Category Archives: Politics

Making History Again (And Again Nobody Notices)

Last year we featured a trip to Washington by a group of fundy pastors who wandered about, met with a few staffers, sang on the Capitol steps and then congratulated themselves roundly on how they’re changing the course of our nation’s future.

Well…this week they’re back at it again.


(notice the cover of the New Testament this guy is handing out)

…and of course the Internets are full of their tweets

…and again they make a photo op out of singing on steps

…and again it’s a lot more about being seen than actually accomplishing anything.

I’m sure Washington will never be the same.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers

After a slow slip to obscurity following the demise of the Moral Majority, fundamentalism may end up back in the public eye in the coming days as the star Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (Wash.) continues to rise. This scrutiny will not be due to the fact that McMorris Rodgers herself still identifies as a fundamentalist (she is a member of an Evangelical Free Church) but rather because she graduated from my own alma mater, Pensacola Christian College, in 1990. If my own views have had time to change in the last decade I can only imagine that Cathy herself has had the same opportunity for review but the stigma remains.

However, now that Cathy is Chair of the House Republican Conference and recently gave the rebuttal speech to the State of the Union address, the party and the nation seem to be taking an interest in her and with the field for the 2016 Presidential race very sparsely populated it’s not a huge leap to think that we may be seeing a lot more of her in the coming days.

If Cathy McMorris Rodgers does continue dwell in the national spotlight it could lead to two basic outcomes:

1. PCC and colleges will tout this as an example of exactly how fantastic an education they provide. One of our grads made it all the way to sort of near where you can see the top! You can too (if you leave here and then go to University of Washington).

2. A whole lot of folks in the media will start asking the question “What is this movement all about anyway?” That could get interesting in a hurry.

While I am ambivalent about Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s politics in general, I will be nonetheless following her career with some interest. Where she ends up could have wide-reaching influence back to the halls of fundamentalism.

Seventh Day Adventists (As Long As They Hate Obamacare)


(photo by Gage Skidmore)

If there is one word that sums up fundamentalism that word would be “separation.”

They separate over music and over britches on women. They write Ichabod over the door frame of those who would serve real wine with communion and only serve communion to those who come from churches exactly like theirs. They refuse fellowship or even kind words to Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and all other Apostates.

Apparently, however, there is a special exception clause for Seventh Day Adventists who have made public speeches against liberal ideals. Because Crown College has not only invited Dr. Benjamin Carson, renowned physician, speaker, and political conservative to be the headline speaker at their Faithful Men Banquet but sources close to the college inform me that they have also paid him $20,000 for his appearance. That’s quite an investment to bring a man who belongs to a sect that most fundamental Baptists consider to be a cult to speak on “Christian manhood.”

faithfulmen

Has Crown College truly begun to throw open the doors and embrace diversity of thought? Or is this simply more evidence that fundamental politics trumps fundamentalist religion? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Update 1:Dr. Carson’s information has now been removed from the Faithful Men conference website.

Update 2:So the story is now that the “Men’s Banquet” at the college is a COMPLETELY UNRELATED event to the Faithful Men’s Meetings at the church. (even though they happen at the same time and were advertised together). Therefore, one assumes that it’s fine for Dr. Carson to speak at it.