Comments on: “Paleo-Evangelicals” and American Civil Religion

By: If You Are Still Thinking About This Election – A Testimony | Article VI Blog | John Schroeder

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 14:17:26 +0000

[...] grossly errant is wrong. And finally there is the group we first learned of yesterday, the “Paleo-Evangelical“: In Kidd’s definition on the Anxious Bench blog, paleo-evangelicals are Evangelicals who [...]

By: Who Are the Paleo Evangelicals?

Who Are the Paleo Evangelicals? — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:44:18 +0000

[...] exist. I certainly would be close to this camp. Picking up on his ideas, Bart Gingrich and Anna Williams see paleos as being more prevalent among younger people. I hope they are [...]

By: Jake Meador

Jake Meador — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:45:54 +0000

Interesting discussion, though I do think that the paleo-evangelical label is misleading. The true faultline at this point in evangelical political discourse isn’t religious right v. paleo-evangelical. It’s two kingdom vs. transformationalist. But both those groups can agree that American exceptionalism is a generally unhelpful concept, that the GOP is pretty poor themselves at this point, etc.

I raise that point b/c you could sit DG Hart and Peter Leithart down and ask them about exceptionalism or the GOP and they’d probably sound very similar. But start fleshing out the specifics of how the church ought to relate to the state and those similarities will break down pretty quick, I suspect.

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:48:37 +0000

Every younger generation is “disenchanted” with the political system because they have a unrealistic view of what a “political” system can accomplish through “temporal” means instead of ‘spiritual” means – the changing of a person’s heart by Jesus.
The great thing about America is that you can be a Christian without interference by the government which allows for different “doctrinal” distinctions between religious groups but there is a basic Christianity that binds us together, e.g. Manhattan Declaration, for which we can have honest open discussions on what a government should do and what “we as Christians” should do.

Let’s have that discussion without rancor or the accusatory “that is not Christian” insult (e.g. immigration).

When a person compares our ability as Christians to function unimpeded by the government, that is a further example why this nation is great and why the current HHS mandate is insidious to all of us Christians.

America is not the hope of the world, Jesus is – but take into consideration we may be the vessels he uses here until he triumphant return.
Be strong, disenchant brings disillusionment which brings despair. We should not despair; Jesus say be of good cheer for I have overcome this world. John 16:33.

God Bless.