Another email:
The problem with Christianism is a theological as well as a political one. The Republican Party is very happy to lock the Evangelicals into being its permanent, hardcore political base. However, one has to look at the reason why Evangelicals are so easily lured by political ambitions.
For me, the reason is clearly arrogance, which is best expressed by the lay clergy of Evangelical Churches. Any person with a big-enough ego and a flair for the stage can be a preacher. Becoming part of the clergy is not a "calling" as it is in non-Evangelical Christianity, it is not a painful, strenuous, humbling personal experience, it’s showbiz. An already big-ego on the preacher’s podium bloats up beyond imagination when adulated by the thousands of church-goers who flock into the mega-churches, and the result is what traditional Christianity calls "exaltation", the preacher loses any sense of proportion and plays God.
Which is why there appears to be no conscientious objection to make unChristian calls of "taking out" foreign leaders, or advertising "God wants you to be rich" workshops between sermons, or calling "godless" all those who are not Evangelicals.
And people like Howard Dean go on Pat Robertson’s show and give him legitimacy. And we’re giving John McCain a hard time!
(Photo of Tom Coburn and James Dobson by John Clanton/Tulsa World/AP.)
The Dish 