Interesting Piece on Evangelicals

Wanna point you to a good piece I just read in the International Herald Tribune about evangelicals, "Letter from Washington: Evengelical Christians feared, but multifaceted". It's a pretty balanced piece that looks at two faces of the American evangelical movement, the homophobic, hateful James Dobson faction and the somewhat more compassionate Rick Warren side.

Not surprisingly, the word 'evangelical' conjures up a negative image for most Europeans who, for the most part, have outgrown religion in many parts, especially the rather immature, irrational kind practiced by most evangelicals. And negative for more than a few Americans, too. Interesting tidbit:

A Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll last year found that more than one-fifth of Americans would not vote for an evangelical Christian for president, far more than those who ruled out a Jew or a Catholic.

Well, that's promising, but remember.. almost nobody would vote for an atheist, so we have a ways to go on that one. Aside from that, the article does lay out the stark differences between the two factions:

Warren and Dobson are a microcosm of the controversy and confusion over the role evangelical Christians play in American social and political life. Warren is about inclusion and hope. Dobson is about exclusion and polarization.

And they're both still fundamentally wrong from where I'm standing, although if the Dobsons would give way to the Warrens, we undoubtedly would have a kinder (if not necessarily wiser) nation. Have a read, it's a good one, it's not a hit piece or anything.