Joe Carter offers a scathing rebuke of Randall Balmer’s recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s a partial outline of Carter’s analysis:
1. Balmer claims to be an evangelical is suspect because, to him, religion is essentially a private matter and imposes no particular constraint from tradition, the historic church, or the Bible.
2. Balmer suggests that evangelicals oppose abortion and homosexuality simply because of their allegiance to the GOP. This is silly, since their is ample biblical data on both matters.
3. Balmer claims the best way to limit abortion is through moral, not legal, means, failing to recognize that (a) making abortion illegal would limit the number of procedures (b) pursuing one avenue does not preclude the other. It is unlikely that Balmer would want slavery to remain legal, but highly discouraged.
4. Balmer attacks only the GOP and offers no critique of the Democratic party, even though the latter tends to support abortion-on-demand as an unquestionable constitutional right.
Key quote:
In fact, this is the greatest weakness of Balmer’s entire essay. He wants to argue that conservative Christians should stay out of politics because religious informed political positions have no place in a pluralistic society. His main premise is that since conservative evangelicals (at least their “leaders”) are all theocrats that they must stay out of politics altogether. But the implication is that it is acceptable for liberal evangelicals like him—who would never allow their religious beliefs to interfere with their party’s platform—to run for office since they vote for morally superior Democrats and not the “blasphemous” Republicans.
Conclusion:
While both parties have their strengths and their weaknesses, their positions are not equally compatible with either God’s command or his creational norms. While we should never usurp the power of the state to impose our religious views, we must be good stewards of our responsibilities. As citizens of a democracy, that requires using our vote and influence to support policies and laws–whether aligned with Democrats or Republicans–that we believe are best for our nation.
It is a great article!