Mixing Jesus into Populist Politics
David Brody, the Christian Broadcasting Network's White House correspondent, Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, and David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, discuss what place Christians have in the tea party movement.
Christians Belong in the Front Row of the Tea Party
Start marching at your local rally.
David Brody
When it comes to politics, I'm not a big fan of CW (conventional wisdom). After all, Hillary Clinton—not Barack Obama—would be President today if CW ruled. Joe Biden would have cleaned Sarah Palin's clock in the 2008 vice presidential debate if CW had held true. It didn't.
Now comes word from the CW experts, better known as the mainstream media, that Christians and the tea party just don't go together.
Their reasoning goes like this: The tea party movement cares only about fiscal issues, so Christians should take their social issues and go play somewhere else. News flash for the CW crowd: Wrong again. Strike three. You're out.
The tea party movement is the perfect place for Christians to lobby for biblical values and priorities, and many Christians seem to know that.
I have traveled across this great land and flocked to tea party events and rallies. Who do I see showing up? Conservative, Bible-believing Christians. A seat at the table is reserved for this key voting constituency because, as strategist and leading evangelical Ralph Reed tells me, "If you protect marriage and you protect life, but the federal government is destroying our future through a $20 trillion debt, that threatens our future just as much as moral decay does."
Besides, just because fiscal issues dominate the tea party agenda doesn't mean issues like abortion are gone and forgotten. While Christians may not be marching with their pro-life signs at tea party rallies, the heated debate over the recent health-care bill proved that abortion is always in the mix.
The mainstream media like to say that racism is rampant in the tea party movement. If this were true, Christians would be concerned; racism, too, is a moral issue, and something true Christians reject outright.
Yet the funny thing is, tea party rallies are not filled with racial epithets. The language is more indicative of love of country and love of God. I remember tea party favorite Senator Jim DeMint once saying, "… the motivation behind these tea party crowds is a spiritual component. I think it's very akin to the Great Awakening before the American Revolution …. 'I'm praying for you' comes up more than anything else in these crowds."
In our society, we love to put everyone in boxes. The media do a great job at this. But reality is always more complicated, and no one fits in one box. It's not unusual to see a fiscally conservative, gun-owning, flag-waving, home-schooling, stay-at-home Christian mom show up at a tea party event. This woman encompasses many special interests, but they are all wrapped up in one purpose: to take our government back and send a message to the current administration.
Start marching to a tea party near you. There's a seat waiting.
Christians Belong Inside the Tea Party
Christians can show that the strength of America's foundation is the wisdom revealed in the Bible.
Wendy Wright
"Spread my work ethic, not my wealth," proclaimed one sign at a tea party gathering. "Compassion is voluntary, not compulsory," said another. These pithy statements express principles that make America great and have their roots in the Bible. Personal responsibility, charity, the proper role of government, and fiscal discipline are biblical principles that are woven into the fabric of America.
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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Roger McKinney
KS: "Socialism may not be biblical but neither is it unbiblical." Actually, I think socialism is unbiblical. Church scholars, especially those of the School of Salamanca Spain in the 16th century, derived a great deal of what today is economics from their study of the Bible. They determined that the only just price is one determined in a free market. They saw "Thou shalt not steal" as upholding the sanctity of private property. And they saw the role of the state as protecting life, liberty and property only. Raising taxes to do anything outside of that role was a violation of property and therefore theft. Research their writings. Some of them actually called taxation theft if it went beyond the state's legit role. And check out the only government God ever designed - Israel under the Judges. It would be a libertarian's dream. A state like Israel's today would mean no president, no federal reserve, no regulatory agencies at all and no Congress. The Supreme Court would be the priesthood.
grateful believer
Terry Rosler, you post inflammatory charges, with no proof, and you expect others here to believe them? I am not a member of the Tea Party, but I have a number of friends who are, and their philosophy is as far from what you claim as the East is from the West. I am familiar with Isaiah 58 -- what part of that passage do you believe lends credence to your claims? Do you support the Dems? If so, have you seen them make a significant change in our economy since Obama took office? I've only seen them drive us farther and farther, deeper and deeper into debt, until now our national debt has soared into the trillions. WHERE in the Bible do you see the Lord encouraging or endorsing such irresponsibility, let alone commanding it? MILLIONS of dollars of "stimulus money" have NOT been used to stimulate the economy, get people back to work, and back into homes -- but have been wasted on special interest projects. This is unconscionable. Our gov't has been out of touch with God & w/us.
grateful believer
archae ologist, you have severely judged ALL Republicans on the basis of what [you say] two have done. Is that a Christ-like attitude? Is that just? Do you know how much money Obama's upcoming trip to India will cost? His entourage will include hundreds of people and, last I heard, will cost at least $200,000 PER DAY -- the correct figure may actually be $200,000,000 for each day's expenses. He and Michelle were hardly home in the USA this past summer -- IIRC, they were gone [at least] TEN WEEKS, and the figures of the costs incurred were likewise staggering. Does this sound like a prez who cares about our dying economy, who cares that people are out of work, who cares that people have lost homes, etc? I do not see that reflected in his behavior at all, and behavior speaks far louder than words. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY is a key step to getting our economy back on track. It is simply IMPOSSIBLE to spend one's way out of debt. Everyone who works for a living knows that.