Seperation

The Book of Jerry Falwell had many points made throughout it. From language, faith, power, and media these chapters touched on a wide variety of key topics. What was particularly interesting in this weeks readings was the connection between religion and politics/law. In the introduction and the first chapter there was a lot of discussion about how the "post-fundamentalist" or "evangelical" leaders were aiming to bridge the gap between church and state. Leaders were charismatic and aiming to lobby and directly convert millions of Americans. They seemed to be working hard to delete the separation of church and state, even to the point where early fundamentalist views were discarded and replaced by a combination of evangelical and modern views. Teachings made sure to include public opinion as well as adapted business models to keep everything relevant to the time point.

All of this makes everything interesting in terms of the law. When the book brought up the Scope case and how it provided a "win" for the secular it made me question who has the authority in the relationship between church and state. It seems that overall it is the government who allows and disallows the use of religious ideology and practice to intersect with large public domains. When you think of this it makes sense why there was such a big push of Evangelicals to in a sense start using the strategies of the state to almost beat them at their own game. What does this mean to the faith? Does this take away from it? In the search for power and influence do the leaders of these huge evangelical movements compromise the Word they preach so highly of?