Not too long ago I posted about a news special that NBC did on the emerging church. You can find that blog and video here. I thought it was a great video that did a good job of showing some of the ramifications of the emerging church. I want to discuss some of the political changes that are happening in the church. For many years the church (all believers) has been considered a group of Republicans and part of the “Moral Majority”. I do believe we can greatly thank Falwell for that (I still can’t believe what he said about teletubbies). I would say the average American believes all Christians are Republican and are pro Bush and that they hate gays and immigration. Politically…the emerging church is an absolute rebellion from all of this.
The word Christian and church have all of these connotations and hardly anyone in the “emerging church” follows this thinking. When I decided to get into Christian church ministry, my goal was to change the perception of what church is. In the process of fighting for America to become a more moral nation, we have lost touch with the world we are trying to reach.
Obviously this is a HOT button issue. I’m sure just about everyone that reads this will at some point think that I am wrong.
Shane Claiborne said that he believes that most people believe the “moral majority” is neither moral nor the majority. In his book Irresistible Revolution he said, “Dualism has infected the church, a dualism in which folks separate the spiritual from the political or social, as if the political and social issues were of no spiritual significance, as if God had no better vision to offer this world.”
I think he describes the emerging church quite well, by describing what is it rebelling from: dualism. It doesn’t value war over abortion or republican over democrat or independent. Democrats aren’t considered liberal and Republicans aren’t necessarily conservative in the eyes of postmoderns. This video sums up a lot of this quite well.
Election 2008:
At least in this election I sincerely doubt a Republican can win, because now more than ever, we see a mass number of people rebelling from the previous leadership. Whether you like Bush or not, you have to admit that it has been a while since a President has more hated within the US and also worldwide. For this election, he has made it extremely difficult for every Republican nominee.
The Future:
So this changes things politically. The republican nominee running next year cannot expect the same number of Christian voters to give them their vote. I am a part of a generation of people who will endorse a person, but not a party. Moving forward, the ties to party lines will become more blurred and voting will never be the same.
