Evangelical Defense

As we enter into 2012 one cannot avoid the political hailstorm that is upon us.  The debates can at times show where one’s positions are but mainly they are for jockeying for poll position (pun intended).  As a thinking evangelical one cannot help but ask how it is that Evangelicals have entered into the political scene in the first place?  What business does an evangelical,whose primary business is to proclaim the evangel of Jesus Christ, have to do with the political scene?  How in the world did evangelicals get into politics?

To help answer that question Nathan Glazer helpfully points out that Evangelical activity in the realm of politics should be understood as defensive not offensive.  He says

Abortion did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to strengthen prohibitions against abortion, but because liberals wanted to abolish them… Pornography in the 1980s did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to ban D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, or even Henry Miller, but because in the 1960s and 1970s, under-the-table-pornography moved to the top of the newstands.  Prayer in the schools did not become an issue because Fundamentalists [and evangelicals] wanted to introduce new prayers or sectarian prayers, but because the Supreme Court ruled against all prayers.   Freedom for religious schools became an issue not because of any legal effort to expand their scope, but because the Internal Revenue Service and various state authorities tried to impose restrictions on them that private schools had not faced before.

[cited from Roman Catholicism, Moody Bible Institute 1994, pg 191]