Abilene Christian University's Graduate School of Theology (my Alma mater) recently hosted University of Chicago prof Margaret Mitchell to lecture on "The Christian Right in Modern America." I listened to the lecture this morning on my way to a hearing several hours away and I nearly spit coffee all of the windshield and lapsed into a fit of profanity that would rival the leader of a Turret's Syndrome support group.
First of all, Ms. Mitchell, like many liberals who purport to objectively study the Christian Right either has no idea what she is doing or is so biased going into her "study" that the outcome has already been determined. As a former congressional staffer during the Gingrich years who worked with groups like the Christian Coalition (during the Ralph Reed years no less) and Concerned Women for America, I don't even recognize the"Christian Right" she claims to have surveyed. And heck, I wasn't even a Christian at the time! I was just "Right." Like Robert Jewett and other wingnuts on the "Christian" Left, Ms. Mitchell carefully selects the sources which fit into her preconceived notions and ignores truly influential and careful thinkers like Richard Neuhaus at First Things or Professor Wayne Grudem at Phoenix Seminary or Retired Yale Law Professor Robert Bork, etc. It's sad that this type of drivel passes for scholarship.
Second, what in the *%@# is ACU doing hosting such a liberal quack? Beyond the faux scholarship, have my former profs truly lost sight of their audience and, more importanty, their benefactors? This is the kind of thing that will certainly take a zero off my annual alumni check!
For those of you who truly want to read careful, thoughtful leaders from the "Christian Right", check out the journal First Things at http://www.firsthings.com/. Members of the Christian left might want to consult a conservative to explain the "big words" to them.
