November 21, 2005. As Michael Scanlon, former top aide to the indicted Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is found guilty of conspiring to bribe public officials in a criminal partnership with convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a memo is revealed that rocks the evangelical community to its core. The memo, written by Scanlon during his halcyon days of fortune and glory, lays out his opinion on how utterly simple it is to deceive and manipulate evangelical Christians to their desired end:
"Simply put we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees."
Just before the Supreme Court selected George W. Bush as our next president in the midst of a historically close election, I stood with the masses in protest on Massachusetts Avenue just across the street from Number One Observatory Circle (a.k.a. the Vice President's Mansion) chanting, "Get out of Cheney's house! Get out of Cheney's house!"
Indeed, I had fastidiously subscribed to the ideals of the Republican Revolution that began in 1994. President William Jefferson Clinton and the Democrats were God's sworn enemies, and the Republicans were the "party of God." If you were a Christian and not a Republican in that day, you simply weren't a Christian at all; you couldn't be.
The years following the Republican Revolution would go down in history as one of the most divisive eras in American Christendom. So controversial did the Democrat-Republican debate become amongst evangelicals, some kept their political views quiet. Others left churches on account of it; relationships were strained; and church splits became more commonplace.
The politicization of Christianity had begun, and Republican-minded evangelicals were all too eager to purge the evil liberals from their midst. Firebrand conservative media commentators rose up to cement the Republican-Christian nexus including the number one most popular radio personality amongst evangelicals, Rush Limbaugh. Conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter even wrote a book perpetuating divisive, unbiblical, fascist attitudes toward non-Christian liberals: How to Talk To a Liberal (If You Must) (Crown Forum, 2004).
On March 2, 1999, Texas Governor George W. Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States amidst throngs of cheering evangelicals. Mr. Bush, himself a born-again evangelical and very vocal about his personal faith in Jesus Christ, was the answer to years of prayer for a godly president to lead our country back to God. It was as if this was the pinnacle; this was the moment; and G.W. Bush was our man. Further adding to the divine appointment of Mr. Bush was his early statement on how God supernaturally spoke to him and told him this was the direction he was to go in. He was God's chosen, and to argue against that fact was to argue against God Himself.
The early G.W. Bush years brought further division within the evangelical community. Since President Bush's term in office was clearly established by God to bring the country back to Himself, those who dared oppose his administration's policies in any way, shape, or form were expeditiously labeled as ungodly, evil liberals. No more evident was this un-Christian behavior than on a new Internet discussion forum entitled, "Rapture Ready."
Rapture Ready was created by Todd Strandberg to bring like-minded evangelicals around discussion of the Bible's account of a pre-Tribulation Rapture. I won't knock Mr. Strandberg or anyone else for their beliefs, but the fascist nature of the board during the early G.W. Bush years was truly a gold mine for social scientists studying fascism, groupthink, group dynamics, and the "mob mentality." Myself having been the victim of numerous irrational "warnings" from heavy-handed admins (and getting banned as well) for simply expressing concern at a Bush policy or two, coupled with mobs of fellow evangelical Christians "ganging up" on me for no reason, I began to see what was happening: the Republican politics had become the religion. Sadly, evangelical Christianity had become nothing more than just another wing of the Republican party as the Religious Right merged with the Republican Right.
What is especially difficult for me is to see how Republican politicians continue to deceive and manipulate evangelicals into believing something or voting a certain way simply for political ends. The global warming issue is a good example here. Why does Republican Senator from Oklahoma James Inhofe openly decry global warming as a religion unto itself? Doing so strikes a nerve with evangelicals and tells them that since global warming is a religion, it opposes Christianity; therefore global warming must not only be flawed, but deeply evil. However, behind the smoke and mirrors lies the real reason: self-preservation. If Inhofe would agree that global warming is real, he'd lose the support of his conservative pro-business (anti-regulatory) constituency and, more importantly, his valued energy industry supporters.
Thankfully, it seems the evangelical community is increasingly turning away from political debates and toward a new paradigm of environmental awareness and concern about energy issues. This would be a welcome change from the eight years of division and bitterness caused by the merging of Republican politics and evangelical Christianity.