WHAT IS THIS STRANGE FRAGRANCE IN THE AIR? Could it be Christian spirit? The President of the Christian Coalition is calling on his coreligionists to make environmental protection a foremost consideration in their election choices. In early 2006, eighty-six evangelical leaders signed a statement challenging Bush to do something about global warming. In the UK, evangelicals are spearheading a campaign to “Make Poverty History.” It seems like only yesterday that right-winger and self-professed evangelical Dick Armey criticized Republicans for “talking about things like gay marriage and so forth,” while the Democrats were “talking about things people care about, like how do I pay my bills?” Could it be that the erstwhile Christian right has found Jesus?
It’s possible that the Republicans’ most reliable trick—distraction—is beginning to wear thin. Distraction was the means to get people to vote against their own economic self-interest—that is, for tax cuts for the rich, cuts in social programs for everyone else, and endless war. The real threats to well-being, people were told, are abortionists, stem cell researchers, and matrimonially minded gays.
With a lot of help from the megachurches, the Republicans pulled off the trick for years. All the guy in the pulpit had to say was “vote pro-life” or “save the family from marauding gays,” and the message got through: vote Republican, which translated into feed the fat cats straight from your wallet.
But as someone once said, you can’t fool all the people every single moment. It’s hard to continue getting bent out of shape about the fate of a zygote or embryonic stem cell when you can’t afford to take your sick three-year-old to a doctor. It makes no sense to blame gays for the strains that arise in your marriage where one partner has to work days and the other nights because you can’t afford child care. And it’s a stretch to put your faith in gay-bashing Republican politicos when so many of their own family members and staffers are contently gay.
This doesn’t mean that morals and values have no place in politics. On the contrary, what both parties need to understand is that economic issues are moral issues. Poverty is a moral issue; 47 million Americans without health insurance is a moral issue. The same goes for the environment: why fight to save a fertilized egg cell for a life spent gasping for air or fleeing the ever-rising coastlines? If you’re going to be prolife, you’ve got to be proenvironment and pro–economic justice.
As for the doctrinal part of the Christian right’s agenda: show me the passage in the Bible that bans stem cell research. See if you can find the tiniest allusion to abortion. Yes, there’s homophobia in the Bible, along with endorsements of slavery and a weird obsession with animal sacrifice. Not a word, it should be mentioned, about gay marriage.
Poverty and economic injustice, on the other hand, get over three thousand hits in the Bible. Left-wing evangelist Jim Wallis once took scissors to a Bible and cut out all the references to economic injustice—and what was left looked a lot like confetti. Jesus was a hard-liner on the redistribution of wealth: remember what he told the rich man who wanted to get into heaven? Imagine what he’d have to say about the Bush tax cuts.
So welcome back to the fold, all you recovering right-wing evangelists! We’ll still have plenty to argue about: I’m prochoice, pro–stem cell research, and against anyone getting married when some people aren’t allowed to. But at least we may have enough common ground on which to hold a meaningful debate.