Connections….
Pretty much the whole
evangelical church has become conservative politically. It started by a conservatism of morality—on
things like abortion and gay marriage.
But now it goes much further.
Evangelicals are conservative in most other ways too. For instance consider these three
conservative doctrines now held dearly by most evangelicals.
Most evangelicals believe a
government is best that governs least.
I don’t suppose evangelicals would argue this is the inspired biblical
view of government, but many hold the notion so dearly that it is almost
doctrine. Big government that “does
more and costs more” is not the hope of evangelicals—they want a government
that “does less and costs less.” It is
almost a doctrine.
I’m not completely sure how
low taxes became a moral issue but for many evangelicals it is. They believe deeply that the less money sent
to state capitals or to Washington the better.
They are convinced that the more money that is left in the pockets of
individuals the more good will be done with it. They want tax cuts that will
give them money to spend today and take money away from government. They
believe the further money gets away from the local level the greater the
waste. They are convinced that
government squanders most of its money and the fat cats holding office are
lazy, out of touch and live too high on the money they get from regular
hard-working people.
3. “We should reduce the
size and power of national government.”
Most evangelicals believe
the federal government should be cut back.
There should be fewer employees in Washington, fewer offices there, and
the size of the government’s gigantic programs should be reduced. They don’t believe all the federal
“programs” even work—most are a gigantic waste of money. They’d like smaller government with less
power. For evangelicals, the power
should be in the hands of the people not some central bureaucracy.
___________________________________
So what does
all this have to do with religion?
Here it
is. Over the last 15 years evangelicals
have adopted identical values in judging their own denominational structures. It is hard to hold one sort of value for
your politics and switch to the opposite value for your denomination. I dare you—go back and re-read the three
political doctrines again—and this time think of your own view of your
denominational leaders, denominational “apportionments” and your denominational
headquarters.
Interesting,
huh?
November 6, 2004