Martin Longman is the web editor of the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. Before joining the Monthly, Martin was a county coordinator for ACORN/Project Vote and a political consultant. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I’ve long thought it a mistake for Democratic politicians not to go out and try to speak to evangelical communities. We’ll continue to differ on issues like abortion but the truth is that they didn’t much care about abortion until it was exploited as a wedge issue by Republicans and early evangelical leaders who saw there was profit to be made by aligning with Republicans. I doubt their leaders can be won over but the respect one shows by engaging in frank dialog would go a distance toward closing the current gulf in support. I don’t see Democrats getting anywhere… Read more »
I agree with you that there is a disdain in the voice of many in the left when referring to evangelicals voters. If we are trying to build a bigger community, we do need to stop doing that. But it goes both ways. If they want respect, maybe they should stop being such hypocritical single issue voters. There is nothing Christian about Trump. The honorable thing to do from their point of view would have been to abstain from voting in 2016. But I truly believe they lack morals. They try to force others to believe in their religion and… Read more »
They are not patriots Booman. They are traitors who support a traitor as president. I am SOOO happy they revealed their ugly selves in support for trump. All those years Democrats would throw liberals under the bus in order to garner favor with these morally elastic fake religious types. After trump goes down, we will NEVER have to listen or cater to those bastards and their fake values again. There is nothing I dislike more than hypocrites. And the evangelicals are the biggest ones on the planet. “Values Voters”. What a bunch of bullshit that was. …. I think I… Read more »
>>The main thing, though, is a strong sense that their beliefs are not respected. Nothing about them is respected, really, and they feel like they can be insulted by anyone without the slightest consequence. nobody can do the “help I’m being opressed!” schtick better than American rightwing “christians”. Hint: I don’t respect them because they don’t respect me. They feel they can insult me without the slightest consequence, and their whole world view is based on hating liberals and liberalism and being convinced that their sick twisted god hates us too. I’d respect the hate more if they weren’t hating… Read more »
Precisely. The giveaway is that they claim the Democrats don’t respect Christians, yet the Christian African American community is basically entirely Democrats. Something tells me it’s not the theology driving this.
I like this piece, but you circle around “parochialism” without landing on it. Because that’s what you describe. People only seeing the world as it exists within very narrowly defined borders. Isolation from neighboring communities, particularly those with different outlooks, racial background, or religious practices.
I think it’s a good idea not to antagonize people, even (or perhaps especially) people with such a radically different outlook, but that’s just a matter of principle. I don’t know how if any political inroads can be made, though. I sincerely doubt it.
Short story. My son had this friend who used to visit us often, and we attended his wedding. He married a young lady from the local evangelical community. That was pretty much the last we saw him. He was a manager at a local coffee house but began preaching non stop at work. He had a large store and they moved him to a small one and warned him about his preaching at work. He continued to preach until he lost his job. He became intolerable to the point where our family has now moved on. He is impossible to… Read more »
I’ve long thought it a mistake for Democratic politicians not to go out and try to speak to evangelical communities. We’ll continue to differ on issues like abortion but the truth is that they didn’t much care about abortion until it was exploited as a wedge issue by Republicans and early evangelical leaders who saw there was profit to be made by aligning with Republicans. I doubt their leaders can be won over but the respect one shows by engaging in frank dialog would go a distance toward closing the current gulf in support. I don’t see Democrats getting anywhere… Read more »
Bernie Sanders did that. He never gets credit for that.
I agree with you that there is a disdain in the voice of many in the left when referring to evangelicals voters. If we are trying to build a bigger community, we do need to stop doing that. But it goes both ways. If they want respect, maybe they should stop being such hypocritical single issue voters. There is nothing Christian about Trump. The honorable thing to do from their point of view would have been to abstain from voting in 2016. But I truly believe they lack morals. They try to force others to believe in their religion and… Read more »
They are not patriots Booman. They are traitors who support a traitor as president. I am SOOO happy they revealed their ugly selves in support for trump. All those years Democrats would throw liberals under the bus in order to garner favor with these morally elastic fake religious types. After trump goes down, we will NEVER have to listen or cater to those bastards and their fake values again. There is nothing I dislike more than hypocrites. And the evangelicals are the biggest ones on the planet. “Values Voters”. What a bunch of bullshit that was. …. I think I… Read more »
>>The main thing, though, is a strong sense that their beliefs are not respected. Nothing about them is respected, really, and they feel like they can be insulted by anyone without the slightest consequence. nobody can do the “help I’m being opressed!” schtick better than American rightwing “christians”. Hint: I don’t respect them because they don’t respect me. They feel they can insult me without the slightest consequence, and their whole world view is based on hating liberals and liberalism and being convinced that their sick twisted god hates us too. I’d respect the hate more if they weren’t hating… Read more »
Precisely. The giveaway is that they claim the Democrats don’t respect Christians, yet the Christian African American community is basically entirely Democrats. Something tells me it’s not the theology driving this.
I like this piece, but you circle around “parochialism” without landing on it. Because that’s what you describe. People only seeing the world as it exists within very narrowly defined borders. Isolation from neighboring communities, particularly those with different outlooks, racial background, or religious practices.
I think it’s a good idea not to antagonize people, even (or perhaps especially) people with such a radically different outlook, but that’s just a matter of principle. I don’t know how if any political inroads can be made, though. I sincerely doubt it.
Short story. My son had this friend who used to visit us often, and we attended his wedding. He married a young lady from the local evangelical community. That was pretty much the last we saw him. He was a manager at a local coffee house but began preaching non stop at work. He had a large store and they moved him to a small one and warned him about his preaching at work. He continued to preach until he lost his job. He became intolerable to the point where our family has now moved on. He is impossible to… Read more »
Theology and politics aside, in the Covid-19 context, church kills.
Also synagogue & mosque.