Update: Friday, 17 October 2008, noon, cdt
2018 Paul Lee: Urbana 18, InterVarsity’s 25th Student Missions Conference
KIRK CAMERON
If you follow popular culture, you know that the new feature film, “Fireproof,” the related book, “Love Dare,” and the TV series “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” (and the related new Zondervan title), are hot media properties.
This weekend may be the third in the row that ‘Fireproof’ makes it into the all-important list of Top Ten grossing films. The plot-device book ‘Love Dare’ also is topping best-seller lists in the how-to and advice categories. “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” broadcast on The Learning Channel with new episodes airing on Mondays, is now in its fourth season. The program follows a couple (who are Christians, but don’t make a big deal out of it) as they raise 8 kids.
All three of these media entities are crossing beyond the typical boundaries for a low-budget film, yet another marriage-saver title, or a cable TV show. The one thing they seem to have in common is the obvious reality that:
Keeping a marriage healthy in today’s America is near impossible.
But why has the Christian angle on traditional marriage captured the popular imagination? This is the bigger question in my mind. Has Christian marriage come full circle and now become cool enough to be counter-pop cultural? What are the other appealing elements, for example, for a program such as “JK+8”?
Here’s what my journalist colleague Corrie Cutrer (now a mom of 2 in South Carolina) had to say on the topic of the Gosslin family in particular:
As a sometimes-harried parent of two young children, I was not initially hooked on The Learning Channel’s (TLC) reality show Jon & Kate Plus Eight. My sister, also a young mom, had suggested I watch the program, which features the day-to-day chaos of a couple in their early thirties parenting eight (yes, eight) children as the result of fertility treatments: a set of twin girls (age 8) and four-year-old sextuplets (three boys and three girls).
At the swearing-in of the 116th United States Congress today, nearly 100 new legislators will take the oath of office, pledging to “well and faithfully discharge” their new duties, “so help me God.”
After last year’s campaign and midterm elections, the ceremony represents answered prayers for dozens of incoming evangelical politicians.
Though the overall number of Christians in Congress fell slightly from 91 percent from 2017 to 88 percent in 2019, a vast majority of freshmen—78 of the 96 newly elected lawmakers—identify as Christian and around half—47—are Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center’s Faith on the Hill report.
With the largest freshman class since 2011, these representatives bring historic levels of diversity to Washington, a range of backgrounds outside politics, and deep convictions about faith in governance. The group includes Sunday school teachers, deacons, Christian college graduates, missions trip participants, prayer advocates, a former aspiring pastor, and plenty of churchgoers.
“In Romans 13, government officials are described as ministers of God,” said Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who assumes Claire McCaskill’s seat, in an interview last year about his faith. “That’s how serious God is about politics.”
Former counsel with the religious liberty legal group Becket (where he helped defend the Hobby Lobby and Hosanna-Tabor cases before the Supreme Court), Hawley belongs to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, speaks before Baptist crowds, and is one of 22 freshmen who identify as unspecified/other Protestants in the congressional questionnaire from CQ Roll Call, the basis for the Pew report released today.
Newly elected members were more likely to use this religious designation—which includes “those who say they are Christian, evangelical Christian, evangelical Protestant, or Protestant, without specifying a denomination”—than members of Congress overall (23% of freshmen members vs. 15% of Congress).
Following the midterms, the unspecified/other Protestant category saw the biggest bump of any faith tradition, adding 16 seats in this session—double as many as the next largest gain of 8 seats, which came among those who declined to provide a religious identification.
Congress now includes a total of 80 unspecified/other Protestants. Though the catch-all affiliation is among the most overrepresented in the legislature (15% of representatives compared to 5% of American adults), the disparity may be in part due to elected officials opting not to indicate a particular tradition.
Several of the incoming representatives who selected the unspecified/other Protestant category do attend denominational churches, such as Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, who built houses in Haiti on a short-term missions trip with his Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation earlier this year; Representative Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, a Southern Baptist-turned-Episcopalian who prayed the words of St. Francis of Assisi every day of her campaign, according to a Religion News Service report; and Representative William Timmons of South Carolina, a member of Greenville’s Christ Church Episcopal whose faith inspires him to advocate for victims of domestic violence.
Two new lawmakers belong to Church of Christ congregations: Representative Lance Gooden of Texas, who attends Rockwall & Brin Church of Christ and identifies as Congregationalist, and Representative John Rose of Tennessee, who attends Buffalo Valley Church of Christ and identifies with the unspecified Protestant designation.
Six of the new class are Baptist, with half attending Southern Baptist churches: Representative Chip Roy of Texas, Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, and Representative Ross Spano of Florida.
“While the issues we represent affect much more than Southern Baptists and while we have great relationships with members of Congress across denominations, we are always grateful when our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters are elected to Congress,” said Daniel Darling, vice president of communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
“We do try to build special relationships with those SBC members and their staffs, and we find that sharing a common faith tradition helps us in our advocacy because we are working from many of the same assumptions,” he said, noting recent partnerships with incumbents Mark Walker, Mike Johnson, and James Lankford.
Baptists represent the largest Protestant affiliation in the country, about 15 percent of US adults, and they make up 13.5 percent of Congress, with 72 members total.
Representative Ayanna S. Pressley, Massachusetts’s first African American congresswoman, attributes her passion for speaking to her upbringing in her grandfather’s storefront Baptist church. Representative Carol Miller of West Virginia, another incoming Baptist, campaigned on her habit of praying before every vote while in the state legislature.
Anglicans and Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists make up between about 5 percent and 8 percent of Congress a piece, a few percentage points higher than each denomination’s current share of the US population.
Pentecostals (0.4% of Congress) and nondenominational Christians (1.9%) remain underrepresented, but some lawmakers from those traditions may use the popular unspecified/other Protestant category instead.
Representative Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, for example, attends nondenominational Seacoast Church outside of Charleston but identifies as unspecified Protestant. The incoming congressman said his positions on health care and climate change come from his Christian faith.
Another unspecified Protestant, Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, attends New Song Church, affiliated with the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The Hill reported that the Concordia College graduate and one-time aspiring minister switched from mainline Lutheran to evangelical and views his political career as a Christian vocation. “I really see the vocation of politics like I see every vocation … as an extension of ministry,” said Cramer.
Overall, though the portion of Christian lawmakers continues to dip slightly, there are still a higher share of Christians in Congress (88.2%) than in the US overall (71%).
The biggest gap in congressional representation comes among the religiously unaffiliated. While nearly a quarter of Americans fall into the “nones” category (23%), just one member of Congress does (0.2%). (This year, that sole lawmaker—Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—was elected to the Senate after three terms in the House.)
The 116th Congress represents the lowest level of Christians (471) and Protestants (293) among the 11 congresses analyzed in the report.
Yet, “Catholics have held steady at 31 percent over the last four congresses, although there are now many more Catholics in Congress than there were in the first Congress for which Pew Research Center has data (19% in the 87th Congress, which began in 1961),” researchers stated.
CT previously reported on how pro-life Democrats struggled during the 2016 midterm elections.
After the first five minutes of watching I thought: I deal with enough screaming, whining and stress of my own all day. Why would I want to watch it on television once my own children are finally asleep?
Yet curiosity occasionally drew me back. Just how, I wondered, would these parents manage to potty training six toddlers?
It also felt a bit comforting to see a fellow mom muddle through the daily tasks of wiping, diapering, feeding, consoling, correcting, and nurturing her children. Like many viewers, I’d think, If they can manage with eight, surely I can with two!
TLC’s formula of unveiling this family’s life unscripted (marital arguments, toddler stomach viruses, botched vacations and all) may be the secret to the show’s success. What began as one of the network’s many reality shows has now catapulted to TLC’s top program. Two million viewers watch each week, including many who tuck their own kids into bed before collapsing on the couch to watch Jon and Kate Gosselin do the same.
Ironically, the family’s ability to engage viewers in the mundane has transformed them into celebrities. The October 13 edition of People magazine includes a sprawling article on the family and their recent trip to Hawaii, where Jon and Kate Gosselin renewed their wedding vows this summer.
Also, a recent episode of the program revealed behind-the-scenes footage of prepping the family for a Good Housekeeping photo shoot. The entire clan will grace November’s cover.
Meanwhile, Kate Gosselin, along with coauthor Beth Carson, will release a book this month, Multiple Blessings (Zondervan), that serves as a precursor to what life was like for the Gosselins before taping of Jon & Kate Plus Eight began.
It also reveals what until now only has slightly been observed on their show: the Gosselins are born-again Christians.
Interestingly, even the idea of a book by Kate Gosselin has mirrored the kind of feedback the show itself receives as seen on myriad blogs across the internet. People either love it or strongly oppose it. Some moms can’t get enough of Kate Gosselin’s no-nonsensical approach to organizing her household and her determination to provide outings and vacations for her bulging brood.
Others disapprove of the tone Kate takes with Jon (like many stressed parents, we see a fair share of eye-rolling and sarcasm between the two of them.) Response to Zondervan’s choice to publish Multiple Blessings is no exception. Upon the publishing company announcing its release of the book last spring, bloggers immediately reacted. Some disagree with the Gosselins for allowing their children’s lives to made into a television show. Additionally, much of the controversy centers around the Gosselin’s complete forthrightness on camera.
“My wife would never treat me with such disdain and disrespect as Kate treats Jon,” one blogger wrote. “This goes against everything we strive for in our marriage and family, within our faith and our church. I can’t get to how Zondervan thinks that this couple is a good example.”
Yet Zondervan is not without support for Multiple Blessings. “I look forward to the book,” wrote one blogger. “I think the Gosselins are a loving family that has been fortunate enough have a happy ending to their story.”
Their story, as described in Multiple Blessings, reveals details about the early and trying days of Kate Gosselin’s fertility treatments (the couple chose intrauterine insemination.) Pregnant for the second time, Gosselin describes the intense pressure their doctor put on them to consider selectively reducing the number of fetuses in her uterus. “They stood the risk of suffering premature lungs, blindness, cerebral palsy, and mental retardation–just to name a few possibilities,” she writes of the developing babies. “I realized that I had become a fertility doctor’s worst nightmare, and dawn was a long way off.”
Gosselin shares her determination to give each baby a chance to survive and how her faith carried her through a brutal 10-week hospital stay as she remained on bed rest in the months leading up to her delivery. She doesn’t shy away from revealing the tension created during her hospitalization between her and the medical staff, at times heightened by her own stubbornness.
For the most part, the Gosselins have chosen not to specifically respond to their critics. “Right now, there are so many opportunities for us to repay evil with evil, but we refuse,” they write on their website. “It hasn’t been easy to keep our mouths shut, but it’s what God is asking us to do–continue to overcome evil with good. Things like love, prayers, and kindness instead of retaliation and exposure.”
In addition to releasing Multiple Blessings, Jon and Kate Gosselin also have begun speaking at select churches nationwide. In coming weeks, Kate Gosselin will be speaking in Louisiana and in her home state of Pennsylvania.
Kate Gosselin knows she’s not perfect, but still believes she and Jon can encourage couples in their marriages and families. “I battled with my insecurities, and every time I’d lose my patience, I’d hear a nasty voice in my head saying I couldn’t do it, that only people who exemplify goodness, grace, and gentleness can stand up in front of a crowd as an inspirational speaker,” she writes in Multiple Blessings. “That’s when I had an epiphany: possibly for the first time in my life, I realized that it was exactly because I wasn’t perfect that God was willing to use me.”
