Update: The Final Straw: The Problem With the Emerging Church - Political Hypocrisy

In a previous post, we looked at the hypocrisy of the Emerging Church and their approach to politics. They argue that it is wrong for the "religious right," to vote Republican. Their response: vote Democrat. The hypocrisy is apparent. I have no problem with them voting Democratic, I have a problem with them criticizing others for using their faith as a reason to vote for a certain political party which is precisely what they are doing.

I want to point out two recent events that show this hypocrisy as leaders in the Emerging Church continue to show their support for the Democratic Party. First, Brian McLaren, one of the main leaders in the movement, has joined the Matthew25 Network which is dedicated to rally evangelicals to vote for Senator Obama. McLaren has been explaining why he supports the candidate (which is not the point of this post) and has recently appeared in an ad promoting Matthew25 Network:




The second thing I want to mention is the announcement that "Blue Like Jazz," author, Donald Miller, will be leading in prayer at the Democratic National Convention which will culminate in the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama as their Presidential candidate. The reasons he gives for accepting such an invitation is interesting. In an interview with Christianity Today, Miller said:

Cameron Strang was in that slot before and said that people perceived the prayer as showing favoritism. Are you worried you’ll receive the same reactions?

I’m not. I’m a registered Democrat. While that’s perceived as black or white, or hostile toward the Republican Party, I grew up in the Republican Party. I even attended as a kid the Republican National Convention when it was in Houston when Bush Sr. was running against Clinton. I changed parties about five years ago. I really felt like the Republican Party was taking advantage of the evangelical community by throwing us abortion and gay marriage, really not giving the heart of Christ more thought. I felt like it was the party of the extremely wealthy and they needed this conservative base in order to get a majority and so they pandered to us...

I felt used by the Republican Party in that sense. I started looking at the Democratic Party and looking at social issues that are affecting the world, seeing the presidency and Congress from a global perspectives. Even though many Democrats don’t identify themselves as evangelicals, many of the precepts of the party, charitable foundation of the party did reflect what evangelicals are about, the sanctity of human life, the importance of really not leaving people behind. I don’t think either party is the answer to the world’s problems. I lean toward solutions the Democrats seem to favor.

Where do you stand on issues like abortion and gay marriage?

The issue of abortion is a very sensitive one and it’s an important issue. I look at from a perspective of, what’s the best that we can do. As we elect a Republican House and Senate, and as we elect Republican leadership in the executive branch, we see very little changes on that issue. We’re electing someone who agrees with us on abortion, being sort of a tragedy in our country, and yet can’t get anything done. It’s kind of like saying, I want a pilot on my plane who feels this way about abortion, but he can’t fly the plane. The executive branch doesn’t have that much power, it has some power, but it doesn’t have much power. You look at the reality of that and say, what can I do to defend the sanctity of all human life, including the living, and the marginalized and the oppressed and the poor? What can we do to better social conditions so that less women are put in situations where they feel like they need to have an abortion. What does looking at the issue holistically look like. I hope the Democrats will listen to those of us who lean toward pro-life and those changes can be made.

In terms of gay marriage, I see it as a constitutional issue. Until we become a theocracy, I think that judges should look at it from a constitutional issue. Whether I think homosexuality’s wrong, personally? America is not God’s country. It’s not considered a Christian nation anymore. You have to look at everybody, not just Christians and say, what are the rights of these people based on this constitution. That’s another difficult issue as well. I get a bit frustrated when the evangelical position is reduced to two issues. So many other issues are not a concern to us. What happened was, in my opinion, the Christian positions has been reduced in order to manipulate us. If we give them these two issues, we can do whatever we want.

I assume that means you support Barack Obama? What do you think he will do as president that would appeal to evangelicals?

This is one of the reasons I was attracted to Obama and read his book and wanted to take him seriously as a candidate. If you look in the last eight years, we have lost our reputable standing among most nations. Certainly among many poor nations and Muslim nations, we’re not very respected. There’s a great deal of hostility against us. As we travel the world, America represents Christianity to the rest of the world. What we have is Christianity being represented by what is perceived as arrogance, bullying, an inability to negotiate peace, an inability to listen. People assume that Christianity is that way. You ask yourself, what sort of person might God rise up to heal the wounds that have been created by that kind of positioning in the world. You would think a very intelligent minority, who came not out of wealth, who’s not only power position in Washington, D.C., a man who’s more thoughtful in his answers and less bullyish, not as simple of a thinker, even as reality is not simple, a man who has spent part of his upbringing overseas and has connections with Kenya, that’s the guy. A name like Barack Obama, you just kind of go, that would be the guy that God would choose to heal some of the wounds that we’ve caused in the world. That’s what made me take him seriously. I read his book, listened to his speeches, asked myself some of those hard questions. When all the math was done, he edged out as a favorable as a favorable candidate for me.

Again, I don't have a problem with persons voting Democrat, my problem is that these persons, and others like them, will turn around and criticize Christians for voting for a political party. That is political hypocrisy, regardless of one's theological beliefs.

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Here is the video of Miller's prayer: