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Recently, there has been a lot of political admonishment to vote for “biblical values.” Pulpits, radio ads, and television commercials are flush with it. We see it plastered on flyers, littering our mail. And most recently, the Billy Graham Evangelical Association placed a full-page advertisement in local newspapers reminding us all to “cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles.”
Many of my friends, especially Christian friends, cringe at the blatant use of our faith to further political gain. I agree. It makes me physically ill.
But rather than lambast a very large sect of my tradition for being ignorant, gullible, and worst of all, hateful, I want to explain where they are coming from. I should know: I was raised Southern Baptist in a very conservative church, and I attended an even more conservative evangelical, fundamentalist, Independent Baptist church school from kindergarten through eighth grade. I was a true believer in the doctrine of my upbringing.
While I no longer share the beliefs of my more conservative Christian brothers and sisters, I do speak their native tongue. So let me translate as best I can what they mean by “biblical values” for all my Atheist, Agnostic, Christian-ish, Jewish-like, Buddhist-esque, and pseudo-Pagan friends who may not have a point of reference.
First please understand that evangelical, fundamentalist Christians feel threatened. Although a full 30% of the United States populace belongs to conservative Protestant denominations and they carry a very strong influence in our government, conservative Christians believe they are not being heard. They believe they are the chosen few who understand God’s will for our country, wandering in a wilderness surrounded by factions who would do them harm. In fact, they believe that those who are not living by “biblical values” are actual enemies bent on destroying this country. The true believers are the only thing standing between our nation and Armageddon.
To the mind of an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian, this is a very serious threat. They believe God called our nation to be uniquely founded in our freedom to worship God as we wish. I realize the irony of this statement. But they do not. Called of God means we are called to be a Christian nation[1]– and nothing less than an evangelical, fundamentalist understanding of our faith can answer that calling. If we do not, then God will not abide in this country and we will become destitute.
Second, evangelical, fundamentalist Christians are afraid. God does indeed love us, but God is also just, holy, and cannot tolerate sin. Because, humanity fell from grace in the Garden of Eden we are defiled and cannot stand in the presence of this holy and just God. But God still loves us, so God sends Jesus, God’s son and God’s self, into the world to be the blood sacrifice making us acceptable to be in God’s presence upon our death. To receive this amazing offer, you have to act now. If you die first, it’s too late and you spend eternity in a place apart from the presence of God – also known as Hell.
While most evangelical, fundamentalist Christians will tell you they’ve “accepted Jesus as their Savior” and are “born again,” I know from late-night conversations with friends and my own personal experience that many of them question if it’s enough. If God is so angry at humanity’s poor choices, will saying the right words ever be enough to get to heaven? There has to be more expected of us.
This is where the Bible becomes relevant in the conversation. Evangelical, fundamentalist Christians believe that God is a perfect being – omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. This God inspired certain people to write history, laws, poetry, and prophesies. The collection of these writings make up the Bible. And because God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfect, God’s inspired word is inerrant. It is verbatim from the mind of God, and is understood in its literal form. This way, anyone can pick it up, read it in their native language, and know what God expects of them. God is therefore fair, because he lays down the ground rules before meting the punishment.
So, if we, as a nation, are not following the rules, there is every reason to be afraid of a God who demands that we do so. Even if conservative Christians are following the rules, but others aren’t, our nation is still in grave danger. This flagrant disregard for the rules makes evangelical, fundamentalist Christians very angry at the folks who disobey. To remedy this problem, they demand that our government create laws in accordance with their understanding of “biblical values.” If the government does not enforce God’s expectations and we do not take this just God seriously, God will abandon us to the nations and we will fall into ruin. Indeed, many believe that the financial crisis and the natural disasters that recently swamped our nation are a result of Americans dismissing God’s law.
The “biblical values” to which most evangelical, fundamentalist Christians refer generally revolve around four core issues: religious practice, sex, property, and violence. As a nation we should not dishonor God by cursing, taking his name in vain, working on Sunday, allowing Christmas or Easter to be supplanted by other holidays, and removing the Ten Commandments from our courthouses. We should not dishonor God’s temple (our bodies) by engaging in sexual relations outside of traditional marriage. Homosexual relations and anything not considered “normal sexual practice” is strictly prohibited. Illegal drugs, alcohol, and dancing make us vulnerable to extra-marital or deviant sex, and are therefore forbidden. We should not take what belongs to another without permission, including taxes. We should not physically hurt another person, unless we are disciplining our children or killing our enemies in war.
Abortion, while never mentioned in the Bible, is categorized by sex and violence. Sin has consequences and the sin of sex without marriage has the consequence of pregnancy. Eliminating a pregnancy not only negates natural consequences, but it violently ends what they believe to be an innocent life. Were this strictly an issue of violence, conservative Christians would support free access to birth control. They do not, meaning that sex is very much at issue here.
I identified with the evangelical, fundamentalist Christian tradition for thirty years. I have not exaggerated their beliefs or their understanding of “biblical principles.” I was taught these precepts in Sunday School & Bible studies, it was part of our curriculum in my private school, and we heard it weekly from the pulpit. I know others who had the same experience growing up in a conservative Christian tradition and they can vouch for my veracity.
When I was thirty, seminary challenged me to view my faith and traditional “biblical values” through a hermeneutic of suspicion[2]. I did. And I realized that not once did my conservative Christian indoctrination in “biblical values” include sin surrounding wealth or power. In fact, when I looked again at biblical references to religious practice, sex, property, and violence – they were all in relation to wealth and power. The Torah was given to Israel and guidelines were given to the early Christian Church as a means to balance the social and cultural inequalities in race, gender, and economic status that existed in their time and place. You never hear the prophets lamenting the fall of Israel due to gay sex or abortions. They cry out against Israel because the rich and powerful took advantage of the poor and helpless, and because the powerful created false gods that supported their behavior.
I am a liberal Christian now. Once my eyes were opened to the hermeneutic of suspicion I could not close them again. And at some point, I realized that living in fear of God’s reprisal and of my neighbor’s freedoms was antithetical to living my life in love and faith for this present world, not just the next. The Jesus event is more than just a “get out of jail free” card. Jesus, the incarnation of God on this earth, lives, eats, poops, endures sinus infections, and wishes he could sleep in on Saturday mornings – same as us. Because that’s what Emmanuel means: God with us. Not God above, beyond, below, out of reach, or in opposition to us. God with us.
The life Jesus lived on this earth before the cross matters just as much to our faith, if not more than his death and resurrection. It is a glimpse at what God would do if limited by humanity. What does Jesus do? He heals. He comforts. He includes. He uplifts. He stands up for the discarded and distained. He envisions a world guided by love, not by ruled by words. He challenges the powerful and honors the poor. And then he dies. We miss the entire point of God being with us, if we are only focused on the crowns we get in heaven. God loved us enough to be with us and to show us the reason we had rules in the first place. Our actions, our behavior, our intentions should always come out of love, mercy, and kindness. Faith seen through that lens has no room for fear and no tolerance of rules that bind us rather than rules that free us.
When I think of my evangelical, fundamentalist friends and family, I am sad. Not because I think they are hopelessly lost, but because I know they believe I am. They presume I look down on them. They assume I have arrogantly dismissed them and God. They pray for me, that I will return to the faith of my youth. And they regret that I became a liberal.
Here’s what I want them to know: I chose to open my mind and my heart to another point of view, not because of who they are, but because of who I believe God is. I do not believe they are ignorant, gullible, or hateful based upon their faith. I am grateful for my upbringing, grateful for my knowledge of the Bible, and grateful to them for loving me enough to give me a religious foundation. I consider that we are all searching for the truth and many of us take different paths to find it. But no matter which path we take, if we do not have love as a guide, we are all hopelessly lost.
So for my friends and family who remain in the evangelical, fundamentalist community, I want you to know that I am voting based in my faith and on my understanding of “biblical values.” I am voting for the candidate who strives to include all of us in the American Dream, not just the straight ones, not just the white ones, not just the Christian ones, not just the ones we agree with, not just the wealthy ones, and not just the 53%. I am voting for the candidate who stands between the rich, powerful corporations and the folks they take advantage of. I am voting for the candidate who stands up for the rights of over 50% of our population to decide their own medical needs. I am voting for the candidate who is putting more money in education, social justice, and protection of God’s creation because I believe how we spend our money has everything to do with our faith. I am voting for the candidate who has tried to heal this country physically with available and affordable health care, and has tried to heal the wounds of war, and bring us together as a nation. And I am voting for the candidate who has turned the other cheek time after time, gone the extra mile over and over, in spite of adversaries who have continually smacked him down for no other reason than the desire for power.
I am voting for hope. I am voting for peace. I am voting for our nation to act out of love, not wealth or power – because ultimately love is the greatest power for change we can wield.
I’ve given enough clues. I’ll leave the guessing to you.
[1] We were not founded a “Christian Nation,” but a nation founded on freedom of religion. Because the majority of our population identifies with the Christian tradition does not in any way mean that we are a theocracy or that our government is based upon Christian dogma. See the Treaty of Tripoli and Thomas Jefferson’s writings on the government and religion.
[2] The hermeneutic of suspicion designates interpreting the Bible under the assumption that literature is always written from a specific set of ideological commitments determining how the literature tells its story or makes its case. Inevitably, such commitments mean that other points of view are either not represented or are misrepresented. Therefore, the interpreter must guard against assuming that the assumptions of the author(s) are normative. (Found in the Glossary of Terms for the Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
As the other liberal in the family I couldn’t have said it better! We may have had different experiences and reasons but we met on the same side. I remember the “before” Terry. I’ve watched all of your growth and I couldn’t be prouder of where your faith has taken you! I’m voting for the same guy for the same reasons! But you knew that!
Well said, Terry! I applaud your journey in faith and your articulate expression thereof.
I grew up in a very similar religious environment in terms of the evangelical subculture, though my family’s denomination was not necessarily evangelical. Your reaction to that experience surprises me because it is so unlike my own. I feel angry at the tradition and the people in my life who taught me those ideas. I feel tricked by them. I feel gullible. Though I am grateful, as you seem to be, for having a community that loved me enough to bring me up in a religious tradition because they wanted my life to having meaning an purpose, I wouldn’t say that I’m sad that they are still in that evangelical subculture or sad that I was a part of it for so long. I’m just angry. That’s why I was so surprised that anger did not come up in your post at all. I wonder whether one reason it didn’t was due to the distance you now have from that time of separation. Perhaps time has allowed for some emotional distance and some perspective that I do not have yet. Anyways, I thought your post was exactly dead on in terms of your explanation of what evangelical Christians mean when they reference “biblical values” and why they feel so strongly about them, and I was just curious about your feelings toward that group now because they are so different from my own.
Emily – I think my sadness comes from missing the family and friends with whom I once shared a connection in our faith. Family gatherings are difficult because I believe differently and they don’t know what to do with that. Much of their anger and antagonism is focused on “liberals” and if I’m a liberal, how can I be a part of their world? For a long time I was angry at this, and time has given me perspective. Now it just hurts. I know that I won’t have my family forever, and because I chose to follow my conscience, there are things I can never share with them. Becoming a parent also gives you a different perspective. Sometimes we do things out of love for our children and they just don’t turn out right. In seeking my own forgiveness from my own child, I find that I have more forgiveness to share with the folks who were really doing what they thought best.
Very well said, Terry. I also understand the background from whence you came. I also find it very difficult to be around my family at times because I am the only one who thinks differently. Emily, I’m often sad and sometimes angry….it’s a difficult road to follow. I try to fill my spirit up when around those with whom I feel at home and this helps to carry me through the times when I feel so different and alone. But I also try to remember that the others also have their passions, hopes, and stories to tell….and God in his infinite wisdom loves us all.
Beautifully said Terry! We should all remember to vote out of our love for others.
“If you judge people you have no time to love them”
Mother Theresa
That extra hour of sleep also kept me and my girls from church today, but your post is better than any sermon I would’ve heard at St. James’s. Brava, and thank you!
I am curious… could you ever see yourself voting for a non-Christian for high office, like a Congressman or President? Could you vote for a Muslim or an atheist? I think it boils down to, can you believe that a non-Christian can support the same values that you hold dear, and if any of those values would require a person be a Christian? Does a Mormon count as Christian for you? I think there is an entire line of skepticism surrounding Obama’s religion and whether or not that matters. That being possibly a Muslim would mean he’s anti-American, never mind that there are quite a few Yemeni and Pakistanis think Obama’s an arrogant American Imperialist that kills Muslims at a whim.
Because I believe in a country based upon the principles of freedom of religion, I would indeed consider voting for a non-Christian, depending on whether they held the same values of love, acceptance, kindness, mercy, and generosity that can be inherent in all major religions. I don’t believe that Obama is a Muslim, but even if he were, it would not sway my vote. I believe a Muslim can act more like the example of Jesus than some Christians do. I’ve seen Atheist and Agnostics with more concern for their fellow human than many Christians I know. If we are looking at traditional Christian creeds that define what a Christian believes, specifically the Nicene Creed, then Mormons are not actually of this faith, mainly because of the understanding of God and Jesus being substantively one. That is, they aren’t believers in the Trinity. This does not in any way mean that I would not vote for a Mormon should he or she had the values I find necessary in a leader (see above), and actually put money toward those values. Evangelical, fundamentalist Christians would agree that Mormons are not Christians, not because of the creed, but because of their understanding of who Jesus was. This has recently changed on the Billy Graham website, as he removed the reference to Mormonism being a cult after his conversation with Mitt Romney. I find there are good leaders and good people in any faith, or lack thereof, and I find there are terrible leaders and selfish people in any faith, or lack thereof. Fortunately our constitution guarantees freedom from and freedom of religion in the administration, legislation, and judicial branches of our government. While my faith influences my vote, it in no way prejudices me against a specific faith.
I have to second your reply, Terry. I am a devout Christian and I have lived in a predominantly Muslim country where I was frequently mistaken for a Muslim because my Christian faith so closely mirrored dominant aspects of Islam. I always politely explained that no, I am not Muslim but Christian and that inevitably led to conversations about how Muslims and Christians are brothers and sisters in faith. I do not believe it is solely what one professes that attest to morals but to how one acts.