Crisis of Succession

[tealin]

So, Jerry Falwell is dead. Who will step up to replace him as the laughable yet infuriating spokesman of radical right-wing Evangelical Christianity? How will we know which children's television characters are gay? I feel so lost!

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Who's the guy with the bow tie? I remember him getting my hackles up.

[rblake77.livejournal.com]

Ugh... I can't think of that one's name, either.

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

Would the guy with the bow tie perhaps be Tucker Carlson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson#Bow_ties)? He came to talk at my campus and, while more interested in goading people into shouting matches to improve his ratings than doing anything useful, he's certainly no heir to the evangelical throne (he taped a n episode of Crossfire at my college (http://anathelen.livejournal.com/139622.html) last fall). Fred Phelps is too much of a total nutcase; most of the evengelical community, while agreeing with his complete condemnation of homosexuality, shuns him out of embaressment. He does more damage than good to the image of evangelicals.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Could be Tucker Carlson, the name sounds familiar ...

... shuns him out of embaressment. He does more damage than good to the image of evangelicals.

I can respect people with different political opinions than mine; what bothered me most about Mr Falwell was that his misrepresentation of the Christian philosophy made me embarrassed to admit my allegiance to it in mixed company. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people to continue his legacy of bigotry and hatred, and I'm sure they'll get just as much attention.

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

I currently attend a Generic Mainline Protestant Church regularly though I'm not much of a believer, and probably more educated than the average Christian since I've read a considerable number of Christian theological works besides the Bible. However, I too am reluctant to admit to people that I am a Christian because of the embarassment of all that misrepresentation, though I imagine it's easier to be a Christian on the US East Coast than the West Coast. Unfortunately, I've found a frustrating number of atheists to be as misinformed and bigoted towards Christians as many evangelicals are about Muslims. Alas, the extremes are far more exciting and controversial than the means and will doubtlessly continue to get more airtime.

I guess to many serious evangelical Christians my reluctance to own up to my religion at every opportunity is probably a serious sin. For the moment I hope that "they will know we are Christians by our love" might suffice in lieu of actively evangelizing since "Go and make disciples of all the nations" is one of my biggest philosophical problems with Christianity at the moment.