Every person - and I mean every person - who calls themselves a Bible-believing Christian and is registered to vote on 8 February should make it their spiritual duty to go to the polling booth and vote for pro-life candidates.
I certainly do not think outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had my youngest son’s 25th birthday in mind when he called the 8 February Dail General Election, but it could turn into ‘Super Saturday Birthday Party’ for the Christian Churches if they play their cards rights and mobilise their flocks.
The Christian faith in the South of Ireland has taken a series of really damaging body blows in recent years. But 8 February represents the perfect opportunity for an unofficial Christian Coalition of TDs to emerge in the next Dail.
In the past, I have emphasised the need that if Christians cannot defend Biblical values using the route of traditional political parties, perhaps the time has come to form an all-island Irish Christian Party to represent the ideals of evangelical Christians.
At that time, Assembly elections were looming in Northern Ireland, so my call sparked quite a bit of debate, especially on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence programme.
Needless to say, to get my idea of an Irish Christian Party up and running with candidates selected for every constituency across the 26 Counties is realistically beyond reach. So what’s the Plan B for evangelical Christians in the Dail showdown?
A reality check is needed first. How serious is the situation facing evangelical Christianity in the Republic, given that at one time, the South was seen as one of the strongest bastions for Catholicism outside of the Vatican?
For Christians, Southern Ireland is now one of the most liberal democracies and secular societies in Western Europe. The various clerical and sexual abuse scandals which have rocked the Catholic Church in Southern Ireland, along with referenda defeats for Biblical Christianity on same-sex marriage, divorce and abortion have placed the Republic well on the road to being branded a staunchly pluralist society. How - and even can - the evangelical Christian faith hit back?
In the Catholic Church, it is fair to conclude that the power of the Irish Bishops has been irreparably smashed. Gone are their glory days when leading politicians like Eamon de Valera would have consulted the Bishops’ views before making speeches and passing legislation.
For a start, there is so much theological infighting in the Christian faith, that getting a common agreed manifesto would even be an achievement in itself, let alone getting the Christian voters out on 8 February.
However, there is one area where Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists and socially conservative Christians can agree - the need to protect the unborn child. For Biblical Christianity, life begins at conception, not birth.
The Churches need to get the message across to their flocks - quiz the candidates in your constituency where they stand on the rights and protection of the unborn. That could see some unusual voting trends across the 26 Counties.
While polls may predict that the majority of TDs from a single party in next Dail coming from either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail, a coalition government is the most likely final outcome. But surely there must be candidates from across the political spectrum who believe passionately in the rights of the unborn?
No matter what their party affiliation, think of how the Christian faith can be politically ‘reborn’ if the majority of TDs in the next Dail were pro-life? That could form the basis of a Christian Coalition in Leinster House in the same way as the Moral Majority exercises political influence in the United States.
This is not to suggest that the fringe pro-life party, Aontu, will make sweeping gains across the 26 Counties, but the party could win enough seats to make it a strong contender for a post as a minority partner in a coalition government.
With Brexit looming on 31 January - just days before the Dail poll - the border constituencies could play a vital role in shaping the next Dail. Boris Johnston’s Tory Government may be spinning the political yarn about ‘no hard border’, but could such a pipe dream become an economic ‘hard border’ reality as we get deeper into 2020?
In this scenario, voters in Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and Leitrim - the Southern counties which geographically border on Northern Ireland - will play a vital role.
Ironically, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald’s suggestion that a united Ireland could host Twelfth celebrations could backfire badly on the republican movement.
Those four border counties all host very active Orange lodges, and the annual pre-Twelfth ‘Donegal Dander’ at the coastal village of Rossnowlagh is steadily becoming one of the best-attended and most popular demonstrations in the Orange calendar.
If the Protestant Loyal Orders were to mobilise their members and supporters in those four border counties to vote for pro-life candidates of whatever political shade, it could tip the balance in favour of either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael in terms of the final make-up of the next coalition government.
Perhaps a step too soon for the Loyal Orders and evangelical Protestant denominations in the Republic for the 8 February election would be the creation of an Irish Unionist Party to contest border constituencies - but it could be on the ‘to do’ list for a post Brexit Ireland.
There can be no doubting that Brexit will isolate Southern Ireland geographically from the rest of the European Union, perhaps even economically heralding another collapse in the so-called Celtic Tiger economy.
If that becomes the case, evangelical Christians and the four Southern border County Orange lodges should campaign for either Irexit (the Republic following the UK out of the EU), or the Republic joining the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association of nations, or even the Republic leaving the eurozone and reintroducing the Irish punt.
But this is a long-term Plan B. The immediate strategy for Christians in the Republic is for 8 February - to form a Christian Coalition in the next Dail comprised of TDs who are strongly pro-life.
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to Dr John Coulter’s religious show, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 9.30 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM, or listen online at www.thisissunshine.com
This column is always good entertainment value!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Barry, this piece is great entertainment value, that is if it weren't so absolutely galling and absurd. If Dr. Coulter would like "The South" to be an evangelical theocracy, he should move to South Carolina and set up shop there. That should be plenty southern and plenty evangelical.
ReplyDeleteHe writes, "The various clerical and sexual abuse scandals which have rocked the Catholic Church in Southern Ireland, along with referenda defeats for Biblical Christianity on same-sex marriage, divorce and abortion have placed the Republic well on the road to being branded a staunchly pluralist society." Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord. The Republic of Ireland praised with faint damnation.
In fact, we need more staunchly pluralist societies, albeit ones where freedom of speech is staunchly defended from fascists on the right and PC warriors on the left, societies with a spirit of live and let live, with ironclad separation of church and state. That Irish couples could not get a divorce until fairly recently is truly mind blowing. The number of Irish husbands and wives in failed marriages prevented from getting timely divorces even now post-referendum is a sad reminder of how the Roman Catholic church managed to pour cement around married couples, forcing them to escape their living hell with a pen knife.
American Catholics still go to priests for marriage counseling. That's pretty amusing for reasons that need no explanation. Are evangelicals and Protestants in the United States more enlightened on marriage? Not much. Some denominations are much worse, their leaders the equivalent of John Calvin, the Puritan patriarchs, or Big Ian. The Christian party that Coulter calls for in Ireland certainly could coalesce in the rural South and Midwest of the United States. If we Americans could branch out from our two party system, a party for evangelicals could go its own way, allowing the Republican Party (GOP) to reclaim part of its lost Lincoln soul.
Many whites living in the American South have felt emboldened in the Trump era and as a result have returned to some of the South's most time honored reactionary traditions, including that little ol' thing called racism. Ireland doesn't want to go there. Please don't Ireland.
When Trump and his mannequin wife entered the Super Dome in New Orleans for the recent college football championship between Louisiana State University (southern) and Clemson (southern), he was cheered by the fans and faithful with a rebel yell -- not Billy Idol's, the secesh one. He's popular down there in the Deep South. So is phony Christian purity. Folks, we could go on for days, suffice to say there's some men you just can't reach. It's hard to communicate that we now live in the 21st century. Must be tough on them evangelicals. Bless their hearts.
"For Christians, Southern Ireland is now one of the most liberal democracies and secular societies in Western Europe. The various clerical and sexual abuse scandals which have rocked the Catholic Church in Southern Ireland, along with referenda defeats for Biblical Christianity on same-sex marriage, divorce and abortion have placed the Republic well on the road to being branded a staunchly pluralist society. How - and even can - the evangelical Christian faith hit back?"
ReplyDeleteI beg your fucking pardon Coulter?