Joseph F. Cotto: Over the last several years, America has become far more secular. Nonetheless, fundamentalist Christianity has seen a considerable rise in popularity. Can this paradox be explained? Frank Schaeffer: It seems to me that America has not become more secular. Rather the evangelical majority – and most statistics point to it being the single largest identifiable voting block – has been behaving in ways that mark its behavior as more secular. For instance, look at divorce statistics and you’ll discover the fact that in bastions of evangelical “conservatism” behavior does not match rhetoric. Exacerbating the confusion between secular and the religious is the fact that American evangelicals maintain their persuasive force by portraying themselves as a minority in opposition to the rest of society. Call this the psychology of “victimhood.” The apparent “secularization” of religious arguments in the public sphere can be understood as part of a rhetorical strategy to be “with it.” In other words the strategy is to use secular “tools” like elements of pop culture in order to communicate a gospel message. Read more: communities.washingtontimes/neighborhood/conscience-realist/2012/aug/13/frank-schaeffer-how-religious-right-went-wrong/#ixzz2WXX8hND2 Follow us: @wtcommunities on Twitter
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:44:14 +0000
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