Liberal Democracy

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Friday, July 31, 2015

The Federalist: 'Remember The Moral Majority? Russell Moore Says It’s Over'

Source:The Federalist- A church located in the heartland of America?
Source:The New Democrat

"At this moment, the next Saint Augustine may be marching at the head of a Gay Pride Day parade and the future Mother Teresa might be operating a Planned Parenthood clinic. It’s for this reason that Dr. Russell Moore encourages Christians to see their political opponents not as enemies but “as future brothers and sisters.”

On today’s episode of the Federalist Radio Hour, this President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission discuss his new book, “Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel.” He at once declares the end of the Moral Majority and his new reasons for hope."

From The Federalist

"As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that we are a Moral Majority. That may be bad news for America, but it can be good news for the church. What’s needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it it’s power in the first place.

We seek the kingdom of God, before everything else. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonize opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let’s do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.

The signs of the times tell us we are in for days our parents and grandparents never knew. But that’s no call for panic or surrender or outrage. Jesus is alive. Let’s act like it. Let’s follow him, onward to the future."

Source:B&H Publishing Group- with Dr. Russell Moore.
From B&H Publishing Group

I hope the Moral Majority as a movement at least in the sense that it has any real political power outside of the Republican Party is essentially over and done with. It is a movement that still sees America in the year 1955 even as the country is now sixty-years old and has simply developed and moved on.

Americans, tend to like their freedom and to be able to live their own lives. And generally now especially with younger Americans even in the Bible Belt, don’t have issues with things like multiculturalism and racial and ethnic diversity, homosexuality, women working out of the home, pre-marital sex, domestic partnerships, (that even produce children) immigration, gambling pornography and I could go on, but I’ll save you from that.

But the issues that the Moral Majority has fought against at least since the 1960s and have even wanted government to get involved in and regulating with how consenting adults live their own lives, are now mainstream with Americans who aren't old enough to be Baby Boomers and in many cases are Baby Boomers. Americans tend to progress and move on. And tend not to get stuck in some time where some Americans view that period as their Utopia.

What you may see now with whatever is left of the Moral Majority is a movement that tries to bring people to them. But leaves government out and tells people this is the best and moral way to live based on their religious values. And try to get people to adopt their way of life and lifestyle. But stop trying to get government to pass their values into law. And to educate people about what their movement is about.

I think the Christian-Right movement are even realizing now and Russell Moore is an example of this that they no longer have much support outside of the Republican Party and have even lost support inside of the Republican Party. With the growing conservative libertarian movement that is made up of a lot of young Republicans now.