Henry Clay: A drinker, a gambler, a raconteur and a damn fine man.
It's a tremendous work of scholarship and has really improved my understanding of the critical years of political development of the American Republic from 1816-1848. But, dude, it's long and dense and I can only find time to read about 15 pages at a sitting and I only have one opportunity a week.
Anyway, I was reading about the rise of the Whig Party. The Whig are the temporal ancestors of Lincoln and Seward's Republican party, but the spiritual forbearers of FDR's Democratic party. They believed in the supremacy of the federal government over the state governments, the improvement of infrastructure through a national program of public spending, a central banking system to regulate the currency... you know: modernity. The Democratic party stood for state's rights and white supremacy mostly. Whigs did best where people could and did read more.
Are you getting the culture war vibe here?
But interestingly, one group that consistently supported the Whigs were evangelical Christians. During the Second Great Awakening, evangelicals believed that they were embarked on a great crusade to purify and improve the earth for Christ's impending return. To the evangelicals, building a better world was a Christian imperative.
I understand why many evangelical Christians oppose abortion. And therefore, I can see why they would support the modern party that is opposed to abortions.
But there is more to morality than abortions.
Why has the modern evangelical movement - with some exceptions - abandoned any common cause with the environmental movement? Why has the modern evangelical movement - with some exceptions - abandoned common cause with those advocating for the poor? Why has the modern evangelical movement - with some exceptions - abandoned common cause with peace advocates?
Ultimately, Jesus's message was about the commonality of God's grace. Anyone can be saved who asks for salvation. It is a profoundly egalitarian message. And if the Kingdom of God is all around us, shouldn't we take better care of it?
I support abortion rights, but I wish like hell the issue just went away. I wish that every woman in America and her sexual partner were able to insure that every pregnancy was planned, if for no other reason than to make the issue of ending pregnancies via abortion just go away.
It would strip bare the fallacy of the alliance between those who advocate for a more Christian world and those who advocate for giving more wealth to the wealthy, often at the expense of the poor, the powerless and the planet.
You know, the Blessed Meek.
It might also expose the hypocrisy at the nexus of those who oppose abortion rights because they believe the fetus has a soul and those who oppose abortion rights because they want women to "pay" for having sex. There is an unspoken gulf between those obsessing over the morality of abortion and the morality of consensual extra-marital sex. Yes, Pope Panzerfaust, I'm looking at you.
There will always be God Botherers among us, taking away our booze and advocating chastity. Nothing will get rid of those people, ever.
But there was a time, when some Americans saw their religious duty as uplifting the country as a whole. It would be nice to get back to that time.
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