Once again school has taken over my life, but I wanted to share a great Sightings email from early October, "Evangelicaldom," by Martin Marty. The topic was evangelicals' involvement in politics, and it made me realize why it is so difficult to have a civil conversation with politically conservative Christians.
Marty references an article in the Los Angeles Times that describes the "absolutist style of religious fundamentalism":
Those who oppose the religification of politics may think all they have to do is change tactics, but they are sadly, tragically mistaken. They can never win, because for the political fundamentalists, this isn’t political jousting, this is Armageddon. With stakes like that, they will not lose, and there is nothing democrats – small ‘d’ and capital ‘D’ – can do about it.
This struck a chord with me, because it is really difficult to reason with people who are truly convinced that their political stances have the seal of approval from God, and moving even a little bit from their stances would be sinful. It would have negative eternal consequences. How can you have a productive conversation with someone so set in her ways like this? With so much "at stake," these Armageddonists are not budging. Political/fiscal conservatives are geniuses for aligning with them. Geniuses.
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