Are Evangelicals Just Like the Taliban?

Wow! The red hot rhetoric during the political season has brought out a lot of strong critics of Evangelical Christians. When many voters said they supported Bush because of "Values" a lot of Left Wing Democrats became very upset.

Since I wrote my doctoral dissertation on Evangelical theology I observed this phenomenon with great interest as well as astonishment at the heat and ignorance displayed by all sides. Perhaps both the anger and the lack of knowledge come from TV talking heads who book only politicians on their shows to speak about the interests of Evangelicals.

Oh how I longed to get on some of the shows myself. I wanted to tell them a few things about my values as an Evangelical Christian. One of the most disturbing facts that emerged from the debate has to do with the fact that most politicians misunderstand us and the effect of Christian faith on our behavior. In fact, many of our own leaders do not understand the benefits of faith in Christ.

First, Christians who "Walk the talk" as well as "Talk the walk" live longer, healthier and happier lives. Even the poll taker George Barna does not report the data and benefits accurately. He says that Believers are just as likely to divorce as atheists. This may be true and it has a simple explanation. As St. James said, "Faith without works is DEAD!"

For those who "Talk the walk" but fail to "Walk the talk" conflict and pain are inevitable.
Many research studies show that Christians who attend church weekly or more divorce about one half as often as those who attend less than weekly. The key is not salvation but commitment and fellowship with learning and worship.

I recently wrote and presented a paper for the Children's Hospital Psychiatric Department. In it I covered many of the studies about the effects of faith on mental, emotional and physical health. I will present some of the more interesting results on those blog in the future. It will motivate you to prayer and worship.

And, what about us fundamenatlists being just as mean and bitter as the Taliban? That accusation is a lie.

• Every charity hospital in the world can be traced to Judeao-Christian ideals.
• Almost all advances in the compassionate treatment of women and children come from the Bible.
• The freedom of slaveworldwide can be traced to Christians.
• etc
• etc
• etc
• More later