A fair review would point out some strengths in the following article,
but basically the whole thing is pathetic. More than anything this is a
rationale for defeat, if not wholesale and immediate, defeat nonetheless,
as if, while some rear guard actions may prove successful,
the war is lost. And this is presented as if it is "prophetic" ?
What a joke. It is an abdication of moral authority brought on
by a massive failure of intellect. But, hey, Russell Moore is a
smart religious bureaucrat, what could possibly be wrong?
That is exactly what is not needed at a time of crisis like this.
What is needed? Someone like the Apostle Paul, and
the sooner the better. Alas, Russell Moore seems to want to
imitate the example of Ralph Reed, as if that is an optimal
guide for the future. Reed, of course, is a world class
temporalizer.
Essentially Moore is lost and is clueless about what to do.
Acts 17 just might be looked at for a few ideas. Paul was
unafraid to argue (debate) with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers,
indeed, he is portrayed as unafraid to debate with still other people.
He was informed and sure of his convictions. He took his message
to them and pressed his case. He knew their philosophy, clearly
he had studied it in the past. He also knew their religious beliefs,
which clearly he had also studied. He had educated himself for
exactly such debates and looked at disputes as opportunities.
Moore looks at disputes as misfortunes to avoid if at all
possible, and he sure in hell is not informed where he needs
to most be informed.
The article basically is sickening.
IMHO
Billy
==============================================
Real Clear Politics / WSJ
August 16, 2013
Russell Moore: From Moral Majority to 'Prophetic Minority'
The new leader of the Southern Baptist political arm says Christians have
lost the culture and need to act accordingly.
By
* NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
'The Bible Belt is collapsing," says Russell Moore. Oddly, the incoming
president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty
Commission doesn't seem upset. In a recent visit to The Wall Street Journal,
Mr. Moore explains that he thinks the Bible Belt's decline may be "bad for
America, but it's good for the church."
Why? Because "we are no longer the moral majority. We are a prophetic
minority."
The phrase is arresting coming from such a prominent religious leader—akin
to a general who says the Army has shrunk to the point it can no longer
fight two wars. A youthful 41, Mr. Moore is among the leaders of a new
generation who think that evangelicals need to recognize that their values no
longer define mainstream American culture the way they did 50 or even 20 years
ago.
On gay marriage, abortion, even on basic religious affiliation, the culture
has moved away. So evangelicals need a new way of thinking—a new strategy,
if you will—to attract and keep believers, as well as to influence
American politics.
The easy days of mobilizing a ready-made majority are gone. By "prophetic
minority," he means that Christians must return to the days when they were a
moral example and vanguard—defenders of belief in a larger unbelieving
culture. He views this less as a defeat than as an opportunity.
To illustrate his point, Mr. Moore tells the story about a friend from
college two decades ago, an atheist, who asked for the name of a church that
wasn't very demanding of its congregation. When Mr. Moore inquired why, the
friend said he needed a church to attend because he planned to run for
governor some day. Mr. Moore says the story shows that in the past you had to
join a church even if you had no belief because everyone else belonged. But
today his friend wouldn't feel so obliged because "the idea that to be a
good person, to be a good American, you have to go to church" has largely
disappeared.
Vigorous, cheerful and fiercely articulate, Mr. Moore will take on one of
evangelical America's most prominent jobs when he is officially installed
next month. He succeeds the influential Richard Land, who served in that role
for a quarter of a century. Like his predecessor, Mr. Moore is deeply
knowledgeable about religion, American history and politics. He has been an
ordained pastor and worked as an aide in Congress to former Rep. Gene Taylor
(D., Miss.).
Most recently Mr. Moore was dean of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, where his cultural savvy gained him a following among coreligionists
and the secular media. He is a regular on Twitter and Facebook, with posts
that range from serious theology to self-deprecating jokes: "My toe is
broken. My car is broken down. A lifetime of country music has prepared me for
this." The cover story he wrote for the May issue of Christianity Today was
called "W.W. Jay-Z? How Christian hip-hop could call the American church
back to the gospel—and hip-hop back to its roots."
He is definitely pushing a new tone for this generation of evangelicals.
"This is the end of 'slouching toward Gomorrah,' " he says. Not only is the
doomsaying not winning Christians any popularity contests, but he doesn't
think it's religiously appropriate either. "We were never promised that the
culture would embrace us."
He also questions the political approach of what was once called "the
religious right." Though his boyish looks bring to mind the former Christian
Coalition leader Ralph Reed, Mr. Moore is decidedly not a fan of the "values
voter checklists" the group employs. "There is no Christian position on the
line-item veto," Mr. Moore says. "There is no Christian position on the
balanced-budget amendment."
Which is not to say that Mr. Moore wants evangelicals to "turn inward" and
reject the larger U.S. culture. Rather, he wants to refocus the movement on
serving as a religious example battling in the public square on "three
core issues"—life, marriage and religious liberty.
On protecting the unborn, Mr. Moore says he is a "long-term optimist" but
"a short-term pessimist." He doesn't get excited every time a poll shows
that more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice. He worries that the whole
issue may be changed soon "by technology"—that is, chemically induced
abortions may soon become the norm, with abortion clinics no longer the focal
point of the debate. He also worries that the fight for the unborn has become
a
one-party battle, hardened along a Democrat and Republican divide. "The
letterhead of Democrats for Life," Mr. Moore says, "doesn't include the names
of any current members of Congress."
But he also believes that this battle will not be won in Washington: "You
have to take it to a personal level." He touts the many faith-based
pregnancy crisis centers that not only try to talk women out of having
abortions,
but also help with child-care, job training and housing—"all of the things
that have brought them there in the first place."
Mr. Moore is also deeply involved in the evangelical adoption movement.
Eleven years ago, he and his wife, Maria, adopted two year-old babies, both
boys, from a Russian orphanage. When the couple (who have three other sons)
arrived at the orphanage, he says, they were struck by the "creepy silence"
in a building filled with babies. The children had stopped crying because
they had learned that no one would respond.
In evangelical churches across the U.S., adoption—foreign and domestic—has
become increasingly common. "You don't need a canned adoption ministry
program," Mr. Moore says. As members of the congregation get to know families
who have adopted, the example spreads.
He says the same dynamic has made evangelicals more favorable to
immigration. "The immigration debate has become personalized," he says. "In
the
Midwest and South and Southwest, our churches now have large immigrant
populations. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ." The people in the
pews
"understand we're not going to deport 11 million people without a big
government police state"—something his coreligionists do not want.
Though the Southern Baptist Convention 2011 resolution on immigration
opposed "amnesty," it also says: "The Scriptures call us, in imitation of God
Himself, to show compassion and justice for the sojourner and alien among
us." Mr. Moore notes the importance of keeping families together and says that
"self-deportation is not a solution."
His cultural revival plan is also to focus more on local churches. When the
Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage came down in June, Mr. Moore
sent a message to pastors to help them talk with their congregants about the
Southern Baptist opposition to the law. "We don't hate our gay and lesbian
neighbors," he says, but redefining marriage on their behalf is another
matter.
There are a couple of reasons why Christians are losing the debate over gay
marriage, Mr. Moore says. One is that even many Christians don't have a
real understanding of what marriage is. "We have embraced certain aspects of
the sexual revolution," he says, like the "divorce culture."
Another is that many people assume "my marriage is my business"—why should
they care if their neighbors marry someone of the same sex? Mr. Moore says
the part of the marriage ceremony when the pastor asks if anyone knows of a
reason why the couple should not wed is like a "vestigial organ." No one
ever objects "except in romantic comedies," but there was a time when a
couple's marriage decision was thought to be of church concern. He would like
it to be again.
As a "prophetic minority," Mr. Moore thinks his most profound political
task will be defending religious liberty from the assaults of a secular
government. The cause is at the heart of his plan to fight the contraception
mandate in ObamaCare. President Obama may have thought that religious
employers
would accept being forced to pay for contraception, the morning-after
abortion pill or sterilization under the law. "But we are not adjusting to the
new normal," Mr. Moore avers. "We are not going to go away or back down."
On Aug. 7, Colorado Christian University became the first nonprofit to sue
the Department of Health and Human Services for its "final" rule on the
issue. The HHS rule requires organizations opposed on religious grounds to
specific contraceptives, sterilization or abortion to "designate" a third
party to provide those services.
Mr. Moore sees this as a chance to unite believers of many faiths, and last
month he joined Archbishop William Lori of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops and other religious leaders in writing to Mr. Obama: "The HHS
policy is coercive and puts the administration in the position of defining—or
casting aside—religious doctrine. This should trouble every American."
Mr. Moore says he hopes to make the ObamaCare mandate a major issue in the
2016 election. By then, it will have become clear how intrusive the
health-care law has become, he says, and the American people will side with
religious groups that protest having to act against their beliefs. "The
separation of church and state," Mr. Moore says, "is not a liberal issue."
In this task, he adds, the Baptists are returning to their roots as a
minority at America's founding. He mentions how 17th century Virginia passed a
law requiring that all ministers be ordained by the Anglican church—then the
established church of the colony. Many Baptist preachers were jailed for
resisting the law, which is said to have influenced James Madison's views on
religious liberty.
One of the jailed preachers was the prominent evangelist Jeremiah Moore,
who wrote in 1773: "God himself is the only one to whom man is accountable
for his religious sentiments simply, nor has he erected any tribunal on earth
qualified to judge whether the man worships in an acceptable manner or
not."
History turns, but the fight for religious liberty is eternal. Says another
Moore, 240 years later, "We are not going to go quietly into the night."
--
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