Liberals can't be real Christians...PLEEEAZE help respond

[cally]

I'm copying a thread from another forum. This isn't my request buy it's a request from another DUer. Let's help.





UCLA02 (766 posts)....

This is the podunk town I live in. And yes, this person IS serious. This newspaper usually prints anything in the L2E page, even from out-of-towners, so if anybody wants to email something in, have at it, they'll likely print it! [e-mail]

(BTW--the "Mr. or Mrs. or whatever Johnson" bit is due to the original author only having initials accompanying his or her last name.)

http://www.ridgecrestca.com/articles/2005/01/05/opinion...

"Liberals can't be real Christians because Jesus was not a liberal"

Editor:

I couldn't agree more with Maryann Butterfield. This Mr. or Mrs. or whatever Johnson sounds Christian, but is definitely a Liberal, so he or whatever can't be a real Christian - Jesus was not Liberal - he was good.

Only hateful liberals would complain about Fox news -the only news outlet that combats the lies spread by the other news networks.

Liberals also complain about Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, but both of these men have addressed the bad effects of mixed relationships and outside religion, even if Liberals encourage such things.

Mrs. Butterfield is absolutely right - now is the time we rid ourselves of heathen signs and symbols on churches or temples or whatever they call them.

This country was founded by Christians and our country and our Government should show its roots with pride! If people can't see the writing on the wall they had better move out of the way- it is high time we embrace our Christian heritage and proclaim it to all.

There is plenty of room for people who aren't good Christians in the rest of the world.

Billie Miller

Ridgecrest

[boomboom]

1. My first thought was

Ms. Miller seems to define liberal = immoral hedonistic atheist. Maybe a discussion of labels might help. If she is talking about immoral hedonistic atheists, I agree, they aren't good Christians. That has nothing to do with being a liberal however.

[supernova]

2. As I said on the other thread in GD, read The Beatittudes

Jesus is talking about upending the social order. A great deal of his teaching is about the wealthy being hpocritical with their wealth.

If that's not a liberal, I don't know what is. :shrug:

As for athiests, most of them are decent people whom I'm sure will be in heaven also.

[AngryOldDem]

4. Just so

By today's standards Jesus would be called a socialist, or worse.

In fact, if He came back today, the people who "love Him" the most would probably crucify him again because of his message.

Christ had a very radical message, perhaps that's because it's simple (easy to understand) yet complex (harder to truly follow).

And I think those who claim to know who'll be in heaven and who won't may be in for a big surprise.

[RevCheesehead]

3. I think the simplest, most direct answer is that...

...Jesus loved prostitutes and sinners. He loved the poor and needy, "the least" of society, and found the Kingdom of God in little children.

I think the arms of Jesus are big enough to embrace anyone who comes to him. So yeah, he probably does love conservatives as well as liberals. Hell, he even loves Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein (something I'm not quite ready to do yet, but I'm working on that).

The only ones Jesus had trouble with were the narrow-minded Pharisees, who used their religion to suit their own purposes. I believe he called them, collectively, "a brood of vipers." But I would also hasten to point out that he never rejected open, honest inquiry - even if it came from a so-called "narrow-minded" person.

One of these pharisees, who was genuinely curious, came to him at night. "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus told him that nobody could see or experience the kingdom of God, unless one was re-born, from above - by water and Spirit.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that what he is experiencing is the sound of the wind moving through the trees - but he knows neither the source, nor the destination of that wind. And people who are open to the movement of the Spirit do not need definate beginnings or endings.

In other words, truly Spirit-born people are willing to leave themselves open to the movement of the Spirit - to go wherever it takes them. God does not hate the world, or want to destroy or punish the world. God loves the world so much that she gave her son, in order for the whole world to be saved through him.

People who are open to that kind of love are the ones who get it - but those who reject that kind of love are condemned, because they choose to live in darkness. I prefer light.

************

scripture reference: John, chapter 3

[hickman1937]

5. It's true. The word Christian has been hijacked.

It has come to mean people who worship in temples of hatred, united by their belief that God wants them to be comfortable, and that being anti-abortion is all they need to get into heaven. May God have mercy on their souls.

[realisticphish]

6. i cant WAIT for them to start removing the "heathen symbols"

goodbye halos...goodbye xmas trees, and god knows how many traditions, including dec. 25 itself, goodbye easter... the list goes on


:hippie: THe Incorrigible Democrat

[kwassa]

7. This person is pretty ignorant about Christianity and politics.

Ridgecrest, California is a military town way out in the desolate lands at the base of the Owens Valley. It is the home of the Naval Weapons Center. I used to drive by it on the way to the mountains to go skiing way up north, at Mammoth ( which I think just had 100 inches of fresh powder! too bad I now live on the East Coast).

In other words, Hicksville, USA. From the highway it looks like a very depressing place to live, near dry lake beds like the salt flats of Utah.

The word "Christian" means different things to different people, and lacks a single definition. I'll see if I can find an article about it.

[UCLA02]

15. I live there, and I agree...

n/t

[Frogtutor]

8. Here's a WONDERFUL article that came out right after the election:

http://go.sojo.net/campaign/takebackourfaith

It explains the non-Christian ills of single issue voting, etc.

[pelagius]

9. And here on DU I waste too much time trying to prove that Christians...

...can be liberals!

[Princess Turandot]

10. I would tell her to read the Gospel of St. Matthew, assuming she has..

ever read it, every day for the next month, focusing on chapters 5, 6 and 7 if she is short on time, aka The Sermon on the Mount, and reflect upon how virtually each of her statements contradicts the words of Jesus.

[Selwynn]

12. That's exactly what I would say as well.

I would probably go on to point out how conservative politics contradict the teachings of Christ at all most every level.

[BlackVelvet04]

11. HUH?

"Liberals can't be real Christians because Jesus was not a liberal"

Can women be Christians since Jesus was not a woman?
Can Blacks, Native Americans, and other non-Jews be Christians? Jesus was a Jew.


Read Phillip Yancey's book "The Jesus I Never Knew" and you will find out Jesus was not only liberal he was radical.

You really can't win an argument with people like the one who wrote that article.

And BTW the country wasn't founded by Christians. Most were Deists (including Thomas Jefferson who wasn't a Christian....he rewrote the New Testament to suit himself.)

[CBHagman]

13. This particular sentence really bothered me.

"Only hateful liberals would complain about Fox news -the only news outlet that combats the lies spread by the other news networks."

So Fox News is completely above reproach, incapable of no mistakes or moral evils? Is it staffed by God's own angels?

And all the other news outlets are liars? Does this person then only get weather reports straight from Fox News? What about the death toll in a natural disaster? A local business closing and people being put out of work?

The ignorance and irrationality of that claim is truly mind-boggling. For starters, it's clear that the writer doesn't know that Rupert Murdoch runs Fox News, and he A) is a law-breaker, B) enjoys favors from the GOP, despite his misdeeds and C) is famous for appealing to the lowest common denominator. Would the fine Christian who wrote that letter like it if Murdoch featured topless women in her local tabloid?

Really, the label "hateful" attached to "liberals" suggests that it's the writer, not the liberals, who are consumed with hate.

In short, the person who wrote that letter mistakes what is familiar and comfortable (to her) for what is the will of God. The problem is that the Gospels themselves are full of demands -- love your enemies, forgive generously, visit the sick and the imprisoned, heal the sick, etc. -- that are hard to fulfill in day-to-day life. She's just trying to impose a secular self-righteousness onto the Gospel, and that won't work.

[UCLA02]

14. For those of you who wrote in...

I assume some of you wrote in as there were many out-of-staters who responded and were published.

Check www.ridgecrestca.com and search the archives for the last month for "billie" and you'll get a bunch of hits, including the published out-of-state responses.

She also had an apology published after all of the outrage to her original 2 hateful letters.

If any of you sent letters in, thanks. It was a great mobilized response to such small-mindedness.

Cheers,
Scott

[AlabamaYankee]

16. People seem to confuse "Liberal" with "Libertine"

So I suppose a Christian could never be a dissolute wastrel.

I have gotten myself into trouble by asserting that the term "Conservative Christian" is an oxymoron.