Now I do not want to be offensive to Americans, but for most Christians this side of the Atlantic, the whole mixture of politics and religion over there has long been baffling.

We do not understand how for huge parts of middle America, faith,culture, patriotism and culture have become so inseparable. This is so far removed from the role played by faith in the UK that we might be describing a different planet.

What we do hear about over here are the extremes- and they are usually right wing extremes. Televangelists, and those who use a Bible to beat down anything Black/homosexual/feminist/communist/Arab and perhaps above all, this word Liberal.

For us, you see, the word Liberal is mostly a good word- meaning generous, open and forgiving. If applied to politics, it means a rather irrelevant middle-of-the-road political party that is neither one thing nor the other.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian the other day suggesting that the Christian left wing is on the rise in America. Power to them I say, but it remains to be seen whether the left wingers will produce anything as gloriously mad as their Christian brethren on the right.

I spent some time a few years ago amongst some really lovely folk in Maryland who were Southern Baptists. I had been invited over to lead some worship and do some workshops and went in some trepidation, fearing that we had little in common. However I was made ludicrously welcome, and came to have a lot of respect for Conservative Christianity, despite my totally different perspective and convictions.

What I was most shocked by was how things that I thought of as universally bad and against the Kingdom of God- for example rampant free market economics- could be viewed seen as right and proper, and the only option for a Christian democracy.

I came across Conservapedia today- which aims to be a Conservative religious alternative to Wikipedia. It is well worth checking out for those of us who live this side of the Atlantic and find it difficult to understand the political dimension of American religion, and its influence on the world view of half of the most powerful nation in the world.

Despite the fact that ‘The Free World’ has a black Liberal President, I think we need to be aware of this engine for thought in the US- not necessarily to challenge it and attack, but certainly to understand it better.

For example, I notice that they are touting something called the Conservative Bible Poject which is an attempt to produce a translation of the Bible that avoids ‘liberal bias’ (presumably by ensuring Conservative bias.) They have 10 rule that they are applying to the task-

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other feminist distortions; preserve many references to the unborn child (the NIV deletes these)
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level^[3]
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms to capture better the original intent;^[4] Defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words that have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction^[5] by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”;^[6] using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Inauthentic Passages: excluding the interpolated passages that liberals commonly put their own spin on, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”

Check it out- it’s an education…