Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention long ago gave up any pretense of non-partisanship.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have launched a new campaign called the 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal. On the surface, it sounds pretty harmless: register people to vote, pray and work to get people to the polls.
But this is the fundamentalist-dominated SBC we’re dealing with here, so things are not what they seem. Consider the fact that the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is undertaking this project as a companion to electioneering work with the nation’s largest Religious Right group, the Family Research Council, and there’s cause for skepticism.
SBC prayer warriors will seek the election of more “godly Christians” and beseech God to “help churches find ways to help Christians get to the polls” and for public officials to be protected “from the attacks of Satan,” reported the Associated Press.
Somehow I suspect this has more to do with getting people to vote Republican rather than fending off any satanic assaults. Richard Land, head of the SBC’s lobbying office, told the Oklahoma Baptist recently that Christians should base their vote on a couple of narrow moral issues – abortion and same-sex marriage — above even the economy.
“They need to make certain they are informed and know where their candidates stand on the issues,” he said. “Your convictions and values should override your narrow economic standards.”
Of course, that’s easy for Land to say as he sits in his fancy office doing his well-compensated job. I doubt Land is worried about how he’ll pay the mortgage next month or finding the funds to put his kids in college.
An authentic Christian, according to Land, will vote for a candidate who vows to stop same-sex marriage even while his job is shipped overseas, even while his family has no healthcare, even while his bills pile up.
I don’t claim to be theologian, but I’ve read enough of the Bible to know that Jesus seemed more concerned with the least among us, the poor and the needy, than he did with bashing gay people or women who are considering having abortions.
In fact, I don’t recall Jesus saying anything about gays or abortion. But I do remember that he urged everyone to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick, remarking, “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Jesus rebuked the politicians of his day, but Land ingratiates himself with political leaders – some of them, anyway, Speaking about religious conservatives relationship with the Republican Party, Land said in 1998, “The go-along, get-along strategy is dead. No more engagement. We want a wedding ring, we want a ceremony, we want a consummation of the marriage.”
This translates into the SBC constantly plumping for the GOP. Just for fun, I put Barack Obama’s name in the search engine of the Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news agency. I was unable to find even one positive story about him. Instead, there are stories stating that Obama supports infanticide, noting that he’s popular with gay voters and asserting that he doubts the existence of hell. The stories about McCain, by contrast, are glowing and highlight his opposition to legal abortion and same-sex marriage.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention long ago gave up any pretense of non-partisanship. They have been acting as arm of the Religious Right for many years now, which means in effect as an appendage of the Republican Party. In light of this sad history, we’d all do well to keep a close eye on any SBC “get-out-the-vote” scheme cloaked in the language of piety.
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