This is from the Republican and Democrats Conservative blog: July 01, 2006
Politics and Progressive Religion
Barak Obama made an incredibly smart speech the other day. He ‘chastised’ Democrats for making religion into a boogeyman to be hunted down and killed where ever it appears in public. Obama’s warning is smart for the simple fact that it is true. Democrats have positioned themselves as the party of anti-religion. Still, despite Obama’s speech I don’t think this will change anytime soon.
So let's talk about the politics of anti-religion in America. Evangelical Christians are demonized routinely in the press and by a broad spectrum of liberal voices. The imagined march to theocracy is a frequent theme. The re-election of Bush in 2004 was even characterized (with the standard snarl of disgust) as being due to the horrible Christian-ness of, "JesusLand." Thus Obama's apparent suggestion is a radical departure from the Democratic party line.
At the same time, he said, "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square."
As a result, "I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy." ~WashingtonPost.com
So the admonition of a liberal Senator urging Democrats to, "court evangelicals," is significant. Even though, one could look at this call with advanced scepticism, or as watchblog contributor, Scottie, puts it, "Barack Obama Fakes Interest in Evangelicals."
I agree with Scottie. I think that the view that Obama holds is colored by a significant amount of disinformation. He has one thing right though-- democrats have largely abandoned the field of religious discourse... except to demonize.
What Obama is missing is that the problem comes when they start telling evangelicals what they stand for. Even when, --well, actually scratch that-- especially when the left isreligious and attempts to argue leftist policies from a moral-religious perspective, there is such a dichotomy between what evangelicals believe and what 'progressive christians' believe that the gulf seems even wider from that perspective than it does from a merely political one.
Let me explain. 'Progressive christians' are more likely to deny the divinity of Christ, to deny the accuracy and 'truthiness' of the Bible, and to contradict the morality of many of the 'myths' contained therein. In short, they largely do not even look like Christians to Evangelicals to whom many of these kinds of 'innovations' are either heresy or border on apostasy. Case in point (a mild case at that), is this story from the LA Times about Presbyterian's renaming the trinity in order to correct 'patriarchal distortions'.
When referring to the Trinity, most Christians are likely to say "Father, Son and the Holy Spirit."
But leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are suggesting some additional designations: "Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and Life-giving Womb," or perhaps "Overflowing Font, Living Water, Flowing River."
Then there's "Rock, Cornerstone and Temple" and "Rainbow of Promise, Ark of Salvation and Dove of Peace."
...Written by a diverse panel of working pastors and theologians, the report noted that the traditional language of the Trinity portrays God as male and implies men are superior to women.
"For this and other distortions of Trinitarian doctrine we repent," the report said. ~LATimes.com
Religious conservatives are precisely that. They want to conserve traditional values. They are not interested in the kind of ecumenical progress that devolves into a repudiation of (literally) all that is holy.
With this in mind, I wanted to do some research on Barak Obama's faith. Is he a 'progressive christian' or more mainstream? I wanted to know a little more. The Associated Press article mentioned Obama's church as being the Trinity United Church of Christ on the Southside of Chicago. So I looked for their website. I found it, but I'm not sure what to think. Their About Page makes me scratch my head.
This isn't supposed to be a trashing of Barak Obama's beliefs or religion. It is meant to highlight the real differences between the two religious groups.
More on the Political
Obama made his speech at a conference for the organization, Sojourners/Call to Renewal, whose tagline is, "A faith-based movement to overcome poverty." I very much doubt that there were any conservative evangelicals in attendence. On their website is a call to, "take action," against Bush's Budget:
Budgets are moral documents. They give a very real picture of what our nation's priorities and values are. Cuts to low- and middle-income families who are empowered by programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance for low-income seniors and persons with disabilities, and cuts to community social service programs - while at the same time increasing the deficit by slashing taxes for people who make more than $1 million per year by $600 billion - are out of touch with my values. I hope they are out of touch with your values, too. ~sojo.net
Obviously, I shouldn't have to point out that budgets are not moral documents in the sense that the mission statements of Churches are. But the bigger point of contention is that the religious right does not believe that the U.S. government is the proper vehicle for Christian work. (I don't care what the leftist propagandists may tell you about the goals of our theocracy.)
Claiming that the Federal government is the proper instrument to implement your Christian charity is actually the definition of theocracy. There can be no clearer violation of the concept of Separation of Church and State than to say that it's budget priorities must conform to a religious purpose.
And this is where the problem exists for the left. Liberalism itself is a religion by this definition. The Democratic Party is in fact a faith-based organization promoting it's morality. Or how many times have I been told, in essence, that Republicans are immoral for having the wrong political view?
Postscript Blessing
May the Rainbow of Promise, Overflowing Font, and Life-giving womb bless you, and the patriarchal homophobic sexist theocracy of America as well.
Posted by Eric Simonson at July 1, 2006 10:37 AM
Rex
Why Liberal Christianity is often heretical
by Shining One 2 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Shining One
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Robdar
Dude, God is not the sole property of the neocon republicans. Just because liberals/prgressives are not as tight assed as you are doesn't mean they don't believe in God.
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GentlyFeral
May the Rainbow of Promise, Overflowing Font, and Life-giving womb bless you, and the patriarchal homophobic sexist theocracy of America as well.
Amen. And the same to you.
gentlyferal