Sightings
November 5, 2007
Schadenfreude
— Martin E. Marty
The always-too-loud TV in the airport club lounge Wednesday was sensationally
broadcasting news of the scandal of that day: Another politician nabbed
for sexual transgressions though he'd long and enthusiastically voted
to ban such activities. The story inspired the sippers near me to engage
in ribaldry: "Another family values man" (this time on the state
level) was being exposed as a hypocrite. Chroniclers of events like his
fall become part of a long sequence of stories about the increasing disarray
among those in the partisan, especially religious, right. The chronicle
is long: Evangelists, moralists, preachers, and lobbyists disgrace the
party while Christian Right voters seem ready to desert old moral stands
and try to find a candidate to help them hold power.
Several matching stories in the past week could illustrate the story of
the week on this front, David P. Kirkpatrick's fair-minded and lengthy
report in October 28th's New York Times Magazine. Reality check:
I also spent some time away from club lounges and the Times in
corroborating conversation. Some mega-congregations in Texas are as large
as small denominations. Kirkpatrick, however, concentrated on Wichita,
regarded as the epicenter of right-wing political religion blasts. He
featured the Reverend Terry Fox, the recently-eased-out or mysteriously-departed
pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. Reverend Fox has not lost his taste
for scourging. He told his new congregation, "Hell is just as hot
as it ever was – It just has more people in it." His closing lines
in the Times had implicit advice: Critics "should not start gloating"
over the Christian right's troubles. Some might compare the religious
right to a snake -- "We might be in our hole right now, but we can
come out and bite you at any time." Indeed they can.
American Catholics (other than those profiting from the Hispanic newcomer
surge) and standard-brand Protestants, who for decades have been the objects
of Christian right gloating and Schadenfreude, might do well
to take the implied advice from Fox's observation. They will then remember
that millions who are named and self-named "Evangelicals" were
never part of this Christian Right. Perhaps millions of them are now signing
up for long-neglected "justice" causes, thus becoming partners
of Catholics and Protestants. Many Evangelicals all along regretted the
over-close bonds between some who bore their name and fused it with the
name "Republican." There is too much strength and too much diversity
among Evangelicals for them to slip away. And among them are many believers
who have the ability to reinvent themselves and recast their issues.
One of the by-products of this overly-attended-to political campaign of
2008 will be a fresh look at how churchly power is lined up today. It
will reveal still more excesses but will discover some underplayed and
overlooked motifs, which have been no part of the national press and television
stories. So: after a minute or two of gloating and enjoying Schadenfreude,
those who are not in the Christian Right camp can seek more accurate counting
and accounting than we have seen in recent years. Look for some humbling
on all fronts and some formation of new alliances as believers deal with
neglected issues of justice.
Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.
Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
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