REPUBLICAN DOES NOT EQUAL THE GOSPEL

Last night our daughter was installed as president of her Lions' Club chapter, and since it is a new one, folks from Lions' Club chapters all over the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex (I counted almost 20 chapters represented) attended the dinner event to get the new group off to a good start. Listening to the elderly keynote speaker I was struck by the goodness and charity in the hearts of these fine people, the salt of the American earth. Though I am a Christian believer, I was, however, struck by the constant references to Christ, the gospel music choir that entertained, and the benediction that more or less validated the BushCo philosophy of war (Iraq-wise), i.e., that we are waging a battle against evil.

Most of my family was charmed, and in some ways so was I. After all, it all seemed so familiar -- much like a Baptist prayer meeting, or an evangelical missions meeting. And after all, isn't the motivation of these people, like my own, to do good as Christ commanded us? So what could I object to?

I guess I objected to the fact that we weren't in church, so the assumption that we were all on the same religious page could not be made (I reference the fact that there was a family in the audience that was clearly of Arab origins). And maybe I'm obsessive about my Progressive values, so I was appalled that anyone could assume that we're all in favor of the Chimp's most recent war and see the holiness in its mission. But that being said, I was most moved by the dedication of these middle-class Americans sacrificing their time and money to better their communities by helping the "least of [Christ's] brethren."

These are the people I've known all my life, the people my good parents surrounded me with. My dad was a Lion and a Baptist deacon. My mother was state president of the Women's Missionary Union. I love these people. I know them. I don't want to fight with them.

But they hate homosexuals. They believe that Bush is on a holy mission from God to bring freedom and "American" values to the world. Too many of them believe that poverty is a sign of moral failure and riches a sign of moral superiority. They believe America is a Christian nation, which means that Christianity is the quasi-official state religion, and the mission of the United States is to share those blessings of understanding with the world.

I am often reminded of the Congregationalist missionaries to Hawaii in the 19th century who thought "Christian values" meant the Hawaiians should shed their native apparel and don stifling high-necked woolen dresses and suitcoats, and I don't know how to express convincingly to our dear American brethren that "American values" are not synonymous with Christianity. Our form of government is not necessarily suited to every other grouping of humans, and is not the sine qua non of civilization. I happen to be very fond of the republic and democracy, but nothing in the Bible indicates that only they have validity.

Jimmy Carter recently ruminated on how the "Christian right isn't Christian." It was an essay I understood. While I believe that most evangelicals are sincere in wanting to follow the teachings of Christ, they are being misled by pastors and politicians who make a show of their religiosity, but are in fact ignoring the "hard sayings" of Christ, to "share with anyone who asks you for anything," to "turn the other cheek." I remember listening to Billy Graham in an interview some years past reflecting on his career. At some point, he said, he made the mistake of equating Christianity with Americanism and thus with Republicanism. I was overjoyed that this fine man finally understood that we are to "spread the glad tidings" but nowhere did God indicate that we were to enforce it with a gun or even the law. Christianity, like all faiths, is a choice and commitment that one must make in one's innermost heart -- it cannot be coerced. And Americanism, or the American way, is the same. We cannot impose our will, when it is not in self-defense, on another, or on another nation.

So how do we as progressives, or Democrats, reach these good people? How do we convince them that the Republican Party Platform is not the Gospel of Christ, and the "social gospel" is better served under Democrats, who at the very least will try to ensure that the "least of these" are not forgotten in our budget while the richest and most powerful reap unearned rewards.