{"id":18022,"date":"2016-04-27T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T04:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=18022"},"modified":"2016-04-27T14:21:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T18:21:30","slug":"j-c-can-save-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2016\/04\/j-c-can-save-america\/","title":{"rendered":"J.C. Can Save America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Ted Cruz marshals a rhetoric of Christian America in his campaign for president. Christians should \u201ctake back\u201d or \u201creclaim\u201d America, he says, from secularist liberals who have led the nation from its Christian origins. This vocabulary echoes that of his discredited adviser David Barton. His own father Rafael Cruz preaches a dominionist theology<\/a> and suggests that his son\u2019s campaign is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Glenn Beck declares that Cruz has been \u201canointed by God.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"JC<\/a>
Campaign poster from 1976<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These days it is political conservatives who most egregiously tie faith to their politics. But that hasn\u2019t always been the case. Abolitionists seeking freedom for slaves proclaimed a Christian America. So did the American Bible Society. John Fea, author of a new book on the ABS, recently wrote<\/a>, \u201cIt is hard to separate the religious work of the ABS from its mission to strengthen the Christian identity of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there was Jimmy Carter. Before Ted Cruz and George W. Bush, evangelicals used identity politics to mobilize for a Democratic candidate. Bailey Smith, president of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1970s, told a crowd of 15,000 that the nation needs \u201ca born-again man in the White House . . . and his initials are the same as our Lord\u2019s.\u201d Supporters mass-produced posters and pins that read \u201cJ.C.,\u201d \u201cJ.C. Will Save America,\u201d \u201cJ.C. Can Save America,\u201d and \u201cBorn Again Christian for Jimmy Carter.\u201d One poster depicted Carter with long, flowing hair and dressed in biblical garb with the caption \u201cJ.C. Can Save America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the hagiographical material surrounding Carter\u2019s candidacy portrayed God and politician working in concert. \u201cThere is a sense of history in the making; a feeling that something mysterious and irresistible is at work behind the scenes,\u201d wrote Bob Slosser in a book called The Miracle of Jimmy Carter<\/em> (1973). God had engineered conditions \u201cwhich seem to have worked together to bring [Carter] to this moment in history.\u201d In fact, Carter and God communed regularly. \u201cCarter often\u2014in the midst of a conference or conversation\u2014closed his eyes, put his fist under his chin, bowed his head slightly, and talked to the Lord for a few seconds while the conversation continued around him.\u201d Such spiritual integrity, Slosser explained, gave the candidate special resources which could be used to reshape the nation. Slosser surmised that the election \u201ccould bring a spiritual revival to the United States and its government.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as I know, Carter did not engineer this rhetoric. In fact I imagine that he would have seen it as theologically problematic. But his overenthusiastic supporters nonetheless designed initials and a ambiguous body on campaign ephemera insinuating that Jimmy Carter was a political surrogate for Jesus Christ himself.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/90\/Ted_Cruz_by_Gage_Skidmore_7.jpg\/320px-Ted_Cruz_by_Gage_Skidmore_7.jpg\"
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether coming from supporters of Carter or Cruz, this kind of intertwining of political and religious beliefs feeds a dualistic brand of politics that is breathtakingly arrogant and fuels ressentiment. It suggests that evangelicals are the sole hearers of God, that they alone can save the nation.<\/p>\n

This is bad for politics, and it is bad for faith<\/a>. In C.S. Lewis\u2019s Screwtape Letters<\/em>, the senior devil tells the junior devil to inspire the mixing of partisan politics and religious beliefs in his human subject, who seeks to baptize his politics with Christian language, doctrine, and sentiment. It often makes politics or the nation an idol. It can make \u201cthe World an end and faith a means.\u201d This, according to the devils, is a good way of corrupting faith.<\/p>\n

It is also possible that the J.C. whose words Ted Cruz reads in the New Testament may not like the categorization. Perhaps it is not America that needs saving. In contrast to the theocratic Old Testament, J.C.\u2019s kingdom extended far beyond a nation. At the same time, it was concerned with much smaller groups of disciples. Perhaps J.C. might not care so particularly for such a jingoistic preoccupation with America, for flags in religious sanctuaries, for electioneering at church<\/a>. One of my favorite theological quotations\u2013\u201cThose who carry crosses work with the grain of the universe\u201d\u2013helpfully articulates a vision that is at once more particular than partisan and more grand than grandiose.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted Cruz marshals a rhetoric of Christian America in his campaign for president. Christians should \u201ctake back\u201d or \u201creclaim\u201d America, he says, from secularist liberals who have led the nation from its Christian origins. This vocabulary echoes that of his discredited adviser David Barton. His own father Rafael Cruz preaches a dominionist theology and suggests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[500,107,28,2223,30,833,43,104],"tags":[2917,141,2918,818],"class_list":["post-18022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-religious-history","category-baptists","category-christian-nation","category-church-life","category-david-barton","category-david-swartz","category-evangelicalism","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-c-s-lewis-glenn-beck","tag-jimmy-carter","tag-rafael-cruz","tag-ted-cruz"],"yoast_head":"\nJ.C. Can Save America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ted Cruz marshals a rhetoric of Christian America in his campaign for president. 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