Article in Philly Inquirer: Liberal Christians must embrace faith

[mrgorth]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/columnists/11295713.htm

<snip>
How would it feel to look at a family portrait and discover you'd been airbrushed into oblivion?

After November's election, Christians of progressive political views knew how it felt. They were nowhere in the picture as the political press nattered on about how "values voters" delivered the prize to President Bush.

"Yoo-hoo! Over here? See us? We're still alive, Bibles in hand, 'Peace is a family value' bumper stickers on our cars."
<snip>

[RevCheesehead]

1. I think Liberal Christians ARE speaking out.

In particular, Sojourners has really grown a lot in the last year. And some networks are using Jim Wallis as a commentator. I think his stature is growing - and others will follow, if we remain vocal.

Sojourners: www.sojo.net.

Whenever I see CNN using only ONE SIDE of religion (Falwell, etc..), I think it helps to shoot them a friendly reminder that these views do not speak on behalf of all Christians.

(I didn't read the article, because I didn't want to sign up for yet another account.)

[mrgorth]

2. My LTTE regarding this:

As a progressive Christian I would like to agree with Chris Satullo's column of Sunday, April 3rd. I would like to agree with it because the implication would be that merely by taking a more assertive posture progressive Christians can help their political allies to achieve more success. The truth, unfortunately, is that we do not wield the influence that Satullo claims we do. According to Chris Satullo's column the secular left dominates the democratic party and any other entity not to the far right. While this may be the case on left leaning internet sites it is not political reality. The truth is that every one of the nine candidates for the democratic party's presidential nomination was a progressive Christian, including the most liberal candidates and the eventual nominee. Indeed, John Kerry, while not flawless, did an excellent job of explaining how things like peace, the environment and health care were tied to his faith.

The truth is also that when people are scared they search for easy, absolute answers, hard yes or no, with us or against us type stuff. The historical examples are plentiful and, of course, include Nazi Germany. 9/11 still has people scared and looking for absolutes. They may have agreed with John Kerry on the environment and health care but the (small) majority of people voted for George Bush because they thought he would kick butt and they weren't as sure that Kerry would. People are also not so sure about this whole gay rights thing and George Bush talked about putting them in their place with a real, live consitutional amendment. Kerry almost seemed to, gasp, like them.

The truth is that 9/11 made the pendulum in the US swing to the right and that's where it is for now. There are things that progressive Christians can do to help nudge it back to the center and that does include talking to people, including those on the religious right, but nothing we say or do will help it move as much as time. And while time is on our side Satullo needs to remember the army of lobbyists the religious right (and those who use it) are employing to move that pendulum further to the right. As a progressive Christian I believe that, if there is a God, the pendulum is already on it's way back.

Thank you,