Evangelical Realism

According to USATODAY.com, the Family Research Council is hosting a conference on God and politics, and the agenda says a lot about the devastating impact the Bush presidency has had on the longtime symbiosis between Republicans and conservative Christians.

A debate called “The Role of Faith & Politics in 2008″ pits Jim Wallis, an evangelical Christian who edits the magazine Sojourners, against Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s government affairs arm and host of three syndicated radio programs.

Both men have written pox-on-both-houses books. Wallis, in God’s Politics, argues that the right has hijacked faith and moral values and the left “doesn’t get it.” Land, in The Divided States of America?, says both the right and left have misstated God’s role in America’s affairs.

Jerry Falwell must be rolling over in his grave. When he sold the evangelical church to the Republicans in the 70′s, he made an implicit promise that conservative Christians would never criticize or even seriously question the policies and agendas of the NRC, and he even founded Liberty University to make sure that the next generation of church leaders would be wholly owned by the party. But the disastrous policies of the Bush administration have turned the rank and file of conservative Christians against their political owners and handlers.

Let that be a lesson to the denial-based community. Alethea is God, and cannot be disobeyed. If you think you’re changing Her rules, you’re only setting up your own downfall.