The Christian Right: I Remember You! (Was going to make the title: The Right Shall Rise Again! You're welcome that I didn't)

This a longer post than I would like to and normally do write.  Please bear with me (there is a special treat for you at the end)

It was the year 2000, and I was an Evangelical Charismatic Conservative Fundamentalist (Quite the title I know; though not as good as the one I give myself now: Ambiguous Kierkegaardian Christian Existentialist).  My relationship with a very particular section of the Religious Right is a strange, intimate, and difficult one.  During Y2k, Lou Engle, then at Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena California, of Jesus Camp fame, was putting together a rally at the Washington Mall entitled "The Call."  It was to be a gathering of one million (The Call website puts the actual number that day at 400,000) Christians praying and fasting to turn this nation back to God.  I say this without any snark, but as someone who watched Lou Engle in those days often, turning the nation back to God seemed very much about abortion and reinstating prayer in schools (gay marriage had yet to explode on the national scene).  I remember skate boarding with Lou Engle's kids outside of his home, and hanging out with his eldest son at a retreat.

It was the year 2002, and I took a trip up to Chico, California to meet with the prominent leader of a evangelical campus ministry organization.  The thing that sticks out in my mind about that trip was a story that was told to me about his mother, a prophetic woman of prayer as they called her, who had personally met with Senator Sam Brownback and told him that God was going to make him president.  Back then I was like who the hell is Sam Brownback, and then when I saw him running for president in 2008 I was like oh ****. He did not make it past any primaries.

I tell you this because in the last few days I have had the curious feeling of being sucked back into the vortex of that world as I read this article, came upon this website, and finally on this last article.  For those of you who don't want to read, the first article is about Texas Governor Rick Perry meeting with prominent conservative pastors.  The second is the official website for an event, hosted by Rick Perry, called "The  Response."  A response because:  America is in the midst of a historic crisis.  We have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters.  The youth of America are in grave peril economically, socially, and most of all, moral. The last article is entitled "Texas Governor Perry Likely to Run in 2012."

I am not not not trying to connect some crazy dots in a conspiracy theory.  What I am trying to say is that after being somewhat dormant in presidential politics since 2004 (though ask gay couples in California and elsewhere if they have been dormant in state politics), the Christian right has not gone away.  2008 was a weird time for them where a decidedly not very evangelical Republican was running against a black socialist.  2012 could shape up to be a year where a Mormon closet liberal is running against a super black socialist.  But the Christian right won't let that happen without a fight.

Protestants for the Common Good was largely founded in response to a nation whose view of the Church was dominated by conservative fundamentalists.  We are not all that way, and I thought we were (albeit sloooowly) moving in a positive direction where I wouldn't have to explain to everyone that their Jesus is not my Jesus.  God, let us keep moving in that direction.

Finally I leave you with this. Don't ask me why.  I just needed to lighten the mood a little.

-Tim