What are the names of some famous liberal Christians?

[Onlooker]

Just wondering who else besides Martin Luther King are among the great liberal preachers in any branch of Christianity?

[chalky]

1. Jimmy Carter. Oh--are you limiting this to preachers?

n/t

[Onlooker]

4. Not just preachers

... but people who are known to be driven more by religion than politics. I think Carter is an example of that.

[FreedomAngel82]

36. Yes

He also does a Sunday school class. My town's mayor is sooo much like Mr. Carter. Only thing is he's an indie.

[Melodybe]

126. Hugo Chavez!

Read this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4808484

And no, I'm not kidding

[cwydro]

6. oops, sorry

chalky, we musta posted at the same time...great minds...and all that...

[cwydro]

2. not a preacher

but how 'bout Jimmy Carter? :7

[me b zola]

Jesus.

[cwydro]

13. yep

I'm not religious, but I would agree there.

[karlrschneider]

43. Some 'liberal' points from JC

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of
God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[cwydro]

60. hmmmm

in light of recent events in NOLA...this has a certain something...not sure what....

[adarling]

3. Jesus

Not to be a smartass but i believe he was a liberal :). There are alot, google christian and liberal, you might find something

[cwydro]

68. yep

I would agree he was a liberal too...

[spindoctor]

81. Jesus was not a Christian, he was a Jew.

He can, after all, hardly follow himself :)

[Poiuyt]

115. Jesus was a Jew, but Matthew would be considered a Christian

Matthews teachings were very liberal

[radio4progressives]

5. who cares? n/t

SEPARATION OF CHURCH and STATE PLEASE.

Christians do your thing whatever it is, worship how you please but just leave me and our democracy, our constitution, and our laws out of it!

ok?

please!

[Onlooker]

9. I'm arguing in another forum

I'm arguing in another message board where people seem to be assuming all Christians are right-wing.

[flowomo]

15. you don't need to defend this question....

it's fair and relevant enough

[radio4progressives]

20. sorry..... i've just had it up to the eye balls with so called Christian

"values" as defined by the domininists and other extremists whose demented psychotic, logic bending delusions have been allowed to hijack the public fora of this country.

[flowomo]

26. well, I'm with ya on that....

this seemed different.

[kestrel91316]

87. Don't confuse Christofascists with True Followers of Christ:

you will know them by their fruits. Or whatever.

Most intelligent folks can tell the two apart easily enough.

[stlsaxman]

100. They pray in the front pews, making a mockery of those truly spiritual.

[progdonkey]

66. I think you're looking at it the wrong way...

You're letting them put you on the defensive. By coming up with famous liberal Christians, you're just providing them with "exceptions that prove the rule." You need to get them on the defensive and ask exactly what parts of Jesus' teachings are conservative. Chapter and Verse. I guarantee 90%--if not all--of their citations will come from the Old Testament, rather than from Jesus.

Don't let them set the terms of the debate. Instead of trying to drum of liberal Christians, force them to show you a conservative Jesus!

:toast:

[I Have A Dream]

82. Very good point, progdonkey. It doesn't matter how many...

conservative "Christians" they can name, Jesus said that we'll know God's followers by their fruits.

[Ladyhawk]

85. I think progdonkey is onto something here.

They won't care about Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Jimmy Carter, etc.

[jobycom]

21. So, you'd throw out MLK, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton

etc because they were Christian?

[dsc]

104. Yeah shame on MLK for bringing Christian principals to government

I just wish he had stayed home and kept his Christian nose out of the government of the South. sarcasm in case someone is very dense

[flowomo]

7. Jesse and Al of course

[stepnw1f]

8. Was Going to Say Ghandi, but...

that Christian thing got in the way again.

:evilgrin:

[The Traveler]

10. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Anthropologist. Evolutionist. Very devout Catholic Priest.

[flowomo]

14. and Bonhoeffer...

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERbonhoffer.htm

[faithnotgreed]

45. oh yeah... dietrich bonhoeffer

corrie ten boom

thomas merton

to name a few

[flowomo]

11. John XXIII...

if any pope can be considered "liberal" -- in context he sure was.

[chalky]

12. Bishop Tutu.

n/t

[cwydro]

16. right again

good choice chalky...I'm drawing a blank...
a very good question thread...

[faithnotgreed]

47. i love hearing him on american tv - he tells some great truths

good example

[DanCa]

17. Jim Wallis and Andrew Greely.

[DanCa]

18. Al Sharpton and Rev Jesse Jackson - nt.

[Laughing Mirror]

133. Ditto

and they're the best Christianity has to offer too.

[cwydro]

19. Now don't laugh y'all

but how 'bout Clinton?

[jobycom]

25. He claimed to be Christian, and certainly acted more Christian than Bush

or any number of conservative "Christian" leaders.

[cwydro]

31. yes, my point exactly

isn't there some quote in the Bible about "works" versus words...not sure...

[jobycom]

34. Lots of quotes like that

Jesus claimed there would be false Christians who would lead even the elect astray. When asked how to tell a false Christian, he said "You will know them by their fruits."

Something like that. I'm an atheist, so it's been a while since I read the Bible.

[kestrel91316]

89. There is wisdom in the bible whether or not you believe in a god -

try reading Proverbs. Also if you have a red letter version and just read the red letters (Jesus'words) it filters out a lot of the useless cr--.

[FreedomAngel82]

41. Yes

James said in his book "faith without works is dead."

[cwydro]

56. wow,

amazed at myself that I rememberd that...thanks for the quote...though not religious, I do like a lot of the Bible...

[FreedomAngel82]

39. I think Clinton is a baptist

Remember earlier this year he appeared at Billy Graham's thing in NYC and Graham said Clinton should go into preaching and Hillary should be president. But Billy Graham is another one. He's a registered democrat.

[jobycom]

52. Billy Graham endorsed Bush over Gore, so to me

he's not a democrat or a Christian. His anti-semitic comments and his years of lying about them didn't help his image, either.

[Tsiyu]

65. have to agree

The way Graham and his church have treated his daughters is despicable

[flowomo]

28. not much of a liberal in too many ways for my tastes

[cwydro]

35. I'm intrigued...

who IS a liberal in your view...

[flowomo]

40. wellstone for one

[cwydro]

53. ok

i got ya there...going on with that...
I'm thinking Lieberman might qualify...

"Christian" as being defined as religion maybe is too constrictive..."Christian" as a way of life, a philosophy, an outlook...opens up a new way of looking at things. But as I said I am not religious...so perhaps I should not comment. Spirituality is important to me however...it is just not institutionalized or denominational.

[flowomo]

55. interesting take, though.

not sure how comfortable Joe would be with that. I'm not religious either, though I did go to a Jesuit high school.

[cwydro]

63. yikes on the Jesuit thing

bet there's some stories there...

[flowomo]

64. ah, they're mostly all liberals who cudn;t get a regular job

:)

[banjosareunderrated]

86. i'll affirm what flowomo said...

the jesuits I knew in jesuit high school and jesuit college were devout liberals who only veered away from me on abortion. As a matter of fact, in my H.S., (University of Detroit Jesuit) MOST of the jesuit priests would tell you that the mainstream xtians were fake and nothing more than looters and sadists that tried to incense their parish into hating some person or people just to fill their coffers.

but they believed in peace, science, and philosophy, and, even in a jesuit high school, one of my junior year classes was "Religions of the World" in which we were taught, without prejudice, about most major religious philosophies.

It was their teaching that actually led me away from catholicism, and on more than one occasion, I was congratulated by jesuits for being an atheist because I backed it up.

A lot of Xtian organizations deserve their insane, hateful reps., but the Jesuits don't, imho.

[I Have A Dream]

69. You're probably aware that Lieberman is Jewish. I'm only...

mentioning it just in case you weren't. (I wasn't sure what you were saying about "Christian". This may be what you meant.)

[jobycom]

54. Wellstone was a good liberal, and one of my favorites, but so was Clinton.

People condemn him for his compromises and lose sight of what would have happened without them.

[flowomo]

57. that's the problem...

I don't know what would have happened without them. I sensed and hoped there was a real, committed liberal under there... but so much got lost.

[jobycom]

109. Look at the Gingrich reform package

After the 94 Gingrich sweep of Congress, Clinton's approval rating was in the 30s, and Gingrich was very popular. Gingrich introduced a budget that basically rolled back government to pre-FDR reforms. Clinton took the lead on "reform," hacking away at welfare and social spending enough to look like a reformer, but retaining as much of the old structure as he could. His compromises defeated Gingrich's more aggressive bill.

Look at it this way. If we had a government basically at the level of the Coolidge government, and Clinton introduced the social spending and jobs programs that he managed to save, he'd be the new FDR in terms of liberalism. That's pretty much what he did, by preventing Gingrich from rolling us back to that era.

He also did a lot that was less obvious, like making it easier for states to actually get the assistance they qualified for from the federal government, on welfare and social programs. Reagan and Bush killed a lot of spending programs not by defeating them, but by making it impossible to actually get the money for them. Clinton made this easier.

He was a liberal with a very conservative Congress, and moved us far ahead of where we were. He dropped the poverty rate from 15% to 11%. He raised income levels in every bracket. He made the economy more mobile, so that people could climb out ot their income brackets. All of these have reversed under Bush, and all of those were improvements from Reagan/Bush.

I love the guy. Well, not everything about him. But he was the best we could hope for at the time. He was also the setup pitcher. When he took over people were afraid of liberalism. By moving us closer to it, he was setting the nation up for Gore to move even farther left. That's what we lost when the election was stolen (and it's why I hate Nader almost as badly as I hate Bush).

[wellstone dem]

129. wellstone was Jewish.

[wellstone dem]

130. as noted below

wellstone was jewish

[insanity]

22. I don't know how he stood politicaly

Darwin was a pastor though.
Also, Dean is a Christian.

[jobycom]

27. Darwin was an atheist.

[insanity]

61. Read the Voyage of The Beagle

Darwin was infact an Angelican Pastor. Only towards the end of his life did be begin to question faith.

[jobycom]

114. Long before the end of his life.

Darwin was never a pastor. He studied theology to become a pastor, because many naturalists of his time became pastors. It allowed them the time to study nature while receiving a pension. But Darwin never took holy orders.

He claims that he was "orthodox" on his voyage on the Beagle, but that even then he had begun to question his beliefs, and soon lost faith in the Old Testament. By the time he was thirty, he was beginning to question religion to the degree that his fiance asked for reassurances that he was a Christian, so she could meet him in the afterlife. By the time he was forty, over thirty years from his death, he had rejected religion altogether, though he claimed he was agnostic and not atheist.

His life is a journey away from Christianity, not a journey within Christianity, and he was conscious of this even while it was happening. However, since he relied on government pensions and public opinion for his livelihood, he kept his doubts from the public, even holding off publication of his theories for a decade, until he felt the political climate would allow it.

[alittlelark]

125. Darwin was no more an Atheist than Jefferson was

He was a scientist - and I would challenge anyone to show me where he said in 'Origin of the Species" that Man evolved from primates..... he NEVER said it! He stated that further research is warranted.


He is a widely misunderstood scientist. He threw out 'Origin..' because a competitor was almost ready to print.


He may have believed that humans evolved from more primitive primate forms, but he did not publish said beliefs (unless couched).


PS - evolution is the only logical reason for our existance.

[Az]

62. Not quite

Darwin was studying for the clergy before he took his trip. After that he renounced Christianity and was ambiguous about his belief in god. There was a Christian started rumor that a certain Lady Hope was at his deathbed and that he recanted his work and accepted Jesus. But this was refuted by his wife who really was at his deathbed and clearly stated no such person was ever present.

[flowomo]

23. name just about any well-known 20th c. liberal politician...

Teddy Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie.... they'd largely be Christians of one stripe or another.

[FreedomAngel82]

46. John Kennedy!

Don't forget him!

[flowomo]

49. well, Bobby too

all them rum-soaked Catlicks. Actually, JFK wasn't much of a liberal in many ways. Bobby was.

[DBoon]

24. Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day

and others

[Tallison]

110. Dorothy Day!

I still have a lifetime subscription to the Catholic Worker.

[JuJu Lazarus]

29. Yashua

[DanCa]

30. George Foreman and Chris Reeves.

I don't know how he voted in the last election but after readding his book George Foreman has lots of liberal traits.

[jobycom]

32. Cardinal Bernardin seemed pretty liberal.

[DanCa]

38. Bernadine was a great man and a liberal thats why they set him up.

Tom Laughlin also a Liberal Christian

[porphyrian]

33. Vincent DePaul

Another Catholic (Saint, actually). He did a bunch with and for the poor. Here's one link from Google:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintv01.htm

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. William Sloane Coffin, Bill Moyers,

Sister Helen Prejean, Bishop John Shelby Spong...

[kestrel91316]

90. Bishop Spong is GREAT! Love his books.

[DanCa]

42. John Kerry, Jfk, and Bruce Springsteen

[papercut]

48. Bruce Cockburn. Bono.

[DanCa]

50. welcome to DU papercut.

:hi:

[DanCa]

58. Mick Foley, the New Arch Bishop of CanterBury, Bishop Gene Robbinson,

[DanCa]

59. Mick Foley, the New Arch Bishop of CanterBury, Bishop Gene Robbinson,

[Douglas Carpenter]

44. George McGovern

He is the son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister. He attended Garret Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University near Chicago after learning of the christian social gospel while doing his undergraduate degree at Dakota Wesleyan University. He was briefly a student Methodist minister himself. Deciding later to switch his major at Northwestern University to history. Upon receiving his Phd he taught history for a number of years at Dakota Wesleyan University prior to entering politics. He has always been driven by the belief that the christian calling is a call to work for social justice and peace.

[flowomo]

51. and Gene McCarthy

[cwydro]

67. Mother Teresa?

Or has anyone mentioned her yet?

[I Have A Dream]

71. She was anti-choice. She may have been liberal on other things.

(I'm not sure.)

[Az]

74. Mixed bag

Not worth starting a flame war. Let it slide.

[cwydro]

79. didn't know her view on choice

Or Jesus' either for that matter...just going with the "works" thing again...don't think abortion probably figured much into her life...

She certainly lived her beliefs...and that counts...

[Az]

80. There are complexities

Suffice to say that Theresa has a complex background.

[cwydro]

84. life is complex

I think we are all more than our stand on one issue...I am pro-choice, but damn...my life cannot compare to hers in what she has given to others...not even close....

I understand what you are saying though...I guess we have to define "liberal" and where does that take us????

Oh dear, it is so late and this liberal is taking herself to bed...

[I Have A Dream]

108. Without a doubt, she was an amazing Christian. The OP...

asked for examples of "liberal" Christians. I'm not saying that she's not worthy of our complete respect. However, she WAS against abortion and even birth control. Therefore, I'd find it difficult to call her liberal based upon my personal definition of the word.

[I Have A Dream]

70. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu n/t

[banana republican]

72. THERE NUMBERS ARE LEGION

1) REINHOLD NIEBUHR (MORAL MAN & IMMORAL SOCIETY; CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS; NY, NY; 1932)
2) S. KIERKEGAARD ( JUST ABOUT ANYTHING HE WROTE BY NUMEROUS PUBLISHERS (MOST RECOMMENDED ( SOCRATES CONCEPT OF IRONY)
2) MARTIN BUBER (A RABI RECOMMENDED BY REINHOLD NIEBUHR) ( I & THOU; CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS; 1958)
3) FR. THOMAS KEATING (OPEN MIND, OPEN HEART, THE CONTEMPLATIVE DIMENSION OF THE GOSPEL; AMITY HOUSE; 1986)

OTHERS
PAUL TILLICH
MARTIN LUTHER ( NOT MARTIN LUTHER KING BUT THE ORIGINAL IN THE 1500'S)
DIETRICH BONNEHOFFER (KILLED BY ADOLPH HITLER IN THE ASSINATION ATTEMPT)
ST. AUGUSTINE
MOST OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS
ALL OF THE CHURCH FATHERS (E.G. 100AD TO ABOUT 200AD)



ON EDIT: SPELLING

ON EDIT 2: NOT LIBERAL CHRISTIANS JUST CHRISTIANS....

[charlie and algernon]

73. Sister Mary Chittister, Bill Moyer

[Kablooie]

75. Dodridge Derry, Tryphosa Hoit and Vorntuger Jope

[I Have A Dream]

76. Martin Sheen & Leo Tolstoy n/t

[Sugarcoated]

78. Johnny Cash and

Jane Fonda

[fishwax]

77. woody guthrie would be a good one

though some may doubt his christian cred. He definitely saw the dark side of organized religion, but also understood the true nature of the christian philosophy, and wrote many songs that reflected that.

[Zhade]

83. Ratzinger!

Okay, okay, I'm kidding.

:evilgrin:

[HuskerDU]

88. Liberal Christians know that what the televangelists do is

more or less blasphamy. In order to become famous, you have to have a large, multi-million dollar operation ala the dozen or so famous televangelists. To do this would be against the teachings of Christ, thus there aren't many famous liberal Christian pastors.

[no_hypocrisy]

91. 1. JOHN SHELBY SPONG

See his 12 Theses
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/epis_12theses.html

2. FATHER MYCHAL JUDGE


http://www.saintmychal.com/life01.htm

[bertha katzenengel]

105. in the same vein: Mel White of Soulforce

gay man, ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell (before he came out, of course)

leads http://www.soulforce.org which is dedicated to getting Christian churches to see that God loves and accepts EVERYONE

[Zynx]

92. FDR may not have looked like it, but he had deep faith.

[Freedomfried]

93. Ted Kaczynski ?

If not, I posted his name cause I like him anyway.

[Tallison]

111. WTF?

Care to expound?

[LostinVA]

94. Louisa May Alcott, most of the New England Transcendentalists

Very liberal for that time, anyway.

[jokerman93]

95. Here's some famous christians who have/had a clue

Daniel and Phillip Berrigan:

http://www.webster.edu/~barrettb/berrigan.htm

http://www.jonahhouse.org/danProfile.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Berrigan

Thomas Merton:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

http://www.merton.org/

http://edge.edge.net/~dphillip/Merton.html

Dorothy Day

http://www.wctc.net/~mjbach/dorothy.htm

http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/index.cfm

[Armstead]

96. Many erly 20th Century progressives

Sorry I'm not erudite enough to give any specific names off the top of my head.

But the progresive reform movements of the 19th and early 20th Century were often driven by people who saw social justice as a component of Christianity.

[ultraist]

107. Progressive reform movements throughout history...led by liberals

All major progressive movements have been led by liberals, many of whom were "driven by people who saw social justice as a component of Christianity."

http://www.rense.com/general34/lifeand.htm

Frederick Douglas:

This is not how Frederick interpreted Christianity. For him it meant the equality of all people before God and deliverance from bondage in this life. Religion taught Frederick to value himself, love others, and work to achieve freedom. His religious faith was life affirming and gave him both comfort and a degree of personal autonomy. In his later years he would have little use for organized religion because of the hypocrisy of many professed believers, who both went to church and supported slavery. Nevertheless, throughout his life, Christianity's ideals helped inspire his work and guide his actions

[anarch]

97. Yeshua bar Yoseph? n/t

On Edit: I guess, strictly speaking, he was a Jew.

[stlsaxman]

98. James Cromwell "That'll do, pig"

Wasn't sure if he's he's christian, but i just read he's in a TV movie about John Paul II. Chances are good he's Catholic.

He's been an anti-war activist since the Viet Nam war.

[etherealtruth]

99. Evangelical Christians and quakers led the abolitionist movement

A multitude of names at link:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=8

[Moosepoop]

101. John Conyers is a Baptist.

http://www.nndb.com/people/236/000036128/

[chat_noir]

103. Would Jesus Love a Liberal?

http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

Haven't checked out all of the many links, but I'm sure you can find more names at this site.

[La Coliniere]

102. Dr. Bruce Prescott

he's the leader of the Mainstream Baptists of Oklahoma and the president of the Oklahoma chapter of Americans for the Separation of Church and State. He's a Baptist minister who has a weekly radio address and he writes a blog: mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com. I 'm amazed at how liberal this guy is. Take a look; not all Baptisits are of the Southern Conference ilk. Praise the Lord.
Peace

[ultraist]

106. Susan B. Anthony, women's suffragist, Quaker

There are a lot of famous abolotiionists who were Quakers, as well as child rights activists.

Quakers have been instrumental in ending child labor, women's rights, civil rights, and gay rights.

Famous Quakers, includes three signers of the Constitution:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_quaker.html

[Quixote1818]

112. Most of the founding Fathers

Many of them thought the morality of Jesus was wonderful but they thought he was human and didn't buy into all the supernatural stuff. Too bad most Americans are not aware of this. Our education system sucks.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/jefferson.html

[I Have A Dream]

122. As you're probably aware, most of them weren't Christians per se...

based upon the definition of Christians for Evangelical Christians. They were deists.

There's a very interesting article about this at the link below:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050221/allen

Evangelical Christians believe that one is only a Christian if one believes that Jesus is divine and if that person has accepted Jesus as his/her Lord & savior. This is certainly not the case with many of the "Founding Fathers". Using the religious right's definition of Christianity, the "Founding Fathers" wouldn't be Christians. I think many in the religious right would be shocked about this.

[Quixote1818]

123. Who gave Evangelical Christians the power to decide who is Christian?

I agree with most of what you said but I think too much emphasis has been put on the Evangelical definition of Christianity.


They were Christians in that they deeply admired the moral teachings of Jesus and thought them to be the greates the world had ever seen.


In the book Jefferson and Religion by Eugene R. Sheridan, Jefferson’s beliefs are summed up in this way: “Jefferson’s demythologized version of Christianity, like so many other aspects of his life and thought, resists easy historical categories. It was anti-Trinitarian in its concept of God, Christian in its acceptance of the morality of Jesus, skeptical in its rejection of biblical revelation and church dogma, deistic in its conviction that the clergy had deliberately corrupted the pure doctrines of Jesus to serve their selfish purposes, rationalistic in its assumption that human reason was the only valid source of religious truth, and humanistic in its equation of religion with morality. In the end Jefferson probably best described his peculiarly eclectic faith when he observed of himself: “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.”

I am not much into labels and it's obvious Jefferson wasn't either but it pisses me off that Evangelicals think they can define what a true Christian is. Who are they to judge? I wish the media would quit giving their views so much weight.

[I Have A Dream]

127. My point is that it's usually the Evangelical Christians who use...

the supposed beliefs of the "Founding Fathers" as an argument for having Evangelical Christianity be the focus of American life. However, the "Founding Fathers" weren't Christians according to Evangelical Christians' beliefs. My guess is that the person who the OP was debating was an Evangelical Christian because they're usually the ones who say that there are no liberal Christians.

By the way, I'm NOT an Evangelical Christian, and I'm a Christian. I don't need to be convinced. I always enjoy telling right wing Christians that the "Founding Fathers" wouldn't be Christians according to them because it takes the wind out of their argument, and they're ALWAYS surprised.

[Quixote1818]

113. JFK, RFK, RFK Jr. Wes Clark

JFK use to use Bible quotes all the time in his speeches about helping the poor.

[AnneD]

116. Would you count..

Mr Fred Rogers...I know he was a leader for children. He made everyone's day in the neighbourhood beautiful. You can't truly love and be concerned for kids and NOT be a flaming liberal (or take Christ's word to heart and not be liberal either).

[I Have A Dream]

128. Based upon the article below, I'd consider him to be a liberal.

http://www.tuuc.org/religiousbroadcasting.htm

(I haven't read the whole thing, but I thought that you might find it interesting.)

[StellaBlue]

117. Two

John Shelby Spong


Hugo Chavez



:D

[Aristus]

118. This one may surprise you: William Jennings Bryan.

He was a conservative Christian, but a social liberal. My liking for him went up when I found that out.

[Bluerthanblue]

119. Brennan Manning, Tony Campolo, Daniel Berrigan, Thomas Morton

Phillip Berrigan, Walter Wink.... there are many....

[MissMarple]

120. Martin Marty...a personal favorite.

He has a great book on churches in early America. :bounce:
http://illuminos.com/mem/memMain.html

[dcfirefighter]

121. Henry George

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_george

[Lisa]

124. Tommy Douglas (leader of North America's first socialist government)

Baptist minister, and a key member of the CCF (forerunner of the New Democratic Party) and when he was elected Premier of Saskatchewan, brought in universal public health care. (This was later copied by the other provinces.)

By the way, he was also Kiefer Sutherland's maternal grandfather.

[Minstrel Boy]

132. And, for what it's worth, many of the leaders of the CCF-NDP.

Stanley Knowles was also a minister, as is Bill Blaikie.

[alcibiades_mystery]

131. Reinhold Niebuhr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr

People forget that there was a massive Christian socialist movement in this country throughout most of the 20th century. Niebuhr's thought and teaching was also instrumental for the civil rights movement.

[liberalitch]

134. A Jesus was a buddha: a buddhist monk in the 16th century

was listening to two students talk about christ.... He said to them..... I don't know who he was..... but I know that he was a buddha.

Where was jesus betweent he ages of 12 and 28?

[mia]

135. C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) comes to mind

I know that he's claimed by both Fundamentalists and Liberal Christians, but feel that he's more Liberal...



Quotation for Sunday, September 18, 2005:
©The C. S. Lewis Company -- used with permission

For humans must not be allowed to notice that all great moralists are sent by the Enemy, not to inform men, but to remind them, to restate the primeval moral platitudes against our continual concealment of them.

The Screwtape Letters


“I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man ... Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows.”

One of the greatest Christian thinkers of the twentieth century, C.S. Lewis was a respected scholar and teacher at Oxford University for 29 years and then a professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University to the end of his career. An atheist throughout his early life, he adopted theism in 1929 and converted to Christianity in 1931. Although a talented debater and writer-Lewis wrote many fictional, didactic, and devotional works in addition to his sizable academic production-he is not known as a political commentator. He avoided partisan commitments; indeed, he turned down a title offered him by Winston Churchill, thinking his critics would use it to accuse him of being an anti-Leftist propagandist.


C. S. Lewis—Who He Was & What He Wrote

The name “C. S. Lewis” usually brings forth a number of accolades customarily used to describe him— “Brilliant, great Christian, great mind, great apologist, greatest lay champion in the 20th century.” His book sales, still today, remain over two million dollars annually, half of which come from the sales of his famous fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Who is this man, and what were his beliefs that he should be touted as such a monumental Christian? C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a college professor, and author, and had his own radio broadcast for many years. He was an atheist, who converted to theism, and later professed Christianity. His most notable work, for which he has won much acclaim, is Mere Christianity. The author basically describes the book’s intent as an effort to set forth the fundamentals that form the basis of Christianity, excluding all doctrines and opinions that are not integral to Christianity (or, at least his definition of Christianity), thus, the name Mere Christianity. The exclusion of all such doctrines allows for the inclusion of all faiths.

This book has received raves from the liberal Christian press as a great apologetic work...