Jimmy Carter Democrats vs. Karl Rove Republicans

Kudos to M.C. Blakemore for his essay "Church split: Will Jimmy Carter Democrats take on Karl Rove Republicans" in today's Athens News (Ohio). Blakemore writes,

Anyone who thinks that all Christians -- especially conservative Christians -- can be lumped together in a monolithic bloc has never gone through a church split. That's when all the good Christians in a congregation viciously turn against all the other good Christians over some point of doctrine or decorum until the fighting gets so bad the whole church splinters. Incidentally, such infighting went on long before any of the recent scuffles over gays in the pulpit. The history of the church is replete with schisms, not the least of which turns on the seemingly innocuous question of whether sinners should be baptized with a sprinkle of water on the forehead or fully dunked in a tub.

While Karl Rove may have gotten a phalanx of Christian voters to act as one on Election Day, he could find himself herding cats instead of docile sheep when he tries to ram through the next phase of the right-wing agenda. Not to mention the fact that all the pontificating about the impact of Christian conservative voters has riled up the Jimmy Carter Democrats. They're the voters who remember that as president, Carter was a bona fide "born again" Christian back when George Bush was still hitting the bottle. They truly believe in Jesus, but don't believe what the current president tells them about the war in Iraq.

Blakeman's essay hits several nails straight on the head.