I am a Baptist. I used to be an American (Northern) Baptist, but our church voted to leave the ABC after the ABC had problems reading the Bible. They couldn’t understand, so my church, along with 30% of American Baptist churches, left.

I am Evangelical and probably mostly a fundamentalist. While I enjoy the differing opinions expressed by many on WMB, I usually see them as within the realm of Christ. I don’t think they would get in the way of fellowship, just show us as a little different.

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And who are the Evangelicalbashersonparade ?

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Typical evangelicals need to do a better of job of making sure that fundamentalists don’t try to include themselves under the evangelical tent.

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Thank you for your reply. I look at the comments from Nick, and some of the others on that topic, and my skin crawls. (I thought your reply to him was very well put). I suppose asking someone to look beyond their own experience is pretty much an impossibility, however, the comments do, as Kiyoshi above points out, reveal an ugly underbelly.

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I agree that the public influence of these groups is waning, as these groups have struggled to find younger adherents.

I disagree with Dreher’s assessment that the Culture War is a loss for conservatives. On many fronts, the trajectory of our culture has changed since the 1970s. Social conservatives have been effective when they partnered with fiscal conservatives and articulated rational arguments for their position. But to the degree that social conservatives have jettisoned rational argument in favor of demagoguery, they have failed. Demagoguery and alarmism may play well within certain evangelical circles; they don’t play well among the broader conservative movement.

Regarding the gay issue, the Haggard incident (including his subsequent “100% heterosexual” comment) has made it difficult for any evangelicals to speak with much authority.

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Rob,
I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that the majority of those of us who comment here regularly are white. If that is the case, is your amazement at the fact that more non-white people would not choose to comment here, or that white people would express things from their own perspective?

I try to give some thought as to how things appear to people who are different from me, whether race, religion, gender, or whatever. But when I express my opinions, they are inevitably from the perspective of a white female Christian, because that is what I am.

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I find it interesting to read the articles and postings on this site. If you want to understand why the evangelism embraced by many posters of this site is being rejected by the masses, read the words you are using. From the eloquent “homosex” comment of sawgunner, to the lecturing of Victoria, to the amazing fact that on the article regarding race and adoption, not one person who posted actually thought of it from other than a “white” perspective.

There is a prevailing attitude that, though the Constitution enshrines the ideal that all men (and women) are created equal, many a poster here are just that much more equal than everybody else.

With reference to the article, though I agree that lobbing “truth bombs” which more often than not more closely resemble “hate bombs” is not the way to convert or indoctrinate people to your way of thinking, by the same token, I do not go to a sporting event to get religion. If I feel the need, there are certainly other establishments that I could visit, and I would probably be rather angry to have anyones particular brand of religion broadcast to me at a sporting event.

Just my thoughts.

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There is a difference between getting a marriage license from the state and the ceremony in a church. Everyone gets their license from the state. Some folks solemnize their marriage in the church. Some don’t.

We can look to MA for guidance on the matter. While all couples get a marriage license from the state, no church can be forced to perform a wedding. In fact, the Supreme Judicial Court made it clear in their ruling legalizing marriage equality that it could not be used to force churches to perform marriages. No church in MA has been forced to marry or to even recognize the marriage of any couple.

As a supporter of marriage equality, I would go so far as to support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing religious bodies the right to refuse to marry anyone. However, I think our constitution already protects them.

It does your side no good to conflate the legal with the religious. It’s becoming a losing proposition given the present day reality.

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