Religious but not Right

The New York Times this morning has an important piece on how "The growing power and influence of evangelical Christians is manifest everywhere these days, from the best-seller lists to the White House..." ("On a Christian Mission to the Top," part of its series on "how class influences destiny in America"). The emphasis is on evangelicals seeking "worldly success and cultural influence" -- aka power and wealth.

I'll be bold here: Success in Jesus' terms wasn't about power and wealth. Many evangelicals today -- those who proclaim and practice a religion that's much more American civil religion than it is authentic Christianity -- are living in a way that's antithetical to the gospel. They're not living a Christian life at all. In fact, much of what they preach and proclaim is nothing short of heresy. The gospel according to America has very little resemblance to a geniune biblical faith.

And yet here's the problem: Mainstream media still (often) refers to right-wing Christians without the adjective, as if they're the only "real" Christians. From the Washington Post a year or so ago (paraphrased): "Christian activists work to ban books from N. Va. libraries." Guess what? They were conservative Christian activists. The Post conveniently managed to leave out the label, thus tarring all the rest of us with the Right's propensity to book banning.