Happy to see all the groups forming to support Kamala Harris for President, including "Evangelicals for Harris"

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/08/not-all-white-evangelical-christians.html

There is no doubt about it, conservative, Evangelical Christianity in America has been hijacked by right wing extremist politics. What made Falwell and Robison, along with Pat Robertson, a televangelist whose program, The 700 Club, mimicked television news, angry at President Carter and pushed them to the GOP was his perspective on abortion rights. They wanted all Christians to accept their interpretation and ideology when it came to this specific social issue.

Carter was personally opposed to any kind of abortion, for any reason, but he did not oppose it politically, because he saw that a majority of Americans did not hold the belief that life began at conception, that it was a religious belief entirely, and even though it was not something he would approve or advise, Americans who did not hold similar religious beliefs had the right to access something they themselves did not see as wrong for the culture and nation.

It is, in fact, a religious liberty issue as the concepts and beliefs which have led to a determination that life begins at conception are of an exclusively religious perspective, and when applied as restrictions on abortion rights, constitutes an "establishment" of religion, which is unconstitutional. Evangelicals, however, are not inclined to consider the rights of non-Christians in a constitutional democracy as equal, or of Christians who hold a different perspective, and for whom a candidate's position on abortion is not the only qualification for their vote.

The intrusion of right wing politics into Evangelical churches and denomination has brought about a revival of the ideology of Christian nationalism, which started radicalizing conservative Christians back in the 1980's, and which now has become the predominant political perspective of a majority of conservative, Evangelical Christians. Trump has simply turned the art of trading political favors to Christian nationalists as a matter of political course. And in exchange for their votes, they have been quite willing to give up not only their core theological and doctrinal beliefs and practices, but their integrity and their morality, on which the credibility of their faith is built.

Jesus never intended for the church to be supported by a political state, in which all of the leaders adhered to the Christian gospel and conversion was required for citizenship. Much of the history of the Christian church, from about 300 A.D. right up to the American Revolution, is of the repeated failed attempts of the church to establish itself in the same way that ancient Israel did in the Old Testament, as a covenant theocracy. Not only is there not one jot or tittle of scripture to support this idea, but we have more than ten centuries of brutal bloodshed and war that testify to the fact it was the wrong thing to do.

So it is quite encouraging to see groups forming, like "Evangelicals for Harris." It is a demonstration of true democracy, and it shows that it is possible for people to disagree on some social issues, and on some interpretations of the Bible, and still give reasonable discernment to their choice of a candidate for office.