This is an interesting report from the New York Times about the Christian right and their limited choices in Presidential candidates this time around:
Christian right leadership in trouble
(that's my headline, not the Times')
On the surface, I agree with the Times' assessment: the media elite of the Christian right now face a difficult dilemma -- they do not have a candidate they can really get behind, at least not one that's a guaranteed frontrunner. They have to either take a chance on a relatively unknown candidate or find someone else to run.
I am actually pretty happy that the Christian media elite are faced with some uncomfortable choices. It's good for the soul to question one's beliefs. Now we will see whether these elites are really just in it for the power and influence or whether they really stand for something. Can you imagine Jerry Falwell or Dr. Dobson supporting a Democrat? I'd like to see something like that happen, but the pro-life divide is still alive and well in Christian politics. Pres. Bush has had an opportunity to appoint 2 justices to the Supreme Court (remember Harriet Miers?), including the chief justice (John Roberts). I don't know that you can ask for much more than that when it comes to pro-life issues. Maybe it's time for one of these leaders to cross the party divide. I hope it happens, but I doubt it will. Even better would be to see the Democrats court conservative Christians in some way. They've got to run to the center at some point, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment