Hewitt Backs a Bold Faith

Hugh Hewitt--attorney, Chapman University law professor, co-host of KCET’s “Life & Times Tonight”--has issued his religious manifesto.

“The Embarrassed Believer” (Word Books, 1998; 206 pages, $19.99) exhibits both Hewitt’s acute intelligence and his propensity to see the world through conservative religious lenses. In 30 short, sprightly written and cogently argued chapters, the author examines central themes of evangelical Christianity such as the “diseased” character of American society, Jesus as the one way to salvation, the reality of hell and the shallowness of many popular books on spirituality.

Hewitt contends that Christians have been far too timid in letting the general public know about their beliefs and morality. He wants to change that by insisting believers go public with their convictions.

According to Hewitt, the most important way Christians can overcome their embarrassment is by becoming more theologically literate. He would like to see senior pastors preach a series on what theology is and on the great theologians and their key works. That would certainly be a corrective to the exclusive focus on the Bible--absent adequate interpretation by such giants as Augustine, Luther and Karl Barth--that permeates much of the preaching in conservative evangelical churches.

As Hewitt puts it, preaching “is a teaching job, not a therapy session.” The book makes clear that Hewitt’s inspiration for greater emphasis on sound theology is the eminent British author and Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).

A recurring theme is a critique of the anti-religious bias of such major newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which Hewitt describes as “nihilist and rudderless yet powerfully influential.”

When I pressed him about that in a telephone interview, he reiterated his position and gave as an example the Opinion section of Sunday’s L.A. Times in which the four articles about President Clinton on the first page were by “nonbelievers.” Clearly the four writers don’t hold the same political views as Hewitt, who called for Clinton’s resignation in his Aug. 27 column in OC Metro. Their religious beliefs are also probably quite different, but the nonbeliever tag seems overdrawn.

Still, Hewitt presents several valid examples of how leading papers and magazines have misrepresented or ridiculed the beliefs of conservative Christians. He may also be correct that the views and activities of the nation’s 70 million to 80 million evangelical Christians deserve fuller coverage in the general media.

Questioned about the dangers of his exclusivist or Jesus-is-the-one-way theology in our pluralist country, Hewitt responded that exclusivist theology is the enemy of exclusivist politics; that dictatorships, whether political or religious, don’t work; then reminded me that there would be no pluralism in America without “an evangelical undergirding.” He was referring to the awareness of human sinfulness that led the framers of the Constitution to create the division of powers and to guarantee that there would be neither an established religion nor a curtailment of religious freedom.

It is ironic that the exclusivist Hewitt quotes extensively from Rabbi Harold Kushner and Muslim scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. And he comments near the end of his new book, in reference to his one-way theology: “I do pray there is something not revealed to us that will operate after this life. God is all-merciful.”

Hewitt told me his aim is to be “a public intellectual” in the tradition of political scientist James Q. Wilson and columnist George Will. He feels he is in a unique position as an author and media critic to examine the intersection of religion and public life. That was certainly true of his 1996 book “Searching for God in America,” based on the award-winning PBS series of the same name. It consists of interviews with a cross-section of influential religionists--from Charles Colson to the Dalai Lama--followed by selections from America’s “spiritual treasury” from the Mayflower Compact to Martin Luther King Jr.

In fact, it was the positive response to “Searching,” along with a sense of exile among evangelicals, that led Hewitt to write “The Embarrassed Believer.” Though he values the opportunities afforded by his TV work to present his viewpoint, Hewitt thinks it is books that really change lives. So he is working an another one that will be like his latest but more secular in character.

I found myself disagreeing with many of Hugh Hewitt’s conclusions. Yet I value his clear intellect and obvious integrity nonetheless. He will keep liberal religionists and politicians on their toes; he will inspire conservatives but make them, too, do their homework.

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Benjamin J. Hubbard is professor and chairman of the Department of Comparative Religion at Cal State Fullerton. He can be reached by e-mail at bhubbard@fullerton.edu