An Evangelical Mindset I

What if we lived in a nation where a book was the main source of all laws and rules? What if that book said that women should not be employed outside the home? What if that book said that women should be covered in humility and that is taken to mean that women should be virtually covered when they leave their homes? What if that book saw all other sources of religion as false and the inhabitants of said nation go out of their way to destroy all statues, temples, and even some people who follow those "false" religions. What if every natural occurrence was interpreted as the will of the one who the book refers to? What if?

Obviously many of us in the USA would take all the what ifs above to mean the world of extreme Islam. A world that hinders the growth of females and fears modern advances. A world that we would see as populated by creepy Taliban and fellow travelers of Osama. A world that we would totally reject and indeed go to war against to rid an evil scourge from the face of the earth.

But what if the book in question is not the Qu'ran but the Bible. What if the roles of men and women are intrepreted through the pages of the Old and New Testaments. What if every religion in this land that does not 100% agree with the proponents of this type of Bible based religion is seen as apostate and demonic. And what if all natural episodes are seen as an extension of the hand of the one that the Bible refers to. What if?

This second series of propositions are the views and beliefs of an extreme but large group of Evangelicals. This group has been brought into the light of the public with the recent denunciations of Reverends Parsley and Hagee by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Many do not understand (including McCain and his advisors) the theology of this Evangelical mindset. Because of this lack of understanding, McCain has been burnt and people are wondering exactly what type of religion do Parsley, Hagee, and others actually hold to.

In an upcoming entry we will examine a bit more about this group of Evangelicals who see the Bible as a guide to all things and as the source of all laws and rules. The irony is that this group that abhors the strict Islamic religion is a mirror image of that group. That they are so important that presidential candidates would want their support and blessing is a good reason for all of us to get a grasp on this form of fundamentalist religion.