John W. Whitehead, founding member of the Council for National Policy, now echoes Frank Schaeffer and David Kuo in noting how the GOP appropriated Christianity for its own agenda. I found this vlog interesting because he speaks to an emerging pattern of conservative evangelical dissatisfaction with the collaborationist politics of the past. While some advocate a new compassionate internationalism, some preach local creation care, others, like Whitehead, articulate a chastened, outsider approach to evangelicalism in public life.

Whitehead writes:

Inevitably, speaking truth to power will mean standing outside the political establishment and criticizing the political Herods of this world, i.e., the government and its policies. When it comes right down to it, the most appropriate role of religion in politics lies in its ability to define moral issues and speak truth to power. The voice of moral authority, enabled and enhanced by its spiritual roots and raised without dependence upon the legitimacy of the state, will always be the highest expression of true freedom.