Being an evangelical Christian with somewhat left-ish views can be a pretty difficult thing. The constant conflation in evangelical circles of "evangelical" with "Christian" can mean that when many of one's views seem to clash with the Christian culture in which you find yourself, you can end up questioning not just the political atmosphere of the church, but your own faith. Even if one's confidence is not shaken to that point, it can still be a hard and lonely experience; as Randall Balmer points out in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, he is aware of the lonely position he will be putting himself in with the upcoming publication of his new book: "Longtime friends (and not a few family members) will shuffle uneasily around me and studiously avoid any sort of substantive conversation about the issues I raise — and then quietly strike my name from their Christmas-card lists. Circle the wagons. Brook no dissent."
Balmer's essay is definitely worth the read, for Christians and non-Christians of all political persuasions, as I think it will encourage those who consistently find themselves ill-at-ease with the current alignment of Christianity and politics, and challenge others who do not feel the same. Titled "Jesus is Not a Republican," Balmer pitches the essay as "an outline of what I would like to say to the students at Wheaton and, by extension, to evangelicals everywhere," "since my chances of being invited back to Edman Chapel have dropped from slim to none". You can read the full essay here; my thanks to the blog Balkanization, who mentioned the article in their post There is Hope…"Jesus is Not a Republican" (or a Democrat).
This also reminded me of a New York Times editorial written by Gary Wills, a Northwestern University historian, earlier this year, called Christ Among the Partisans. It's something of a warning for Democrats, who having seen the success of Republican-religious right alliances, are trying more or less to claim "Jesus is on our side." (Though I remain heavily tempted to say that in some cases, they may be right.) According to Wills, what Jesus says "goes far beyond politics and is of a different order." Wills and Balmer, though from different traditions, seem to agree on one thing: not only might our politics function better if some of the current religious frenzy were cut out from it, but our religious practice might fare better, as well.
