'Reclaim our faith': America's pulpit politics take a left turn
Posted at Yahoo
America's moderate and progressive evangelists, outgunned for years by the mighty "religious right," are demanding their own share of the political action.
Their mantra, in a building campaign against conservative Christians, a key constituency of President George W. Bush, is: "Since when was God pro-war, and pro-rich?
"There is a silent majority of moderate and progressive Christians out there and other people of faith who have felt completely left out of the conversation," Jim Wallis, a leading evangelical activist, told AFP.
Christians opposed to Bush, the most overtly religious president of modern times, say his war in Iraq, and tax cuts which they claim favor the rich, do not square with a faith which teaches followers to love their neighbor.
"We can no longer stand by and watch people speak hatred, division, war and greed in the name of our faith," said Patrick Mrotek, founder of the new Christian Alliance for Progress. "We must reclaim our faith."
Left-leaning Christians shudder at the prominence of conservative televangelists like Reverend Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who preside over vast political empires.
They are seething over comments Robertson made on the ABC News Show "This Week" in May, which implied "liberal" judges were more of a threat to America than "a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."
But Republicans say their politics are deeply rooted in faith.
"We are called by our Creator to use this gift of freedom to build a more compassionate society -- where families are strong, life is valued and the poor and the sick can count on the love and help of their neighbors," Bush said in a satellite address in June to the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the most influential conservative evangelical groups.
Pulpit politics in America came under renewed scrutiny after exit polls suggested that voters prioritising "morals" may have swung last November's election to Bush over Democratic challenger John Kerry.
And they are about to be thrust right back into the political arena, as religious groups of all stripes blitz the airwaves in the fight for the Supreme Court seat left vacant on Friday by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.
Nomination battles could turn on issues like the separation of church and state and the fight over whether abortion should remain legal.
Religion and politics are perhaps more intertwined in the intensely religious United States than in any other developed Western nation.
"Religion has enormous political power -- it is very loud, it gets access to the press and to government power," said Marci Hamilton, author of the book "Religion and the Rule of Law."
A Newsweek poll in December 2004 found that 79 percent of Americans believed the Virgin birth was literal truth.
A national exit poll after the election found that 59 percent of Protestants and 52 percent of Roman Catholics voted for Bush, along with 78 percent of evangelicals and 61 percent of people who go to church weekly.
Each constituency was carefully courted by Bush in his first term, and Republicans have been far more proficient than Democrats at God talk.
But activists like Wallis, who heads the Sojourners national faith-based group, see a huge silent majority that could benefit Democrats in future elections.
"If Democrats just talk policy and don't talk about moral issues, they are going to keep on losing," warned Wallis, whose book "God's Politics" camped out in The New York Times bestseller list for 16 weeks.
But can a fledgling "religious left" movement take on the conservative Christian establishment, which boasts television stations, newswires and a direct line to the White House?
The religious right's allies in the powerful conservative talk radio sector are ready to smother any progressive Christian movement at birth.
"The religious left in this country hates and despises the God of Christianity and Catholicism and whatever else," the high priest of conservative talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, said on his show April 27. "They despise it because they fear it and it's a threat, because that God has moral absolutes, that God has right and wrong, that God doesn't deal in nuance."
AFP 2005
Article Link
For a good example of progressive Christians check out the excellent publication Sojourners
No comments:
Post a Comment