"Hearing firsthand about Islamic culture increased my understanding, but it also made me nervous about my own society. The very things we resist in Islam, some Christians find tempting. We, too, seek political power and a legal code that reflects revealed morality. We, too, share a concern about raising our children in a climate of moral decadence. We, too, tend to see others (including Muslims) as a stereotyped community, rather than as individuals. Will we turn toward our own version of the harsh fundamentalism sweeping Islam today?" - Phillip Yancey, seeing the Christianist temptation, and resisting it.
I fear that, to some extent, the transition has already occurred in America. The article, however, is in the evangelical magazine, Christianity Today. And, to my mind, it's a very hopeful indicator of where the debate about faith and power is headed. There are many more evangelical Christians queasy about their leadership's capitulation to power and control than you'd believe from the press or the GOP leadership. They are beginning to fight back to reclaim their faith from those who want to use it to gain power.