Letter to Andrew West re his SMH article:
Evangelical Christians: another stereotype crumbles
Dear Andy,
Am I to believe that maybe you and some of Sydney’s fundamentalist God-botherers are feeling the heat? Let me say upfront that I have met too many right-wing evangelical Christians not to believe the stereotype is alive and well and not as you are suggesting, on the wane.
I reckon there’s a small record-player that sits inside the heads of people of religion — it’s just bigger and louder the more fundamentalist you are. This record-player plays a non-stop recording, that says over and over again — “I am right and YOU are dead wrong. Your beliefs are wrong, your god is wrong — in fact everything about you and the way you live is wrong. In fact, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL, you are so wrong!!”.
Andy, maaate, one swallow does not a summer make, but if the day ever comes that I hear evangelical Christians en mass (or any other religious fundamentalist group for that matter) accepting that just-maybe others’ beliefs have some validity — then I might say goodonya mate, the worm has turned and have a nice day.
Progressives have long stereotyped evangelical Christians as enemies and automatic allies of the political right, mainly because they embrace traditional values in relation to the nuclear family, opposition to abortion on demand (but not all abortion), gambling and drugs. But these positions are hardly inconsistent with a belief in economic justice; the rights of workers; opposition to war, racism and sexism (yes, sexism, because evangelicals were in the forefront of the suffragette movement); and a rejection of greed, exploitation and materialism. In fact, these values have historically been a staple of evangelical Christianity.
Andrew West | SMH | Link