At CPAC, Matt Margolis, LaShawn Barber and I talked a bit about evangelical Christianity and political conservatism.
Matt has a post up today about the upcoming GodBlogCon and he asks a good question:
While I’m sure the intent is not to be a congregation of conservative bloggers, I would guess they’ll represent a large portion of the attendees. SmartChristian Blog refers to it “The first ever Christian Blogosphere Convention”So why isn’t it called ChristianBloggerCon or ChristBlogCon or some variation thereof? As a conservative Jewish blogger, I find it troubling that conservatives have trademarked “God” as Christian.
It’s not that I’m offended, I just feel that if it’s going to be called “GodBlogCon’” any blogger who believes in a higher power and who blogs about their faith—whatever it is—should not feel as if they would be excluded because they are not Christian.
Matt is a pretty sincere and tolerant guy, a religious Jew who strikes me as equally a committed, active political conservative. He did, after all, blog and work for the re-election of Bush last year. And there's the rub, I think.
We've talked here about the potential divide between social and fiscal conservatives and between evangelicals and libertarians in the conservative movement. But as Matt points out, evangelical Christians aren't the only conservatives whose political stance emerges from their religious and spiritual beliefs.
Granted, the GodBlogCon isn't about politics - it's a meeting for Christian bloggers to discuss a variety of topics. The emphasis is on the "God" not the role of evangelicals in the recent election. And it's natural for those who sincerely hold Christian beliefs to lay claim to the name of God when discussing their activities as Christians.
I'm no fan of souless Political Correctness and I am not in any way hostile to religion in public life:
I understand the desire of LaShawn and others to be able to talk about their faith in public. Over the last 20 years, a corrosive ideology has basically driven faith underground. This last election was the reaction to that hostility.
But I have some quiet discomfort at the way in which evangelical Christian identity and conservative political identity are equated a bit too easily by some in the blogophere and the electorate. Similarly, I'm not entirely comfortable with the name of this conference.
Here's one reason why. Looking over the agenda as it currently is posted, it's not just Jewish believers who aren't a part of GodBlogCon. I see one (tentative, potential) session on Eastern Orthodox Christianity and updated: one for Roman Catholics. So Matt, it's not even ChristBlogCon. At least in its current nascent form, it appears that it's really pretty much just EvangelicalProtestantBlogCon. A perfectly fine and good thing to have. But maybe under some other name than the one being advertised.
Oh, and back to the political dimension of all this? It's not hard to find Catholic and Jewish believers who supported Bush/Cheney after 9/11 and who share a lot of the same concerns that many evangelicals have about legal and moral issues in our country. Whatever the value of this upcoming blogger convention, evangelicals would be wise I think to make sure they reach out to - or at least don't alienate - those political allies. Pride, it is written, goeth before a fall.