God Against Obama: Dobson, Osteen, Corsi, the Evangelicals Strike Again

Evangelicals have a problem: they want to involve themselves in politics -- for instance by praying that the Obama speech at the Democratic convention is rained out, as James Dobson of Focus On the Family called for. Some evangelicals are embarrassed by such antics. What can they do? Nothing because their theology acknowledges no central authority. Evangelicals don't "do" structure. They don't do government, or bishops or tradition. They just do "me" and "I" never we. So their individualistic and narcissistic village idiots-Dobson, Robertson, Osteen etc.-are in charge by default.

The whole point of Evangelical Christianity is a consumerist-oriented do your own thing approach to Jesus. This is a departure from historical Christianity centered on a liturgical tradition that had to do with faith lived in community and beliefs defined by tradition, not the individual pastor standing in front of the congregation holding forth according to whim. But evangelical "worship" is nothing but grandstanding. It's all about the sermon and the pastor's personality. I know. I was once one such "personality," Evangelical big-time flash-in-the-pan leader egomaniac, until I got out in the mid 80s.

Evangelicals reject all traditions and structures, other than their very own personalized interpretation of the Bible, so there is no there, there to appeal to. Evangelicals can't police themselves or call one of their own a nut for the same reason that the village idiot smearing himself with excrement can't point the finger at another idiot wearing his pants on his head and call him crazy. Each has a "personal relationship with Jesus." So maybe Jesus told that guy to put his pants on his head!

Evangelicals get direct messages from God. So who needs tradition, let alone government? That is why Evangelicals are opposed to all structure. They hate government, and they hate the idea of bishops telling them what it means to be a Christian. They hate the idea of health care for all that might involve someone (other than voices in their heads) telling them what to do. And they want the "right" to own guns, raise kids on myths and own that SUV and believe that more drilling for oil will bring down the price of gas. They also want God to speak directly to them, never mind a community of faith. And God seems to tell them weird stuff. So today's crazy person is tomorrow's best selling Rick Warren or Victoria and Joel Osteen. And how can they be crazy? Look how big their churches are! They measure up to the only real Evangelical creed-the ability to make money and be successful in commercial terms.

Evangelicalism is a series of personality cults masquerading as religion. (As I demonstrate in detail in my book CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All -- Or Almost All--Of It Back.) That's because Evangelicals say they believe in "sola scriptura" in other words the Bible only. That works out fine until they start arguing about biblical interpretation. Each pastor and individual becomes their own pope. That turns pastors into nothing but glorified entertainers, wherein the hottest ones pull the biggest congregations. Success-measured in attendance and dollars-becomes the metaphor for spiritual wisdom. Dobson rakes in millions, so God must be on his side! Joel and Victoria Osteen have 40,000 members of their Houston "church" so they must be sane, even if co-pastor Victoria allegedly assaulted a flight attendant over a spilled drink and paid the fine to make the incident "go away."

The Historic Church by contrast never held the Bible up as a magic book that could solve all your problems but rather regarded the Bible as just one element of a liturgical tradition based on community, worship and participation. It never was about the hyped-up spoken word in the mouths of hyped-up "personalities," it was about community. It never was about grandstanding entertainment, but about a liturgy that was the same wherever you went within Christendom; up until the church split in 1054, into Western and Eastern churches and then the later fracturing of the Reformation followed by the era of Protestant chaos and lastly American-style Evangelical every-man-for-himself insanity.

So ... when some fruitcake like a James Dobson comes along and his organization calls for rainmaking to spoil the Obama speech, or the egomaniacal cult leader Victoria Osteen co-pastor of the biggest mega sect in Houston, allegedly assaults an airline flight attendant, there's not much other Evangelicals can do who are embarrassed by their pet-buffoon-of-the-moment, other than to wring their hands. That's because Evangelicalism is really just another version of American individualism and the entertainment industry wherein "freedom" is interpreted as the right to be a consumer and choose one's favorite products from ski mobiles, jet skis, a trip to the Bahamas, a new-car or joining a the local mega church of the moment. Victoria Osteen today, Rick Warren yesterday, whatever wanders in tomorrow, with a book deal and nice way of talking.

Evangelicals can't criticize other Evangelicals' idiocy. After all with a few exceptions, they are all waiting for Spaceship Jesus to take them away, have declared evolution a lie, are anti-culture, art and life, and don't believe in global warming, are still saying that Iraq was behind 9/11, and want to attack Iran with what is left of our overstretched military that their born-again, Evangelical Low IQ frat-boy in the White House systematically has put at risk.

Since the Evangelical right wing movement cannot speak with a prophetic (let alone single) voice, because it has become the consumer/entertainment culture, it's left with turning itself into a public joke and/or nuisance much as a spoiled three-year-old at a birthday party will insist on getting attention by throwing pieces a birthday cake across the room. So Evangelicals have played spoiler and (with a few notable exceptions such as Richard Cizik) led the charge against the environmental movement, against doing anything about global warming, against reforming health care, against caring for our military and now against Senator Obama. They are the people turning the anti-Obama screed Obama Nation into a national best seller, and never mind it's by the same proven opportunistic "Swift Boat" liar -- Jerome R. Corsi -- who was totally discredited for his lies in the hatchet hate job he did on John Kerry.

The Evangelicals are accustomed to supporting liars. They supported George W. Bush again and again because he played footsie with them on abortion, Jesus, and gays. And now most Evangelicals are out to stop Obama, America's best chance for a fresh start in a world grown understandably sick of us.

The Evangelical mask is wearing thin. Sure, there are some Evangelicals who want change but for the most part the fools that put George W. Bush in the White House are now reduced to trying to get Jesus to rain out Obama. That's because they have no answer for the America they have betrayed.

Evangelicals are reduced to throwing fistfuls of "cake" instead of answering uncomfortable questions such as: why have you Evangelicals supported the torture of prisoners of war? And why have you Evangelicals led the charge on defending a rape-the-earth Republican Party in hock to the oil companies?

With no answers, better to just try and rain on the other guy's parade.

Frank Schaeffer is coauthor of HOW FREE PEOPLE MOVE MOUNTAINS-A Male Christian Conservative and a Female Jewish Liberal On A Quest For Common Purpose and Meaning. He is also author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back

Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer

Comments

[tcagle]

These are also rabid racists, from my exposure to them.

[retmarut]

Good for you! Lots of terrific insights! I wish you could appear on Larry King Live instead of Dobson and the other self-appointed spokespeople for Christianity.

Try submitting a piece to "On Faith" at the Washington Post, if you haven't done so already.

More Americans need to hear what you have to say!

[lewes17266]

I think our media likes to be entertained. Our media does not have enough respect for people of faith to make a genuine effort to find a reputable representative. They continue going to CBN for convenience. It does not matter that the head of CBN, Pat Robertson, has said that God sends storms and terrorists, is a self-proclaimed holy prophet of God, and claims to be able to legpress 2,000 pounds. Our media is happy to give the power hungry, greedy egomaniacs the attention they so crave.

[dpiyjrtmfr]

Thank you sir for this editorial. I like being forced to think and your writing has given me much to think about.

[Freesia2]

That was a great read and answered some questions I've had about that group.

But you know something Mr. Schaeffer? There is hope. I've been hearing about it in 2 directions here and there. Young "evangelicals" who look at this war and other things that don't fit the message of Christ and given the choice of walking in Christ's footsteps or joining a Dobson in his rain dance, they're starting some baby steps in the right direction.

And there seems to be a joining of people of faith with environmentalists. Their motivations may be different, but the end result is still good and they're finding common ground. My point being that people of faith are looking more to a world outside the airless environment of the Bush/oil drilling polluters on Dobson's speed dial.

Obama's going to need all the help he can get. But articles like this help us all understand what we're dealing with. Keep churning them out.

(I cannot wait til Nov. 4. This election has brought out the crazies.)

[DougNTexas]

The tip top of the evangelist Preacher's make tons of money from books,music, and big numbers of Church attendance @ their Church's. Thus being rich, that makes them automatically more likely to be a Republican. When You take your eye off the mark which is Christ and change the mark to money all is lost. All you have to do is go to the web sites of the super preachers of the day and it's all about money. Hal Lindsay,Grant Jeffery,Ken Dobson, etc. etc. you name him.

[larstein]

Schaeffer's calling Evangelical Christianity a "mask" is dead on the money. These are people who believe in being "nice." The Bible is their cloak. One can justify all zenophobic behavior with it, make it say anything one wants it to say. Jesus is a Scots-Irish mountain man, slavery is Biblically correct. Strike the heart of some Evangelicals and you will find unreconstructed Confederates, racist, bitter, and filled with a prideful rage that afflicts those who have remade God in their own distorted image.

The anger Schaeffer cannot hide is that of one who was spiritually raped and is now seeing that world for what it really is. Evangelicals have made idols out of the Bible, of Jesus, and the image of God itself, and their idol worship is an outrage to the spirit. The shallow ideology that turns Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, into something like a bar of soap, that makes religion into a business where the product is your church's preferred form of brainwashing, and reduces your own life to that of a pitchman, is degrading and humiliating. Sadly, the spell many Evangelicals are under encourages an us-against­-the-world type of solidarity with other true believers: a deeply troubling deception.

[murphysgirl]

For people of faith that have a large following to stoop to this level is quite disturbing­.. To my knowledge there's no scripture in the Bible that condones this type of behavior.

[Johnagain]

Excellent and brutal indictment of the evangelical movement in America. Keep kicking these kooks in the head. They are a scourge on civilization.

[Herrington]

So the chance of rain in Denver in August is mighty low. But if it does rain, Wooooo Haaa, we have a certified evangelical miracle maker. If it doesn't, back to the admonishing the faint of faith and blaming the Devil liberals.

But America is not a cult of personality. At least it was not founded that way. George Washington declined to be King. In that single act, he is and always will be the greatest of all Americans.

Schaeffer, you grow in every post you make here. Some of us spent less time dispensing with religious entrapments than you, but then few of us now can speak with your authority and total x-ray vision of the workings of the religiotainment industry, nor did we have the temptations profferred to you. Keep up the excellent work and be aware that you are needed by both sides of the issue.

[maying]

I'm a Catholic and I make no excuses for all the atrocities the Catholic Church have committed throughout the centuries. I also went to a Catholic school (Kindergarten to College) run by Jesuits. One thing I can say about the education I received was the emphasis on free will. Our teachers (both priests & secular) allowed us to disagree with their views and opinions. We were free to question anything and everything. The only caveat was for us to question in an articulate, intelligent and respectful manner. Religion is not a bad thing. It only becomes vile when we use it as an excuse to belittle others just because we do not agree with their life choices.

[researcher]

without free will the religious folks dont have a stance

our will is not free but peppered with unawareness ok ignorance

without this unawareness there is no us ie perceived individual identities

so easy to state so difficult to discover

choices within boundries may be a better concept than free will

only ignorance gives us separate identities

bet your church never taught that to you

no book in the world teaches that

too dangerous to teach or discover

[DayoftheLiberal]

Obstructing stem cell research and prolonging suffering of the living is vile.

[anelder]

So much sense you make to this traditional although still questioning, in my seventies, Christian.

If these fundamentalists made up the 20 to 30 percent who still wave the flag of Bush than okay, I get it. But I doubt it, what I find so perplexing is that at least a large portion, 25 to 15 percent, are still not getting the alarming picture of our future with McCain. A continuation of the same. Some contend no, there's a difference, and therein I see a huge disconnect. Any way you look at it if we re-elect a republican adminstration the strategy of the last eight years will be considered valid and hence continued. Imagine McCain being allowed to continue the royal presidency.

Something happens to some of us when we continue to win. We beleive in our infallibility. I think the Edwards comment of narcisism taking hold is the best answer.

[Zhonni]

Mr Schaeffer, you are the man!

I meant to write a longer effusive response but decided to go with the simplest of terms that still gets the job done.

[bayside]

alrighty then ..........­.......Let us... pray for a beautiful day..Bet there are more of us .

[Bobrobert]

Oh yee of little faith.

:-)

[luziannagirl]

Bobr, your quip "Oh ye of little faith" is nonetheless an apt description of right-wing evangelicals.

When it comes down to it, faith just won't do for them. These evangelicals need proof that God/Jesus exists ("intelligent design").

They need divine hand-holding that they'll go to Heaven when they die (We're "saved", but everyone else is damned).

And they need to know what hoops to jump through to make the grade (hastening Biblical prophesy & the battle of Armegeddon, supporting Israel at all costs, opposing abortion and stem cell research., who to vote for and who to oppose...)

Faith will never be enough for this crowd of Doubting Thomases.

[TomR]

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Evangelicals are reduced to throwing fistfuls of "cake" instead of answering uncomfortable questions such as: why have you Evangelicals supported the torture of prisoners of war? And why have you Evangelicals led the charge on defending a rape-the-earth Republican Party in hock to the oil companies?
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And let's not forget about the purple heart bandaids they wore at the 2004 Republican convention to mock a war hero. Ignorance + Arrogance = Shamelessness

- Tom