Rick Santorum made a splash last weekend at CPAC St. Louis when he said that conservatives need to be better at getting their message across. “Jesus never compromised on what was right –but he told people stories so they could understand it,” the former senator said.
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Tabitha Hale covered the speech for Rare.
I’m sure Santorum made some good points, but I could practically hear a large section of America’s youth groaning – mainly because that’s what I would’ve done at their age. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Jesus fan. Everything about the man’s philosophy makes sense to me. Always has, always will.
I love my Christian friends dearly and have profound respect for their faith. Faith, yes. Organized religion, not so much. When I was younger, I conflated the two without reservation. I think most of America, especially the youth, do exactly the same thing today.
While I would never say conservatives should mask their beliefs, enlarging the tent would be better accomplished by discourse on political liberty, not religion, no matter how axiomatic and morally great Jesus’s message happens to be. People conflate. They associate. There’s nothing you can do to stop this from happening.
Let’s apply what I’m saying here to abortion. A more appealing argument is to assert that abortion denies the unborn citizen his or her civil liberties. Many of those we want to persuade simply don’t believe in God or that Jesus was the son of God. You’re not going to win them over by talking about “God’s will.” Pro-life Christians already loathe abortion. Don’t preach to the choir. Get in the trenches with the non-believers and sell them liberty.
For many, all of this Jesus talk brings to mind the hierarchical church and slippery proselytizers like Joel Osteen. Young people in particular recoil from this kind of authoritarian rhetoric.
Just think about the song lyrics that resonated with you as you were coming of age. For Gen-Xers, such as myself, it was:
- 1989: “Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row: “Boss screamin’ in my ear about who I’m supposed to be.”
- 1983: “Metal Health” by Quiet Riot: “Teacher says that I’m one big pain.”
- 1981: “Flying High Again” by Ozzy Osbourne: “Mama’s gonna worry. I’ve been a bad, bad boy. No use sayin’ sorry. It’s something that I enjoy.”
- 1984: “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran: “They tried to tame you. Looks like they’ll try again.”
For every age and generation, it’s always about rebellion, sex, alienation, disaffection, not being told what to do, and solidarity in opposition to power. Much of American art is about resistance, not comformity. Who does Santorum think he’s winning over by making Christian establishment movies?
He’s certainly right about one thing: Pictures are more effective than graphs, and people are guided more by emotion than logic. And while logic dictates that Joel Osteen and Rick Santorum are not the same person, people tend to conflate things out of laziness, economy of thought and effort, or general apathy. It’s just the way it is. People are busy.
Rick Santorum and Joel Osteen both sell messages for a living. They both wear suits. They both mention Jesus. The Republican Party is generally seen as the moralistic party, the party that is beholden to the Christian Right. Rick Santorum is now the head of a Christian film company.
The conservative movement constantly complains about people lacking critical thinking skills, and then we require them to distinguish between two similar – but not identical – emotional touchstones.
If you want to persuade young Americans, don’t make them work for it. Sell them something they’re already inclined to want: Liberty!