Evangelical Christians vrs. Genocide, Poverty, Polluters, and Wal-Mart!?!?!

Ave Maria...Salve Regina...the world is a changing. So, I was on the elipitical machine the other day reading Newsweek or Time from just after the election. The theme of the issue was the new evangelicals. It seems that the whole Superchurch Pastor Ted Haggert being outed as a party boy power bottom has caused new light and attention to be shone on the evangelical movement in the United States, and there are some really interesting happenings going on.

The article talked about how many evangelicals are trying very hard to distance themselves from the Jerry Fallwell's and Pat Robertson's of the world. They are no less conservative on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage (although I guess the parishioners at one mega church in Missouri aren't necessarily anti-gay marriage as a flock), but they are down right progressive when it comes to working to end genocide in Darfur, advocating for a liveable wage, demanding stronger environmental protections, battling sexism, and the latest news is that a coalition of evangelical churchs across the South have started a boycott and TV ad campaign against Wal-Mart basically saying that Jesus wouldn't shop there, so we shouldn't either.

This is all sort of freaking me out. From a Biblical standpoint these progressive stances make total sense...but I'm not used to my evangelical brothers and sisters making sense. I'm used to seeing them rabid and foaming at the mouth chewing on chain link fences surrounding the local abortion clinic or boycotting the funeral of a murdered tranny. What happens when your "enemy" around one part of your identity is an "ally" on many others? I'm really curious as to how this new wave of selective progressivism in the evangelical community is going to play out? Will there be a separate Christian Environmental movement? Or will traditional progressives and evangelical progressives find a way to form coalitions to work on certain issues without identity conflicts causing a melt down. What happens when you show up at a Wal-Mart boycott and someone in the crowd is wearing a Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve t-shirt? Or when you recognize the person sitting next to you at a community meeting with city council members to pass a liveable wage ordinance as the local screamin' preacher that was just railing against a woman's right to choose on the six-o-clock news the night before?

In the past the left and the religious right have rarely come together on any issue, but the effectiveness of some of the work that evangelical center-right is doing should be broadly supported. I think this is an opportunity to open channels of communications across the political spectrum...but the communication is going to have to be done in such a way as not to explode any of the landmines that are the paving stones along the path that both sides will be walking.