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A new Pew Research survey reveals that Christians, particularly white evangelicals, view the Supreme Court more favorably than any other demographic. This isnt exactly surprising, given that the high court now boasts five conservative, originalist judges and that 6 in 10 white evangelicals want to overturn Roe v. Wade. Yet it does raise interesting questions about the role of religion in our government and what expectations religious people should have of the judiciary.

First, the survey is clear to point out that evangelicals views on the judiciary have shifted since President Barack Obama was in office. Pew reports:

In 2015, just after the court legalized same-sex marriage nationally and upheld a key element of the Affordable Care Act, just a third of Republicans and three-in-ten white evangelicals had favorable views of the Supreme Court. But since then, President Donald Trump has appointed two new justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh and the court has issued a few religion-friendly rulings.

Unsurprisingly, favorable or unfavorable views of the court "also diverge along party lines."

The Pew survey highlights a decades-old problem plaguing Christians and their politics: Are they relying on the government to win the culture wars, or, at least, to upend what they believe to be immoral laws? Based on this survey, it appears that may be the case. Is there anything wrong with that?

This was the thesis of former RedState writer Ben Howes book, The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power over Christian Values, released fall 2019. (I reviewed it for the Washington Examiner magazine here.)

Despite being an evangelical myself, I dont fully agree with Howes thesis. He argues that evangelical Christians have sold their souls for a Trump presidency, something he deems far less valuable than I, but Howe's observations about how Christians view the culture wars and how they want to win them remain persuasive, especially in light of this new Pew survey.

In his conclusion, Howe says Christians often twist Romans 8:31, If God is for us, who can be against us? which is often a battle cry for evangelicals who are steeped in the culture wars, as undoubtedly, he and I both have chosen to be.

He writes: But this has shifted into something else. Something more like, If Im doing something to gain Gods favor, how could He be against me? ... Christians, in an attempt to 'assist' god in achieving His ends, will work feverishly toward a goal, ignoring how often they separate themselves from God while in pursuit.

Later, Howe concludes, The important choice was never between God, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton the important choice was between self-interest and the idolization of winning versus loving God and one another.

As an ardent supporter of both the pro-life cause and religious liberty, I can certainly understand the temptation Christians have to view the Supreme Court favorably when there are religious liberty cases on their docket and it looks as if a majority of justices interpret the Constitution in an originalist way. But God has not called Christians to love the Constitution above others and himself. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God, is what he says he requires.

I fear evangelicals misunderstand the Supreme Courts role and the role of faith in the public square at times, conflating their desire to be a bastion for truth, faith, and liberty, with love of God and people. Engaging in the culture wars with the double-edged sword of Christianity and government not only can sometimes misuse a branch of government at will but perhaps also conflicts with Gods ultimate directive for Christians.

The Supreme Court is not there to legislate what Christians, or anyone else, have failed to work through the proper channels. The Supreme Court does not exist to make anyone, either evangelicals or atheists, happy with political outcomes. The judicial branch exists to ensure the laws Congress makes are in alignment with the Constitution and nothing more.

It is one thing to hope the Supreme Court will make a ruling to preserve religious liberty or to protect the unborn. It is another, a dangerous, slippery slope, in fact, to depend earnestly on the Supreme Court to rule in a way that coincides with evangelical Christians beliefs and only support them if they do.

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.

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Christians shouldn't rely on the Supreme Court to fix what they can't - Washington Examiner

My grandfather seemed to understand the world and his place in it just fine.

Days of sweat and work. Sunsets with iced tea on the back porch. Occasional mornings spent fishing. Church on Sunday mornings, and family dinners on Sunday afternoons.

He didnt insist that people live his way, and he didnt spend much energy trying to understand why people would want to live differently. He just demanded that people not interfere with his life.

As I grew older and ventured further into the world than his farm, I learned the world was a whole lot bigger and more complex than I had thought. I encountered people who were living quite different lives from those in my little rural community, and they seemed pretty happy with those lives.

Now, I will never understand why people would want to spend their lives in a large metropolis with millions of others all around them, but city dwellers do not require my blessing upon their lives. My grandfather did not need their permission to live his way, and they did not need his.

So much of the division in our country right now seems to arise from the differences between urban and rural life.

I know were not just talking about the differences between people who like to plant crops and people who enjoy climbing the corporate ladder. There are serious issues about which we disagree.

But I sincerely think that isnt our biggest problem. People in this country have disagreed about great big things since its beginning. If we seem more divided now, our conflict has less to do with the issues and more to do with the culture war.

The country mice and the city mice arent getting along these days, and so many people doing the speaking for us on TV, on the radio and online are playing on our fears of one another for attention.

And I get it. We sell ads in the Farm Forum, too. Everyone in the media is fighting for a little bit of your attention, and nothing grabs peoples attention like fear.

But Id like us to be less afraid of each other. Most people are just living their lives and not harming anyone, whether they are coastal liberal elites or gun totin rural conservatives. If we try, we really can get along.

How do I know? Because Im a poor, rural farm boy married to a woman raised in the suburbs of New York City, and our home is a pretty happy one. Yes, the culture wars are alive and well in our house, but do you want to know the secret ingredient that makes it all work?

Its super simple. We love each other.

What if that could work for everyone? What if stick with me on this crazy idea love was a choice rather than just something that happens between people?

The Bible seems to suggest just that. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. He even calls it a commandment.

That means you either obey that commandment or disobey it. Thats a choice. And what if we truly choose to love our neighbors even the ones who want to live completely different lives from us? Would we get to call them names and make fun of them online if we truly loved them?

Or would we be forced to respect their decisions, accept their life choices, and find some way to live with them?

If the choice is between that and fearing them, then, reader, I choose love.

Stan Wise is the editor of the Farm Forum. He grew up on a farm in Mississippi.

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The Planted Row: There's a secret ingredient | News - AberdeenNews.com

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Culture wars over anti-fascist organisations are nothing new theyre a major feature of Trumps America and, fanned by anonymous Twitter trolls, theyve brought into sharp relief the polarised state of much of society.

What they hadnt done until now was permeate Irish society to any great degree.

This week, that might have started to change. The Burkean, a conservative publication condemned last year for an article promoting eugenics, fired the starting gun on a long term investigative project executed by impersonating an anti-fascist group that claims to expose a left-wing conspiracy at the heart of Irish society.

To most people, being anti-fascist is a straightforward and benign position. But in some cases, fuelled by parts of the media, its taken on another significance as a campaign that some argue seeks to shut down conservative ideas. Its a definitional disparity with the potential to become toxic and it underpins the Burkeans reporting.

Michelle Byrne, the deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), was caught in the sting.

Byrne comes out of the affair with her reputation severely damaged. Spurred on by leading questions, she appeared to endorse actions like doxxing and public shaming against students identified as holding right-wing beliefs.

She also agreed to secretly provide the group with details of students who might oppose them seemingly with little proof of the students fascist tendencies, and without even asking her camouflaged caller their full name.

Its hard to believe that Byrne the second-most senior official in a body representing 374,000 students was so willing to give up student names so easily to a faceless organisation that said it wanted to slap them around.

Her words also severely undermine USI, a body that for all its faults has often been on the right side of history supporting marriage equality and repeal long before the ideas entered mainstream politics.

Ultimately, Byrnes actions give the Burkean a publication manned by anonymous activists, with little credibility in the eyes of most the publicity it needs to sow the politics of division among students.

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The Burkean's Cultural Warfare is Toxic But USI's Deputy Fanned the Flames - The University Times

By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Monday, March 02, 2020

Its the question Ive heard now for many years, specifically from evangelical Christians. Since the world is only getting worse, why bother fighting the culture wars? Whats the use? Whats the point? Isnt it better for us simply to share our faith and prepare for the return of Jesus?

To be sure, if I knew for a fact that Jesus was coming back in a week, I would not spend that week writing articles about transgender activism. Or trying to change hearts about abortion.

In fact, I would not spend that week teaching a class in our ministry school. Or sharpening my Arabic or Babylonian reading skills. Or even hanging out with other believers.

Instead, I would spend every last moment reaching out to friends and relatives who were not in right relationship with God, urging them to repent and believe. And I would prepare my own heart to meet the King.

The fact is, though, that we dont know if Jesus is coming back in a week. Or a year. Or a decade. Or a century.

What we do know is that we have one life to live. One life to serve. One life to make an impact. And then we die, and the baton is handed over to the next generation. And then the next.

That has been the cycle of life for millennia, and it will continue until the end of this age.

Unfortunately, many Christians are so focused on the world to come that they lose sight of the importance of living fruitful lives in the here and now. And many others are so focused on the return of Jesus that they fail to live with long-term vision. They fail to ask what kind of world they are leaving to their children and grandchildren.

Theres an interesting quote attributed to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai (c. 30-90 AD): If you have a sapling in your hand, and someone says to you that the Messiah has come, stay and finish the planting, and then go to greet the Messiah (Avot dRabbi Natan 31b).

In other words, continue to live your life in a normal, productive way. Be faithful to your current responsibilities. Dont get caught up with end-time speculation. Planting a tree means youre thinking of tomorrow.

Similarly, it is recorded that evangelist D. L. Moody (1837-1899) was asked, What would you do today if you knew Jesus Christ was coming tomorrow?

He answered, I would plant a tree.

Knowing that Moody was a great soulwinner, its hard to imagine that, if he really knew Jesus was coming tomorrow, he would plant that tree.

But again, thats the point. We dont know. And so we plant the tree today, knowing it will grow tomorrow, even after we are long gone. Thats the cycle of life.

To bring this back to the culture wars, its crucial that we think in multigenerational terms, especially in light of end-time pessimism. In other words, since many Christians believe that were in the final generation and things will only get worse, they expect cultural defeat.

Its like a person with terminal cancer in hospice care. Hope for recovery is gone. Just make them comfortable until they pass away.

In the case of the culture wars, many feel that the return of Jesus is imminent and therefore the complete collapse of culture is also imminent. The dam is ready to burst. Why waste our time plugging the holes?

But this misses the whole point.

First, to repeat, none of us know for sure when Jesus is coming back. Thats a simple fact.

When I came to faith in late-1971 we were told that all the prophecies were in place and the Second Coming was at the door. That was almost 50 years ago. I was 16 at the time. Today, our oldest granddaughter is 19 and a student at Liberty University.

Who can guarantee, based on Scripture, that Jesus will come within the next 10 or 50 or 100 years?

Second, an excellent biblical case can be made for the end of the age being marked by great light and great darkness. Great spiritual harvest and great apostasy. Great revival and great falling away.

Whos to say we cant be part of a great revival?

Third, what we do know is that, like every generation before us, if the Lord doesnt return in our lifetimes, we will be handing the baton to the next generation.

How did we live our lives? Did we make things better or worse? Were we good stewards over our freedoms or did we become enslaved?

Forget about winning or losing the culture wars, since there is hardly ever a total victory or defeat.

Instead, ask yourself about direction. Which direction is the society going?

Have we, through preaching the Gospel and winning the lost and making the disciples and being salt and light, helped our nation go in a positive direction? Have we helped raise moral standards? Are people more conscious of God? More compassionate?

Are families stronger? Are we leaving a godly legacy to our children? Have we raised up schools or ministries or businesses or organizations or churches that are making a lasting difference?

And so we stand up and fight for what is right. It is who we are. It is what we do.

Yes we, Gods people, are the moral conscience of the society and the light of the world. But if we fail to shine the light, there will be cultural deterioration. And then, eventually, cultural collapse.

That would mean great suffering and hardship for our kids and their kids and then their kids. That would mean moral confusion and spiritual bankruptcy and social anarchy. That would be real tragedy.

Put another way, if we fail to plant our saplings today, there will be no trees tomorrow. And without trees, the world cannot exist.

So go ahead and plant those saplings. And make that investment in the next generation.

We can reach the lost with an eternal message while also doing good in the here and now. We live today in the light of eternity. If we do, our children will bless us and thank us.

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Putting the culture wars in perspective - Christian Post

All elections are crucial, some are pivotal but only a rare few are truly fateful. Any victory by right or left changes the direction of the country until the next election, but sometimes the decision is irreversible. In most elections, voters come to a fork in the road, from which two paths diverge in different directions but, ostensibly, toward the same general destination. Some, like Mondays ballot in Israel, are like a T-junction from which one can only set out in opposing directions, toward completely contrary worlds.

The current, year-long election campaign began as a personal referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu. It evolved, at his initiative and under his direction, into a decision on the future of the State of Israel itself. Netanyahus desperate efforts to escape criminal prosecution led him to declare total war on democracy, the rule of law and the civic values on which they are based. Rather than facing his accusers in a court of law like a mere mortal, Netanyahu has turned his personal plight into an all-out culture war.

Bibi went gunning for his only real rivalHaaretz Weekly Ep. 66

The term culture war has been diluted over the years to include any ideological conflict over moral and social values. The term was coined, however, to depict the existential do-or-die war of the worlds that plagued Prussia and Germany in the 19th Century, in the days of Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. It pitted a conservative-Catholic-nationalistic-aristocratic coalition that resisted the waves of liberalism and democratization then sweeping Europe in an attempt to preserve their own, near-absolute, power against liberals, democrats, humanists and moderate centrists who demanded rule of law, civil rights and separation of church and state. It is a clash from which only one side emerges unscathed, while the other is left beaten and demoralized.

Culture wars are a godsend for leaders like Netanyahu and his U.S. ally Donald Trump. Both fuse all of their critics and rivals into one big and menacing blob leftist, subversive and heretical which seeks to seize power, impose its values, ride roughshod over their constituencies and annul all the glorious achievements bestowed on them by their cherished leader.

When the house is burning and liberal barbarians are at the gates, one cannot afford to indulge trifles such as checks and balances, honesty in government, the independence of the law or even simple human decency. Alls fair, you remember, in love and war, especially total war.

We didnt really need the recently revealed secret recordings by Netanyahus personal Rasputin, Natan Eshel, to know that the key to success in any self-made culture war is incitement to suspicion, resentment and hate. This has been Netanyahus weapon of choice ever since he was overheard 20 years ago, during his first tenure, whispering into the ear of a venerated rabbi: Leftists have forgotten what it means to be Jews. Nonetheless, it will be more than poetic justice if the Nathan Eshel tapes, in which the former chief of the premier's staff can be heard denigrating Likuds non-Ashkenazi voters and depicting them as suckers for manufactured hostility and animosity, will ultimately prove to be the turning point that led to Netanyahus downfall.

The eternal source for Netanyahus perpetually poisonous incitement, naturally, are Arabson either side of Israels borders. From them, all else flows. They are the beginning and the end of the all-inclusive equation by which Arabs = anti-Semites = self-hating Jews = leftists = Ashkenazim = elitists = academics = attorneys = journalists = all former Israeli security chiefs and anyone else who dares criticize Netanyahu, doubt his integrity or question his policies.

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The more ensnared Netanyahu became in his legal woes, the more his culture war strategy consumed him entirely. Netanyahus propaganda, once a ploy, became a true reflection of his soul. The big lie is the reality in which he lives while libel, defamation and gutter-politics have become his lingua franca.

This is why an election campaign, depicted as a dull reprise of the previous two campaigns held this year, nonetheless broke all known records for slime, filth and bile. On Monday night well find out if this crime pays as well.

A clear-cut Netanyahu victory means that his putsch succeeded: The only democracy in the Middle Ease will begin a steady slide to an autocratic regime no different than others. In the eyes of many of his opponents, a vote for Netanyahu is tantamount to a stab in Israels back.

A decisive victory by Benny Gantz wont bring any quick fix to Israels struggles and might actually spark greater tensions in the short term. Ultimately, however, a Gantz victory ensures the return of a semblance of sanity and moderation and, in the longer term, much to the dismay of Gantzs leftist supporters, an alliance between Kahol Lavan and a post-Netanyahu Likud. The common basis for mutual coexistence between left and right will be restored.

A third straight stalemate may be seen as the lesser evil for preventing Netanyahu from implementing his despotic designs but it nonetheless inflicts its own severe damage. The prospect of four straight elections will prolong current government paralysis, sow frustration and despondency and further erode public confidence in politics and democracy.

With Israel facing such a critical crossroads, there is no forgiveness and no absolution for those who persuade themselves that they have no one to vote for, politicians are all corrupt and nothing will change anyway. They couldnt be more wrong: Not everyones the same, not all politicians are bent and everything, but everything, could change, and for the worse. Not voting means abandoning oneself, ones family, friends, acquaintances and the public as a whole to Netanyahus toxic and hate-filled visions, toward which Israeli voters have hitherto marched en masse.

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Israel election: D-Day for democracy in the all-out culture war launched by Netanyahu - Haaretz