Two New York Times writers describe a January 14th meeting of 150 evangelicals that produced a major endorsement for Rick Santorum for President:
A week before the South Carolina primary, a group of more than 100 influential Christian conservatives gathered at a ranch here and voted overwhelmingly to rally behind Mr. Santorum. An organizer described the vote as an “unexpected supermajority,” a decision that was intended to help winnow the Republican field and consolidate the opposition to Mr. Romney….
The extent to which those attending the meeting will be able to mobilize their followers behind Mr. Santorum remains unclear. The group’s vote is not binding on participants and the leaders did not directly ask Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Perry to drop out of the race.
David Neff was at that meeting, and, as he attests for Christianity Today, he considers himself more a fly on the wall during that exchange than an active participant in it. With a little distance and time from that conclave, he ponders the power (and, sometimes, illusion) of choice- and king-making.
We are tempted to think we can be kingmakers and powerbrokers, that we can deliver or withhold the support of a voting bloc. But if there is any lesson in the story of this year’s primary elections, it is this: evangelicals have not voted as a bloc and many are not following their leaders….
We should … exercise influence by focusing our talent on the institutions of influence—the universities, think tanks, and media outlets where elites shape culture. James Davison Hunter advocated this approach in his book, To Change the World. But he didn’t advocate it as a strategy for cultural change so much as an exercise in serving the common good.
In 2010, Hunter told Christianity Today, “Whenever Christian churches and organizations partake in the will to power, they partake in the very thing they decry in society.”
An interesting/related item(/byproduct?):
Leading The Way ministries pastor Michael Youssef is endorsing Newt Gingrich, whom he once compared to King David. He claims that only Gingrich “truly understands” the “threat to Western civilization, threat to our way of life, threat to the American Constitution.”
When Yousseff is described as far right, it’s no joke. He has flatly stated that neither Episcopalians nor Presbyterians can possibly be Christians.