Every once in a while, I fancy myself an academic. Not in the go-into-debt-write-papers-get-a-degree sense of the term... more so the pose-random-overarching-questions-just-to-have-an-interesting-conversation sense.
So I've been thinking about a few recently. The first set are about faith and politics. Separately but also related. Jeffrey Simpson made some comments about this in the Globe and Mail last week. A few interesting thoughts from this:
1. Why are "traditional" Protestant denominations losing members and evangelical churches growing? Is it because of their politics that people get involved in evangelical churches?
2. Why are evangelical churches more politically active than traditional Protestant churches? Are Protestant churches afraid of scaring people away from their already-dwindling numbers? Is it like Joe Biden - we believe things but we are not going to force them on anyone else? Separation of church and state?
3. Is all of this related to the lack of overtly religious people in the NDP? What happened to the "Social Gospelers"?
4. For those churches that do choose to be politically active, why abortion? Why same sex marriage? Why not poverty, homelessness, inequality, the environment, etc.?
5. What about other faiths? What do they think about the interaction between faith and politics?
Leave some thoughts, pose more questions, discuss amongst yourselves, live into your faux academic-ness. :)
So I've been thinking about a few recently. The first set are about faith and politics. Separately but also related. Jeffrey Simpson made some comments about this in the Globe and Mail last week. A few interesting thoughts from this:
- religion is a powerful force in the Conservative Party of Canada (Simpson's evidence: recent vote in the House of Commons on abortion)
- some churches campaign vigorously against abortion
- other foreign policy positions of the current government are popular with evangelical churches
- evangelical churches are growing, "traditional" Protestant denominations are shrinking
- "Social Gospelers" are "all but extinct in the modern NDP"
- Evangelicals support the current government both financially and with votes
1. Why are "traditional" Protestant denominations losing members and evangelical churches growing? Is it because of their politics that people get involved in evangelical churches?
2. Why are evangelical churches more politically active than traditional Protestant churches? Are Protestant churches afraid of scaring people away from their already-dwindling numbers? Is it like Joe Biden - we believe things but we are not going to force them on anyone else? Separation of church and state?
3. Is all of this related to the lack of overtly religious people in the NDP? What happened to the "Social Gospelers"?
4. For those churches that do choose to be politically active, why abortion? Why same sex marriage? Why not poverty, homelessness, inequality, the environment, etc.?
5. What about other faiths? What do they think about the interaction between faith and politics?
Leave some thoughts, pose more questions, discuss amongst yourselves, live into your faux academic-ness. :)
One additional thing I should have mentioned above - these are, of course, very broad generalizations. There are politically-active protestants and evangelicals who do focus on alleviating poverty.
ReplyDeleteInteresting questions, I have to say that one thing I thing is actually promising, is what I hear about the interest in environmental issues from a Christian perspective which cuts across some of these lines.
ReplyDeleteIt would be pretty amazing if the so called Christian Right started to get involved on the "progressive" side of things in terms of environmental protection.
That's one area which I think could be quite interesting to see how it develops over time.
I do find it baffling the obsession with sexuality by the Christian Right (particularly catholics) but I think young people aren't as interested in those issues, and I see support for same sex marriage among young people as overwhelming.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. I agree - would be great to see more movement from all Christians on the environment. The links between our faith and being good stewards of creation are so clear.
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