Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

574 Pages·2008·2.11 MB·English

by  Steven M. Tipton

Public Pulpits

Public Pulpits
Methodists and Mainline Churches
in the Moral Argument of Public Life
steven m. tipton
the university of chicago press chicago and london
steven m. tipton teaches sociology and religion at Emory University and its
Candler School of Theology. He is author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2007 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-80474-3 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-80474-7 (cloth)
CIP data to come
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
for kristin and evan

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction
chapter 1. Faith in Public:
Going to War in Iraq and Doing Good at Home 3
chapter 2. Civic Republic and Liberal Democracy:
Religion in an Ambiguous Polity 34
I. Contesting Church and Society
chapter 3. United Methodism in Crisis:
Prophetic Witness through the Board of Church and Society 69
chapter 4. United Methodism in Crisis:
Scriptural Renewal through the Good News Movement 104
chapter 5. Faith and Freedom:
The Institute on Religion and Democracy 146
chapter 6. From Cold War to Culture Wars:
The Evolution of the IRD 186
II. Witnessing versus Winning in Washington
chapter 7. Religious Lobbies and Public Churches:
Ecclesiology Matters 231
chapter 8. The Challenge of Ecumenical Advocacy:
Interfaith Impact for Justice and Peace 283
chapter 9. Members of One Body:
The Churches and the National Council of Churches 333
chapter 10. The Mainline in Motion:
Resisting the Right, Remaking the Center 361
Conclusion
chapter 11. Public Churches and the Church 399
Appendix: Ecclesiology in Action 425
Notes 443
Selected Bibliography 533
Index 547
Preface
In a nationally televised debate among candidates for the 2000 Repub-
lican presidential nomination, each was asked which political philoso-
pher or thinker he most identified with and why. John Locke, replied
Steve Forbes, because he set the stage for the American Revolution. The
Founding Fathers, said Alan Keyes, because they conceived a constitu-
tional government that has preserved our liberty for over two hundred
years. “Jesus Christ,” answered George W. Bush, “because he changed
my heart.” Prompted that viewers would like to know more about how
Jesus changed his heart, Mr. Bush testified, “Well, if they don’t know, it’s
gonna be hard to explain. When you turn your heart and your life over
to Christ, when you accept Christ as a Savior, it changes your heart and
changes your life, and that’s what happened to me.” In so answering, the
president-to-be reassured many Americans of his faithful and trustworthy
character, alarmed others by his testimony of heartfelt religious conver-
sion offered in place of judicious political philosophy, and left still more
surprised and wondering how his born-again Christian faith would square
with the rule of law and the role of reason-giving in American public life
as well as the separation of church and state.
President Bush’s reelection victory in 2004 offered vivid, if uncertain,
answers to such concerns with all the power of history itself to defy predic-
tion and overdetermine events. “Moral values” mattered most to 22 per-
cent of all voters surveyed in nationwide Edison/Mitofsky exit polls, and
four out of five of these voted for Mr. Bush, reported the New York Times
on November 4. Since pollsters left these values unparsed into specific
issues, some observers inferred that banning gay marriage, abortion, and
embryonic stem-cell research led the values list, and culturally conserva-
tive evangelical and Catholic “values voters” decided the election. Others