“Is She with Us?” “Is she with Them?” Harriet Miers and the Asymmetrical Evangelicals
October 17, 2005
One interesting thing about this story (that was far less pronounced with Roberts) is that “evangelicals” (whatever that means from place to place) are as much in the dark as anyone else as to what Miers believes, due to the meaninglessness of “evangelical” as an indicator of specific beliefs and practices with a bearing on political issues, like abortion. Words like “faithful” and “orthodox” when used to describe Catholics implies fidelity to an established and coherent body of doctrine backed by recognizable institutions, regardless of the existence of dissent and debate. The same cannot be said of evangelicals, and this is a problem, especially when some of them are trying to maintain an organized political agenda.
In this vein, CT editor Mark Galli’s review of D. G. Hart’s deconstrucion of evangelicalism is instructive, as is Galli’s remark that he is an Anglican himself because he doesn’t “believe evangelicalism by itself can sustain a deeper Christian life.” By some accounts, Miers may be in a similar boat, regularly attending both independent evangelical and mainline churches.
Aren’t these mongrel “evangelical” ecclesiologies worth some attention from a perceptive journalist? They are a rather common phenomenon in contemporary evangelical academic and media circles, and they are essentially crises of Christian identity, so they generally have political ramifications or indicate some things about one’s politics.
Maybe Miers is a “longstanding Evangelical, but also, by choice, an Episcopalian.” I’m not sure what that choice means, but it is definitely unusual.
This is “Is She with Us?” “Is she with Them?” Harriet Miers and the Asymmetrical Evangelicals in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: Discovering This American Life | Next: What Is to Be Done … With NeoCalvinism? | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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