I don't know what effect evangelical religion has on politics, and I've never seen any argument of the question that doesn't boil down to a sort of maundering literary criticism which reads from the existence of texts to the existence of 10s of millions of separate individuals and their actions.
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Hmmm. What an odd thing to say.
There's so much evidence of the evangelical effect on politics you have to cover your ears and close your eyes while singing nyah, nyah, nyah to avoid it.
I'll leave it to others who're comfortable with stats and pie charts to crunch the numbers showing growing influence over time. The anecdotal evidence is sufficient for me.
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Every Sunday, perhaps as an unconscious attempt to atone for my past misdeeds (including the pool cue upside Vargas' head during drunken brawl incident of '98), I spend an hour or two watching religious programming.
Of course, it all starts with friendly, sunshiny Jesus chat. Often a miracle is the anchor point of the sermon -- 'Jesus fed the multitude with loaves and fishes, can't we spare some time for the shut-ins amongst us?'
It's not long however before the "homosexual agenda", "liberal media" and other fantastic creatures become the dominant theme. From there, it's an easy holy water slide to appeals for money to further the Christian response to these evils by lobbying our um, representatives in Washington.
The progression -- from the Jesus moment to the "secular humanist" bashing moment to requests for political action and capital support -- is as reliable as my reaction to seeing Lindsey Lohan in hip hugging jeans.
And let me tell you, that's pretty damn reliable.
Yes sir; the effect is quite real and I imagine already measured by keen observers of such things. We only need to look.
.d.
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