Evangelicals Lose Bush?
After Bush’s recent interview on Nightline, media networks have creating hype around the fact that Bush made several comments relating to the Bible that wouldn’t jive with most evangelicals. (I’m sorry friends–it was on Fox News, so it must be true! ;o) In fact, according to some definitions of an evangelical, Bush is officially outside the fold given what he shared. I think it’s an interesting political moment to watch–what will the long-term implications of this be for the Religious Right?
Perhaps they’ll trust their leaders less. Campell and Kean note in American Cultural Studies the emphasis of Regan and George W. on hot-button issues like gay marriage and abortion as important in securing votes from the Christian conservative electorate (120-121, 124). But as we know, Bush quickly became more than simply a spokesperson for these issues–for some he became a religious figure , a Messiah not all to different from Barack Obama. “At least we can be thankful we have a Christian president!” some said. Will they say that anymore? Will their voting reflect the issues alone in the future rather than whether or not people identify as Christian or how they articulate what that means? Is this the end to “bonus points” for so-thought evangelical candidates?
What is it that Bush said that was so controversial? There are two main pieces, which for many are related. First, he apparently said that he doesn’t take the Bible literally. Different people mean different things by literally, and for some that simply means they think different genres are present within the Bible and must be read as such. Still, even many in that less fundamentalist came would have issues with his admittance to believing in the liklihood of theistic evolution. As Campbell and Kean explain, evolution has been an important issue to many conservative Christians since the mid-twenties (121). Even Bush himself has said that he favored teaching religious perspectives on creation, as well as evolutionary theory, in public schools (121). Due to his inconsistency, I think, really, that some evangelicals might have a right to feel cheated or misled.
But then I also wonder, what normalizing effect could this have on Bush’s views? I mean if someone as seemingly conservative as Bush is allowed to have these heretical views, what does this mean for the rest of us? Will there ever be a moment when someone from the “inside” of conservative Christianity reveals their previously secret beliefs… and such beliefs become not so scary anymore? Is it possible for such an insider to remain on at least the edges of the inside? At this point, I think some are questioning Bush’s Christianity to begin with–essentially saying they were wrong to count him as an insider. I wonder if it will always be this way and what it would take to remain considered legit by the people with the voice in the evangelical community to make those kinds of calls.
Quite a fascinating question indeed.
Tags: ABC Nightline, Bible, Bush, Christianity, conservative, creation, Evangelicalism, evolution, Fox News, Politics, Scripture
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