There is active misleading going on that is tragic... and the power of the pulpit now used to push politics makes it even harder for individuals to break through the messages given (to those they believe are representing God's word) from the pulpit and contrast it to the 'secular' realities of the end results of the policies of the politics being pushed.

Just my two cents.