Falwell says "Vote Christian"

Since I am all about opening up cans of worms, I thought I would comment on the latest from Jerry Falwell. He is taking some flack about encouraging his supporters to "Vote Christian". I am mostly amused by the predictable reactions on both sides.

"Vote Christian". Wow! So inflammatory. I can already see the Public Theologians of the blogosphere shouting this down with cries of the coming theocracy and other such nonsense. So a part of me wants to ask what the fuss is about this, especially considering that this is one of the more tame things that Falwell has said.

However, another part of me wants to know what voting Christian would entail. Would it mean voting for prayer in public schools? Hmmm...I'm opposed to that. Would it mean supporting public displays of the Ten Commandments? I could care less about that. Would it mean spending more federal money on "conservative" programs? Not ever going to find me supporting such an idea under any circumstance.

I suppose I am most irritated by those such as Jim Wallis, Public Theologian, Chuck Currie, and Faithful Progressive who criticize conservative Christians for trying to claim that certain conservative political positions are Christian, when they themselves are guilty of the same thing, only regarding liberal/progressive positions.

I'd rather see more humility in the public sphere as it relates to proclaiming certain political positions to be more "Christian" than others. That isn't to say that Christians shouldn't speak out boldly about various issues such as slavery or abortion. But as much as I support privatizing Social Security, you won't catch me claiming that it is the Christian thing to do so (nor would the opposite necessarily be the Christian thing to do).