Letter to the Editor

First Things, Dec 2006

Sent 28 Dec 2006 in response to Jan 2007 issue, not published

Thoughts on Public Christianity and Liberalism

Dear FT editor,

Thanks for your excellent magazine. I noticed an irony while reading the 21rst paragraph of the 'While We're At It' section (Jan 07 issue). David Barton visited my church a few years back and I admire his work (i.e. reminding America of her Christian roots). Kurt Peterson (and RJN apparently) criticizes Barton and others for investing too much hope in government. "Without a robust theology of the church, Barton has no place to go but to the state to find the venue where Christians can act out their public commitments. When Christians engage the powers of this world, they properly do so not as a voting bloc but as the eternal community of God's called-out ones - the church of Jesus Christ. Absent the church, which forms Christians into committed disciples, Barton, along with many American evangelicals, have turned to politics as the truest expression of Christian commitment." The irony is that weak (disempowered, privatized, disestablished, marginalized, etc., which liberals love) church organizations in America have led to increasingly politicized American Christians (which liberals hate and fear). Perhaps the 'religious right' is to some extent the unintended result of liberal enervation of Christian churches and (RJN's 'Naked Public Square' thesis) that it would be healthier to allow church organizations a larger role in the public square! This is probably a corollary of the political rule that views which are supressed in the political arena will re-emerge in more extreme forms.

Keep up the great work!

Steven P. Sawyer