Kuo: Evangelicals Back to Basics

Everybody's telling SWNID to blog on former Bush staffer David Kuo's NY Times op-ed noting that in this election evangelicals didn't so much go over to the Democrats as they cooled to politics in general.

And we should blog on it. But there's nothing to add.

Kuo is right. If we understand the gospel, we care deeply about the present state of the world (focusing entirely on life after death is a denial of the central gospel message that God raised Jesus from the dead in space and time on this earth). Politics affects the present state of the world pretty deeply, but most of what we ought care is not primarily political.

That includes such issues as abortion and gay marriage as well as care for the poor and loving one's enemies. On all matters, what needs doing most is changing the thoughts and feelings of people, not legislation.

We still remain committed to the notion that the Republic's laws can articulate and reinforce key moral principles, though the case for such moral principles must of necessity be made in secular terms . But we remain committed more to the idea that what ails the world is not its politics but the people who do its politics.

We said that there was nothing to add, and then we added something.