JR Woodward :: Blog :: Super Tuesday - A Look at Faith and Politics

So today is Super Tuesday in the United States where people have the opportunity to go and vote in the primaries, helping the Democratic and Republican parties find their candidate for President.  It is called Super Tuesday because it is when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to their perspective national conventions.  From California to New York people will be lining up to vote for their favorite candidate.  This year has been a record turn out in each state that has held primaries.  The democratic race between Hillary and Obama is tight (so your vote really counts if you are voting democratic) and it seems that McCain has a significant lead in the Republican race (it is still good to vote if you are voting republican).

In light of this being Super Tuesday, I thought I would direct you to an interesting article.  It is an article written by James K.A. Smith, the author of Whose Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Dirrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (an excellent read).  In this article he reviews Greg Boyd's book The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church.  Smith shares what he likes about the book, and he also critiques it. 

I will give you just a taste of the article.  Here is a little of what James Smith liked, "Boyd's intervention into the discussion is welcome. He is bold (1,000
members of his congregation left after hearing the sermons that gave
birth to the book), passionate, and discerning, while still attempting
to be charitable. Boyd doesn't pull punches, denouncing the
nationalistic "idolatry" of American evangelicalism, which often fuses
the cross and the flag. "Because the myth that America is a Christian
nation has led many to associate America with Christ," he writes in his
introduction, "many now hear the Good News of Jesus only as American
news, capitalistic news, imperialistic news, exploitive news, antigay
news, or Republican news. And whether justified or not, many people
want nothing to do with it."

And in the introduction to his critique of the book he says, "While there is much to appreciate in Boyd's exposure of the Religious
Right's idolatries, the question becomes: Does Boyd swing back to the
other extreme? No doubt he imagines that he is charting a third way,
but there are at least three factors of his proposal that indicate it
is simply pietism resurrected."  You will have to go to the article to read the rest.