Left-leaning Christians seek political role

[truthpusher]

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/07/27/news/religion/satrel04.txt

Left-leaning Christians seek political role
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By Colleen McCain Nelson
The Dallas Morning News
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DALLAS — When pundits dubbed conservative Christians "values voters'' last year, churchgoers on the losing side took notice — and offense.

"Those of us on the left looked at each other and said, ‘We're values voters. We love Jesus Christ,''' said the Rev. Tim Simpson, a Florida minister.

Now, like-minded Christians are getting organized.

They are preaching tolerance and a focus on helping the poor. And they want conservatives to know it's possible to believe in abortion rights, gay rights and God. Long outgunned by the religious right's political machine, progressives are proclaiming that fundamentalism isn't the only brand of Christianity, with new grassroots groups and Web sites such as www.iamachristiantoo.org.

(snip)

Conservative Christians, though, aren't particularly concerned about the emergence of progressives. They say that it's not their place to judge who is a Christian — but that there's only one way to interpret the Bible, and it's theirs.

"They are misinterpreting the Scripture,'' said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, one of the largest conservative political groups. "If they read the same Bible, I don't know where they're coming from.''

(snip)

complete story: http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/07/27/news/religion/satrel04.txt

[Wetzelbill]

1. thanks for posting this

I'll read it later, but I am a left-leaning Christian and am disenfranchised by the Christian Right's stranglehold on politics. Especially, when they are pretty much anathema to true Christian morality.

[expatriot]

2. go team! a site that the aforementioned blog mentions...

www.christianalliance.org ...point your believing friends to that site.

I am a very staunch agnostic that comes across as an atheist because I am so "militant" in my beliefs but I will be more than happy to bite my tongue on metaphysical and doctrinal issues if it means winning people over from the darkside. Our weakness is when we fight the Republicans on the field of their choice which is the culture war field where we come across to middle America as elitist, atheistic intellectuals out of touch with the fears and hopes of "common folk." We need to fight back hard by saying "Jesus would have voted Democrat on the bread and butter issues."

[54anickel]

3. Isn't that the one that had Falwell's undies in a bind?...n/t

[expatriot]

4. Falwell's attack: Christian Alliance is "hardly Christian"

its on the frontpage of their site.

[54anickel]

8. Thanks. Some nasty Falwell follower remarks on that site. Not sure

if I'd have put Falwell on the front page, but it looks like a great organization and site. I look forward to perusing it a bit more.

[burrowowl]

5. May Liberation Theology

make a comeback and the next Pope follows in the steps of John XXIII!

"Conservative Christians, though, aren't particularly concerned about the emergence of progressives. They say that it's not their place to judge who is a Christian — but that there's only one way to interpret the Bible, and it's theirs.

"They are misinterpreting the Scripture,'' said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, one of the largest conservative political groups. "If they read the same Bible, I don't know where they're coming from.''

Roberta, they are reading the New Testament not the blood-thirsty sections in the Old Testament. And even in the Old Testament there is ecology when a section of land is rotated every 7-years for rest ....

[SharonAnn]

6. We're putting info on our web site because of this

After the outrage of being told that we're not Christians, we've decided to take exception to those statements.

One of the things we've done is set up a page on our Web site for "People of Faith" with links to relevant information.

It's at http://www.loudondems.org/lcdp_people_of_faith.htm.

I'm in a small, rural, southern, very Christian community. Yes, it's heavily Republican but we've decided we're going to stand up for our beliefs and fight for them if we must.

[Iowa]

9. Great site SharonAnn!

It takes real guts to be an outspoken progressive in a rural Republican area. My hat is off to you!

[Spiffarino]

7. Count me in

The screw-the-poor/worship-the-wealthy mentality of the hard-right Xians is making a mockery of Christianity and turning it upside-down. Falwell, Robertson, and the rest of their crowd have become the Pharisees that Jesus of Nazareth railed against.

The rightwing Xians can have their phony Republican Jesus; the rest of us are quite happy with the old-fashioned one who loved the poor, healed the sick, and brought hope to the outcast.