Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes what many evangelicals already suspected:
“At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make a pejorative comment about Barack Obama’s race or Hillary Clinton’s sex. Yet it would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee’s religious faith.
“Liberals believe deeply in tolerance and over the last century have led the battles against prejudices of all kinds, but we have a blind spot about Christian evangelicals. They constitute one of the few minorities that, on the American coasts or university campuses, it remains fashionable to mock.”
Kristof goes on to praise evangelicals for their work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur. It’s an unusually upbeat take on evangelicals. You can read the rest here:
“Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love” – by Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times)
11 Comments
Bryan L
What about the fact that people mock Romney’s faith and some even insinuate that he must be stupid for being a Mormon. People discredit Obama by trying to link him to Islam or by calling his church’s values into question. And these are Evangelicals that do this? What’s the difference? Are those somehow acceptable?
It’s not like Evangelicals are the only persecuted or mocked group. They even do it to others. Maybe liberals like to target evangelical Christians but evangelicals do it back and use “liberal” (and other terms like “feminist”) as a pejorative name.
Just something to consider.
Quixote
Reading the enire article, I noticed that Kristof applauds evangelicals only when they embrace the ideals that he does. He praises them insofar as they’ve “come around to his way of thinking.” He still mocks and scorns them when they clash with his beliefs on issues, which is a typical example of liberal “open-mindedness”: open until the clash, then slammed shut…tolerant of just about everything except a conservative Christian who doesn’t believe they same way he does.
Quixote
*entire* not “enire”
mike
Bryan L,
You have brought up some good points. In order to better understand your question though, I would like to know where you stand on Islam and Mormonism. Do you believe that they will share in the kingdom of God? The reason that I ask, and I may be wrong, is because it seems that you believe they will share in the kingdom of God.
mike
Brett
Evangelicals really look prideful, judgmental, and condemning when we bash these religions (especially publicly). There are many devout followers of these religions who honestly believe what they’re doing is right. I am not promoting universalism or inclusivism, but I think it’s shameful to wag our finger in other’s faces and say they’re going to burn in hell unless they convert as if we delight in the thought that they will perish unless they follow Christ.
I would call myself an exclusivist, but an optimistic exclusivist. I don’t necessarily believe that these people will share in the kingdom of God with Christians, but I’m not sure if I can say they’re all going to burn in hell for eternity either. I know you all will be critical of that statement, but we need to look behind statements like these and see that a genuine love for people drives these thoughts. If you all take pride in the fact that you’re “chosen” and that others of different faiths will burn in hell, then you need a paradigm shift.
Bryan L
Mike,
I really don’t see the relevance of what I believe about Muslims and Mormons or any other religion for that matter. Are you saying in one case it is ok or even fashionable to mock others because of their religious beliefs and in other cases it’s not?
Bryan
Paul
Quioxte writes…
“Reading the enire article, I noticed that Kristof applauds evangelicals only when they embrace the ideals that he does. He praises them insofar as they’ve “come around to his way of thinking.†He still mocks and scorns them when they clash with his beliefs on issues, which is a typical example of liberal “open-mindednessâ€: open until the clash, then slammed shut…tolerant of just about everything except a conservative Christian who doesn’t believe they same way he does.”
Dude, I’ll mock ANYONE (Christian or not) who doesn’t think that we should be doing more to eradicate poverty, illness, war.
sorry.
Kyle
Mike…
I’m not sure it really matters what one thinks about the place a Mormon or a Muslim will have in the Kingdom. The issue is whether or not one is hypocritical when dealing with criticism and ridicule. Aren’t there things about Evangelicalism that should be ridiculed?
kb
Kyle
That’s funny. My page hadn’t refreshed yet so I’m saying exactly what Bryan said. And now I’m taking up another comment.
mike
Im just asking the question and hoping for an answer.
Bryan L
Sorry Mike but I don’t think it’s relevant to the conversation. It seems like Evangelicals want to cry and complain when people mock or make fun of them because they are Evangelicals but then it’s ok for them to turn around and do it to others. It’s a double standard. Either it’s ok or it isn’t.
Bryan