According to an exit poll taken following the 1994 election, 33% of those who voted consider themselves "born-again evangelicals." This compares with 24% in 1992, 18% in 1988 and just 10% in the midterm election in 1990.

Recently, while commenting on the results of the November 8th elections and the apparent move to the right led by conservative Christians, the Reverend Jesse Jackson criticized Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition, saying that it was the ‘same kind of coalition’ that stood by and/or aided the Nazi’s in their persecution of the Jews throughout Europe, and the same ‘White-Christian church’ that supported the institution of slavery in this country.

Surely Reverend Jackson is not being critical of Christians who are politically active, for that would seem to include himself, Dr. King, and a great many others who were active in the civil rights movement; but would it be fair to say that the Reverend is attacking those particular Christians who stand at the opposite pole of the political spectrum? Furthermore, is it the Reverend Jackson’s intention to destroy the messenger because he dislikes the message? With the advent of alternative media outlets the American people have honed their comprehensive skills and have acquired a fervent desire for substance over symbolism; therefore the choice becomes much clearer: Put forth a weak defense of a failed and disdained socialist agenda, or attack by distorting your adversaries' convictions and implying that they are racist Nazis.

Christians and Slavery

While no one would dispute the fact that there were Christians who owned slaves, Christians active in the slave trade, and even Christian leaders defending slavery from their pulpits, it is a huge leap and a reckless charge to say that these men who acted contrary to scripture and Christian principle are "the same kind" of coalition as the millions of Americans who take an active role in politics today. Many of those who risked and indeed ultimately gave their lives for their black brothers and sisters in running the underground railroad happened to be Christian men and women, and while it may not bode well with the revisionist historians, it was not an ACLU lawyer who put together the Emancipation Proclamation. It is interesting that the Reverend Jackson fails to acknowledge these, thus giving credence to the wisdom of one social historian as he quipped, "You can sometimes know more of a man by the history he chooses to ignore than by that in which he is the most fond of telling." William Wilberforce, the man who dragged England down the road to emancipation and an end to the slave trade, was at one point so discouraged he was about to abandon his political life for the ministry. He was talked out of it by his evangelical pastor who told him he could do more for God where he was and inspired him to continue in the ministry he already had: the abolition of modern slavery. That pastor’s name was John Newton, the man that put his testimony into song and penned what was to be America’s favorite hymn, AMAZING GRACE. Newton was no stranger to the slave trade, for before he came to Christ, he himself had spent his livelihood trading in "human cargo."

It is interesting to note that every time the Reverend Jackson and even the members of the major media mention Pat Robertson they focus on his political affiliations and always ignore his social contributions; their voices thunder anxiously that "his organization distributed 33 million voter guides" and mysteriously fall mute when his other organization, OPERATION BLESSING, gave away approximately $93 million in monetary relief helping over 114 million poor people internationally. It is an interesting note that OPERATION BLESSING disburses 90 cents out of every dollar contributed by donors while Reverend Jackson’s preferred method -- the Federal government’s mandate through the tax code -- can only deliver 28 cents on the dollar (who ever said government is a not for profit organization?).

Christians and Nazis

While the religious left would like us to believe that Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed goose-stepped through the streets of Berlin in brownshirts holding hands with Adolf Eichmann and passing out autographed copies of Mein Kampf, they know that that would be rather difficult to substantiate; instead they make the brazen allegation that "they were the same kind...", a phrase that I am sure has been worn out at meetings of the reprehensible Ku Klux Klan. But what of Christian activity or lack thereof in Hitler’s Germany? While it would be wrong to say that every professing Christian in Europe was militantly opposed to Nazi doctrine, it would be foolhardy to assume that they approved of it. Genuine Christianity must be distinguished from nominal Christianity. As the journalist Pat Buchanan states, "At one time all of Europe was considered Christian Europe, so every horrid thing that took place was done by a so-called Christian." In the 4th century a.d. the Roman emperor Theodosius decreed the empire officially Christian, and literally overnight an empire of pagans became "Christians." Should a responsible historian then conclude that thereafter, every time a Roman soldier introduced his short-sword to the vitals of some barbarian he did so as a Christian? The Nazi leader Ludendorff in his last Manifesto writes, "The days of the Cross are counted... We must deliver the German nation from the pernicious influence of Christianity."

In a memorandum submitted to Hitler himself on June 4, 1936, the German Evangelical Church wrote, "When, within the compass of the National Socialist view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one’s neighbor still stands, for him, opposed to it." In a quote that I am sure will come as a surprise to the Reverend Jackson, the exiled physicist, Albert Einstein said,

"Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks... Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."

A Gallup poll taken in the 1980s revealed that next to Jews, fundamentalist and evangelical Christians are the most pro-Israel group in America. For the Reverend Jackson to make such inflammatory remarks about his brothers in Christ, while lacking the smallest shred of evidence to corroborate his allegations and even while the preponderance of evidence would suggest the exact opposite conclusions, one would be led to believe that there is some unforeseen agenda that assumes a higher priority with the Reverend than does truth itself. Jesse, you do not have to be an Einstein to realize that "it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."