Here is Kelsey Dallas at Deseret News:
As a prominent religion scholar and practicing Christian, Richard Mouw is often asked to explain people of faith’s behavior in the public square.
More specifically, he is asked why his fellow evangelicals seem so mean, especially compared to other religious voters.
“A couple months ago, I was interviewed by a journalist … who asked, ‘Why is it that (Latter-day Saints) in public life are a lot nicer than evangelicals?’” Mouw recounted during a Nov. 4 Trinity Forum event titled “How To Be a Patriotic Christian.”
He told event participants the same thing he told the journalist: that evangelical Christians lash out due to anxiety about religious and political change. In the past, evangelical Christians had more power than they do today.
“We evangelical types, we once felt like we owned the table. We got to decide who got in. … Today, they took the table away from us. They, meaning the secularists and others. We don’t own the table anymore,” said Mouw, who is president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary.
Other faith groups are less sensitive about recent shifts because they’re used to fighting for their voice to be heard, he added.
“Mormons have never owned the table. They’re content just to be a part of the table. Just to be there,” Mouw said, noting that he came to the same conclusion recently after meeting with a Jewish and Muslim leader.
Read the rest here.
But when did this happen?
Wasn’t it back in the 1970s, when countercultural values and licentious habits spread across America after being hatched in a couple of discreet petri dishes on the coasts? That’s fifty years ago.
Or was it the 1920s, when evangelicals woke up to find America laughing at them? Or was it earlier, when the flood of immigrants came pouring in diluting America’s Protestant character?
Maybe with the Constitution, rather–no religious tests, no mention of God, Jesus, or the Bible?
Or was it even earlier, when Massachusetts Bay had its charter yanked away, and it was no longer able to maintain its original theocratic vision?
I find the logic of this explanation compelling. What I don’t quite grasp is the precise mechanism by which it works itself out in time.
I agree – Evangelicals believe they are apex predators and attempting to take food away from an apex will result in a fight. Other groups are more like coyotes in my analogy and are happy for their small realms of influence. If we want to keep this analogy going Evangelicals like to be associated with the Lion from the tribe of Judah, but turn away from the next verse and ignore the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain. But my analogy has many problems and many small exceptions to the rule.
John: As I see it, the short answer to all of your question is “yes.”
In my Christian lifetime it was Jerry Falwell Seniors, Moral Majority. He and his political organization planted the seeds of Dominionism, among Evangelicals. All you need to do today is look around at the number of (once) Christian organizations which are now more political then Christian. When I say political I’m really saying Republican.
Pretty sure I’m in a minority, but my belief is Church and State should remain separate. But I think that Train already left the Station. Falwell played a big part in that.