This week's New York Times Magazine (Feb. 14) contains an important article about the current political battle on the Texas Board of Education between Fundamentalist Christians and more moderate conservatives, many of them also Evangelical Christians. The focus is on revising the guidelines for teaching American history in elementary and secondary public schools in the state. These are inordinately influential because Texas purchases textbooks in bulk, instead of letting local school boards make that decision, which pushes publishers to produce materials that conform to the Texas guidelines.
The Fundamentalist Christians do not believe in separation of church and state. They believe that the founders of America were Christians and intended the country to be a Christian nation. They want to rewrite history to fit their ideas. Secular notions have inordinate influence among the scholars that research and write history at least because they tend to be devoted to knowing the facts and therefore skeptical of faith as a source of knowledge.
The article clearly documents how both viewpoints fall short of reality. Yes, the leaders of the British colonies that rebelled and founded the American nation were Christians. But they did not have much of a consensus on dogma. New England was populated by descendants of Puritans who were expelled from the established Anglican Church in the U.K. and fled eventually to America. Maryland was established as a colony for the Catholic minority in England and Pennsylvania by a member of the persecuted Society of Friends (called Quakers because of the Pentecostal nature of some of their early roots). Nine colonies had state churches, many continued after independence. Yet a number of the founding fathers were Deists, or what Fundamentalist Christians would call theological Liberals. If Thomas Jefferson or George Washington ran for president today they would undoubtedly be opposed by the same political forces who want to make them into Evangelical spokesmen in Texas history books.
The reality is that one of the conservative Evangelical blind spots is the fact that many of their fellow believers disagree with them on matters of faith that have resulted, in the past, in Christians killing each other. The faith and values of our founders led them to a consensus on one practical point. They wanted to protect their children and grandchildren from the kind of cruelty that people who have both political power and a belief that they speak for God can perpetrate. Here is an important history lesson that our founding fathers knew well: When a strong believer gets a great deal of political power he often gives in to the temptation to use distinctly unChristlike methods of forcing God's truth on others. I pray they don't take that lesson out of the Texas history guidelines. And I recommend that you read the article.
Unfortunately, Adventists have not escaped from many of these Fundamentalist Evangelical beliefs. Many thinking Adventist have become pariahs in their own congregation because they believe in justice for all (regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation), they don't support school-sponsored prayer, they don't care what religion our Prez practices as long as he upholds the law, they believe that supporting war but abhorring abortion is inconsistent and they believe we all have a responsibility to assist the poor among us.
The point so many Evangelicals miss is that you can't legislate morality or conscience. Trying to rewrite history is really trying to brainwash future generations.
Posted by: Trish | February 16, 2010 at 05:42 PM
It is a common thinking trap: If only we could make others be like us, then everything would be OK. It is present in all religions.
Posted by: Monte Sahlin | February 19, 2010 at 05:53 AM
Excuse me, but I do believe in justice for all & not discriminating against others in regards to their race,religion or sexual orientation. I also uphold the right of an individual's conscience to worship in the manner he/she chooses whether pauper/prince or president it is not up to me to dictate someones faith. The point I see in so many Adventist congregations is blindly following the most conservative organization and not standing for the founding principles of liberty because they do not want to be associated with "them".
Posted by: Renee Hernandez | February 19, 2010 at 06:07 AM
P.S. we do have a responsibility to take care of the poor among us always.
Posted by: Renee Hernandez | February 19, 2010 at 06:08 AM
P.S.S.I just reread the comments again and I get the first one now, it wasn't supporting the view I thought(duh me)anyway sometimes I am a little slow, ha ha... so I can laugh at myself easily.
Posted by: Renee Hernandez | February 19, 2010 at 06:15 AM
Renee, thanks for your responses and your honesty. None of us is perfect. I manage to miss the point about a third of the time.
Posted by: Monte Sahlin | February 21, 2010 at 04:35 PM
Interesting post and comments. I agree with Monte that the Founders most certainly wanted to avoid the ruinous religious wars that had devastated Europe.
Monte is equally correct that while they were "Christian" many of the Founders were not exactly what we could consider orthodox. (It's important to also point out that many were.)
I'm saddened to hear that Trish and others with more liberal political views have been treated badly in Adventist circles. I see an alarming trend that on many Adventist blogs that seems to be heading in the other direction.
As political conservative, I believe in equal justice for all but not in government-mandated equal outcomes. I am agnostic on the question of school prayer. (I don't think that God is much honored by a prayer over a loud-speaker but the rationale used by the Courts to ban school prayer is little more than judicial legislating.) I do care what religion our president adheres to because that faith will inform his values and thus his decisions. I oppose abortion but I believe that war is sometimes unnecessary.
I also believe that Christians have a responsibility to assist the poor. I do not believe that Christian support for redistributive economic policies that use the police power of the government to forcibly seize peoples' wealth and redistribute it as politicians seee fit is what God had in mind.
These are my views and I hold them because my reason and my experience convinces me of their truth. But that does not mean that they are God's views. His ways are higher and better than mine or anyone else's. God is not a Republican, a Democrat, a conservative nor a liberal. The Cross makes a poor political bulletin board.
Posted by: David | February 23, 2010 at 04:16 AM
David, I agree with your basic point that God's view of things is not expressed in the political positions of either the right or the left. Politics, after all, are rooted in human reason, which is tainted by sin and selfishness, while God's ways are perfect.
Posted by: Monte Sahlin | March 02, 2010 at 08:07 PM
Hello Monte, thought you (and everyone who reads/comments on your blog), would be interested in this entry and the clip it has (the url is included below). I actually was going to attach the clip, but then saw sojo.net commented on it so I have attached the link. Interesting connection.
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/03/19/jon-stewart-how-oscar-romero-got-disappeared-by-right-wingers-for-the-second-time/
Posted by: Rick | March 20, 2010 at 04:32 AM
Actually, a great percentage of our founders were deist, not Christian.
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