Quote:
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One will quite often perceive amid Evangelical circles a pious sense of disdain for academics and intellectualism. This occurs on the grounds of the virtue that accompanies populism in America. We have come to champion the "self-made man" and the "voice of the people". In fact, the populist nature of religion necessitates that matters of the heart must bypass the intellect: truth comes not through study but rather prayer and new and non-falsifiable forms of personal revelation.
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Way too many points for me to tackle but the frustrating thing is that sure it's a good idea to search for personal revelation but with out the facts and the idea that the Bible is open to some interpretation, these people are being used and led around by their noses by certain immoral elites that they profess to disdain. I'm thinking of the Tea Party here.
This brings up another point of modern evangelism, that since they are doing god's work in opposition to the ungodly, they don't have to abide by the moral precepts outside of their own circle.
I agree that matters of the heart override the intellect, but you just don't throw your intellect out the window as some of these people do. They become pawns ready to be filled up with just some horrible ideas. God gave us a brain, it's up to us to use it with some truly independent thought.