Teavangelicals And The Priority of Things

A recent article in the American Family Association Journal (AFA) by Ed Vitagliano chronicled the birth of the Tea Party movement in America, and the rise of what has now been termed "Teavangelicals". This term was coined by David Brody, CBN News White House correspondent, due to the huge conservative Christian influence in the Tea Party movement.

The initial trigger of the Tea Party, according to the article, is attributed by many to a CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli, who criticized President Obama's bailout plans, asking for a "Tea Party" response". Traders from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, upon hearing this remark, shouted approval of the term with raucous applause, and the Tea Party movement seemed to take root from there and spread nationwide.

Still, AFA of Michigan president Gary Glenn believe social conservatives were instrumental in getting the Tea Party phenomenon off the ground. He stated, "A substantial majority of local Tea Party organizations were started by social conservatives mobilized by the special Tea Party Web site posted by the AFA."

So though it would seem that the Tea Party movement was born and driven by concerns of economic freedom and limited government; bankrupting future generations with big out-of-control government was seen, in the eyes of the religious right, as not merely a fiscal issue but a moral issue. Still, though Tea Partiers seem to be more social conservative than libertarian, most particularly on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage; both opponents of big government, as well as opponents of abortion, are in full accord against the health care overhaul.

So, was the rise of Teavangelicals simply because they would like the government to take a moral role in our culture? Actually, the article points out, that it was because they saw the government intruding upon the moral realm first - with the US Supreme Court removing school prayer and legalizing abortion, and distributing condoms in schools etc.

But, now a handful of Tea Party groups along with the homosexual Republican group GOProud, has asked the GOP to drop social issues from its agenda entirely, stating in an open letter to the GOP, "The Tea Party movement is a non-partisan movement, focused on issues of economic freedom and limited government. Already there are Washington insiders and special interest groups that hope to co-opt the Tea Party's message and use it to push their own agenda - particularly as it relates to social issues." Yet, having no central headquarters or official spokesperson makes it ludicrous for anyone to claim that the movement has been co-opted.

Competition between fiscal and social conservatives for control of the GOP is not new, with social conservatives feeling kicked to the curb more often than not, in the political arena. But this time around, social conservatives will not be that easily dismissed or assuaged to wait patiently on the sidelines. Founder and chairman of the FFC argued that the Tea Party movement and the religious right "are inextricably intertwined and there is an enormous amount of overlap." He further stated, "Those who ignore or disregard social conservative voters and their issues do so at their own peril."

In the Book of Genesis, we read how man's rebellion against God, threw the whole of Creation into chaos, and as man rebelled against God, nature rebelled against man. There is a priority to things, which still holds true today, as it did in the book of Genesis. We cannot hope for a fiscal Garden of Eden, while we continue the unabated murder of millions upon millions of helpless, innocent unborn, and while every other law of God is trampled underfoot.