Christian Fundamentalism and Politics

There's a lot of talk in this election about the role that religious belief plays in politics. It's producing some awkward commentary. And even to frame the issue as "religion and politics" is a wide-open invitation for everyone to read their own personal preferences into others' opinions and actions.

The Baptist theologian Harvey Cox had some valuable things to say about the general topic in Religion and the Secular City (1984). Including these observations about the limitations of Christian fundamentalism as a vehicle for rightwing politics:

[D]espite their numbers, fundamentalists have not played as influential a role in American public life as one might imagine. Not yet, anyway.

There are two reasons for this impotence. One is that fundamentalists are notoriously quarrelsome and internally divisive. They are "come outers" who tend to resolve disputes by splitting and separating. [In this way, one might say they are hyper-Protestant.] Their insistence on absolute doctrinal conformity and their sharp distrust of any authoritative hierarchy has led fundamentalist leaders into an acrimonious history of mutual condemnation and founding of new churches. Churches have split and new congregations formed as pastors argued over whether Christ will come again before or after the great tribulation, or just when the "Rapture" - the miraculous lifting of all living true believers off the earth and into heaven - will take place. (This fundamentalist belief explains a bumper sticker that some people find puzzling: "Warning: in case of the Rapture this vehicle will be empty.")

In addition to its tendencies toward splitting, fundamentalism has certain theological features that have led it to a posture of withdrawal and a suspicion of those who try to influence society. One is its imminent eschatology. If Jesus is indeed coming soon, then why bother? Every minute not devoted to reaching lost souls (who will be left behind by the Rapture and then go to hell if they do not repent) is a minute wasted - and a soul lost for eternity. The logic of Jesus-is-coming-soon theology is not that of long-range planning or of ameliorating stubborn social ills.