i'm trying to come to grips with american conservative evangelicalism.
See, for example, Wayne Grudem's assesment of George Bush's presidency, six years in. He presneted it at the Evangelical Theology Society What planet does this guy live on? ...well, planet America. I find it hard to understand how he is revered by some evangelicals here.
Or look at his stuff on Christians and self defense. It is like his script is written by the NRA. On the basis of a massive misreading of one passage in Luke, he concludes that it is right and good for christians to not only own a gun but to use it on someone who threatens them. There is absolutley no discussion of Jesus, his mission or his kingdom. Can we really still call him a theologian?
Not only that, but in both discussions he promotes statistics and concepts that are at best, ill informed. (banning guns does not reduce gun crime? Really?!)
no wonder americans look at me strangely when I say I am an evangelical.
Thank God for the brits
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What did he say about GW?
almost unmitigated praise.
Bush is the model of a 'christian' leader, who has brought freedom and prosperity to the world by the only means possible, war and a free market, he ticked the boxes on all the issues, euthanasia, abortion. Strengthened prayer in schools, protected christian guns, kept the infidel guessing with guantanamo, tried to be nice to mexicans but was shut down by congress.
There is almost no awareness of iraq. In 2006 grudem is saying, it is over, we have brought them freedom.
He points the finger at the naughy liberal mass media for making GW so unpoopular
perhaps I'm being unfair
Grudem did criticize Bush on two fronts.
Firstly, he criticized Bush for signing a bill that attempted to limit political donations. (yes, that's right, Grudem criticized this). That was because it limited the scriptures principle of 'free speech'. Yep thats right, corruption is free speech.
He also criticized Bush for spending too much
very interesting. I'm reading the first chapter of Grudem's book on politics and the Bible, which is available online somewhere.
Even though I find lots to disagree with in Grudem, he's always someone worth responding to. He's like an evangelical scholastic.
Got some links to these positions?
(BTW, though it does seem to be more their native habitat, evangelical wingnuts are not all on the far side of the Atlantic...).
yeah, sorry byron, writing this post o a phone, I couldn't copy and paste, I'll try and find them again
Made me feel bad when I reached for Grudem's 'Systematic Theology' today (fortunately he didn't have the answer to my question).
On a slightly more serious note, isn't it the case that most authors we profitably consult have some very serious blind spots (as do we all), largely because of our culture?
Some writers whose books I have greatly appreciated have revealed aspects of themselves I'm sorry I learnt about in their blogs.
[Examples are Ardel Caneday and David Alan Black]
But that doesn't negate the helpful things they said in their books.
I think Grudem has a gift for writing theology simply, even if he is a typical Republican.
Thanks all for an enduring a grumpy moment. i really haven't read that much of Grudem at all, so maybe his theology is fantastic. i was just amazed to find a regular mainstream dude who would actually write these things.
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