When I was a young Baptist Preacher's Kid, and evangelicals distinguished themselves from other churches by preaching religious doctrine, and not, like today, distinguishing themselves from liberalism by preaching conservative doctrine, they espoused the doctrine of free will, i.e., God allows us to choose our faith (in their words, "choose salvation or damnation").

This doctrine has passed with the rise of the Christian Right (as have many others, including the rejection of ecumenicism, when the pro-life movement forced them to forge alliances with the Catholic Church).

Originally, however, the doctrine of free will stood in contrast to the doctrine of predestination, which taught that our fates have already been decided by God, who has known since the beginning of time who would be saved and who would be damned.

Since that doctrine is as contrary to the Christian Right agenda as free will, the new evangelism has created a new, unspoken doctrine that would have been considered heresy by Catholic, Orthodox, traditional Protestant, and evangelical churches: That God's will is to impose his law on every human being. This idea hearkens back to the radical view of Moses that the lands of Canaan be purged of unbelievers.

In the Christian Right's vision, secular society is a metaphorical Gaza and Palestine, and must be eradicated for the nation to remain pure.

This stands in stark contrast to the words of Jesus who taught the law must be written in the heart. In my experience, once the law is written on the heart, we realize our only mission is to be an example to others, and not enforcers of God's will.