Responses from friends …

I posted my first response to the amazing election results at the On Faith site, here.
Since I was public in my support for President-Elect Obama, I’ve been flooded with emails this morning. Here are three excerpts from Evangelical Christians who have written me this morning …
An Evangelical friend from the US wrote …

… While I didn’t vote for Barack (or McCain for that matter, as I’d like to see our government grow beyond a two party system) I have to say that, for the first time in my life, I’m something other than ambivalent post-election. Barack speech reflected many of the things that you offered as reasons to vote for him and I do think it was a great moment for our country. The end of his speech, where he talked about the 102 year old voter in Georgia, was spot on and hope filled. It was good to see.

An Evangelical woman wrote …

… Congratulations to you… or is that what I say… to a Barack supporter on this, the day after his victory. I am praying for God’s movement in our country at this unique time in our history. For me, as a follower of Jesus, this election brought about some ambivalence as I struggled with my choice. I selected the other guy… but I am now, and pretty much have always been anyway, on TEAM USA… and will continue with my efforts to be “a force for good in the world”… (as Rob Bell always says it).

An Evangelical friend living in England is deeply disturbed by information he’s gleaning from the exit polls …

I spent some time this morning doing an analysis of the US election exit polls which show that 74% of White Evangelical/Born-Again Christians voted for McCain. Other indicators in these same exit polls show that those who supported McCain are much less concerned about health care (they can afford private), are far less affected by the economic downturn (they are more economically secure), are more racist, are gun owners (over 60%), are much more concerned about security and terror, are very supportive of the war in Iraq (over 90%) and strongly approve of Bush policy (90%)
Since 3/4 of white evangelicals voted McCain does this mean that they too are pro-guns, pro-war, racist and unconcerned with the poor? I certainly hope not. Fear of terror was the primary issue for McCain supporters. By contrast Obama supporters were concerned with access to medical care for all, ending the war in Iraq, dealing with economy (to help the poor) and addressing environmental issues (energy policy, global warming, climate change). What does this say about our faith?

I hope to write more on this in the coming days or weeks, but I do believe that this election will put a make-or-break decision before white Evangelicals in the US.
More and more people are facing a choice between “a great emergence” into new ways of being “a new kind of Christian,” on the one hand … and “a great contraction and retrenchment” into a sad, fading, feuding, fun-free fundamentalism on the other. Everything must change.