Persecuted Religious Conservatives

I just finished reading Ken Connor's, Worldviews matter, editorial over on the Baptist Press site. I had to stop at the end of the first sentence, "In America, it has long been a popular sport to demean and ridicule the faith of religious conservatives" and take a deep breath. Actually, Ken, some religious conservatives have brought some of that sport on themselves, don't you think? Let's review a few examples:

• Westboro Baptist Church - Civil Suit - Baltimore Sun
  
• Ted Haggard - Christianity Today
  
• Larry Craig - Uses campaign money for legal defense - Judicial Watch
• Steven Flockhart - Fabricated credentials and money mis-management
  
• Richard Roberts - New York Times

Religious conservative groups and leaders who are in the public eye and do stupid things will get press coverage and their faith will be associated with whatever variety of stupidity is involved. Unfortunately, the rest of us get lumped in with those whose stupidity makes headlines. Connor's point may be that the press goes into a feeding frenzy when a high profile conservative leader is accused of something/anything (rightly or wrongly), and I must agree with him on that. High profile religious conservative leaders who venture into the realm of governmental politics are on shaky ground in my opinion, not because they choose to voice their positions on issues but because they focus on one party/candidate or another as an endorsed solution.

There is a basic lesson for religious conservatives and religious conservative leaders: Don't Mess Up, the World is Watching! There is a second lesson to be learned from this that too many who find themselves under attack and in the headlines seem to miss, transparency and honesty from the day one of being accused is essential. Hiding behind an attorney or holding back information feeds skepticism over an individual's credibility...and the press seems to be quite adept at rooting out scandal, and have gotten even better at it since the WaterGate era. Efforts to cover-up indiscretions are like throwing gas on the flaming fires of media frenzies.

My 'sport' with religious conservatives is that the actions of a few have seriously diminished the reputation of the rest. I consider myself a refugee of sorts from the religious conservative crowd primarily because I see religious conservatives flaunting their positions of authority and influence to guide their flocks blindly into territory we should and can avoid (particularly politics). Which leads to a third lesson we should all learn: If you fall into the category of religious conservative leader, be extremely cautious before throwing the first stone. The credibility microscope will reveal flaws and those flaws can/will make headlines. Is that fair? Probably not. Is it a reality we need to grasp? Definitely!

I would contend that even though is is extremely challenging to do so, religious conservatives suffer from their inability to get headlines for the good things that they/we do. Chances are we'll struggle on offense because we have so much more experience and expertise being defensive. Worldview does matter. Christian Worldview headlines matter more, but those require more work than we seem to be able to muster.