Options
Conservative Christians Watch Out: A Big Churchgoing Group Is Seeking Political Power
SuzannePjam
Posts: 411
Religion Taking A Left Turn?
Conservative Christians Watch Out: There's A Big Churchgoing Group Seeking Political Power
July 10, 2006
Reverend Tony Campolo said: "We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry."* (CBS)
"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion."
At a church in Washington, hundreds of committed Christians met recently and tried to map out a strategy to get their values into the political debate.
But these are not the conservative Christian values which have been so influential lately. This is the religious left.
"Jesus called us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, care for the poor, care for the outcast, and that's really the moral core of where we think the nation ought to go," Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell .
The National Council of Churches represents about 50 million Christians in America — the majority of them mainline Protestants.
"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion," Edgar said.
He calls this movement the "center-left" — and it's seeking the same political muscle as the conservative Christians, a group with a strong power base in the huge Evangelical churches of the South.
But the left has its own Evangelical leaders, such as the Rev. Tony Campolo.
"We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry," Campolo said. "To recreate Jesus in your own image rather than allowing yourself to be created in Jesus' image is what's wrong with politics."
The Christian left is focusing on:
Fighting poverty
Protecting the environment
Ending the war in Iraq
"Right now the war in Iraq costs us $1 billion per week," said Rev. Jim Wallis, a Christian activist. "And we can't get $5 billion over ten years for child care in this country?"
To try to attract young voters and the attention of politicians who want their votes, leaders of the religious left are promoting issues like raising the minimum wage.
"Nine million families are working full time," Wallis said. "Working hard full time, responsibly, and not making it."
Three decades ago liberal religious leaders had a powerful influence on politics.
In the 1960s and 70s they led demonstrations against civil rights abuses and the war in Vietnam. But when those battles were over, the movement seemed to lose energy, while the Christian right had become well organized and committed to having its voice and concerns heard.
After years of sitting on the sidelines, it will take more than meetings and talking points to make the liberals into a political power again.
"The Christian right has a ground game," said Mark Silk of Trinity College's religious studies department. "Thus far the Christian left mainly has an air game: they want to throw positions, they want to talk to the media, but do they have the networks in place on the ground to get people out to vote?"
So, it remains to be seen whether there's any action behind the words. But there's no doubt they're on a mission.
"I've watched a generation die. And I watched them shift from idealism to a 'me' generation that was only orientated to consumerism and it hurt, and I wondered whether we ever would come back." Campolo said. "But the pendulum is swinging."
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Conservative Christians Watch Out: There's A Big Churchgoing Group Seeking Political Power
July 10, 2006
Reverend Tony Campolo said: "We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry."* (CBS)
"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion."
At a church in Washington, hundreds of committed Christians met recently and tried to map out a strategy to get their values into the political debate.
But these are not the conservative Christian values which have been so influential lately. This is the religious left.
"Jesus called us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, care for the poor, care for the outcast, and that's really the moral core of where we think the nation ought to go," Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell .
The National Council of Churches represents about 50 million Christians in America — the majority of them mainline Protestants.
"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion," Edgar said.
He calls this movement the "center-left" — and it's seeking the same political muscle as the conservative Christians, a group with a strong power base in the huge Evangelical churches of the South.
But the left has its own Evangelical leaders, such as the Rev. Tony Campolo.
"We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry," Campolo said. "To recreate Jesus in your own image rather than allowing yourself to be created in Jesus' image is what's wrong with politics."
The Christian left is focusing on:
Fighting poverty
Protecting the environment
Ending the war in Iraq
"Right now the war in Iraq costs us $1 billion per week," said Rev. Jim Wallis, a Christian activist. "And we can't get $5 billion over ten years for child care in this country?"
To try to attract young voters and the attention of politicians who want their votes, leaders of the religious left are promoting issues like raising the minimum wage.
"Nine million families are working full time," Wallis said. "Working hard full time, responsibly, and not making it."
Three decades ago liberal religious leaders had a powerful influence on politics.
In the 1960s and 70s they led demonstrations against civil rights abuses and the war in Vietnam. But when those battles were over, the movement seemed to lose energy, while the Christian right had become well organized and committed to having its voice and concerns heard.
After years of sitting on the sidelines, it will take more than meetings and talking points to make the liberals into a political power again.
"The Christian right has a ground game," said Mark Silk of Trinity College's religious studies department. "Thus far the Christian left mainly has an air game: they want to throw positions, they want to talk to the media, but do they have the networks in place on the ground to get people out to vote?"
So, it remains to be seen whether there's any action behind the words. But there's no doubt they're on a mission.
"I've watched a generation die. And I watched them shift from idealism to a 'me' generation that was only orientated to consumerism and it hurt, and I wondered whether we ever would come back." Campolo said. "But the pendulum is swinging."
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
"Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings."-- Ayn Rand
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
AS with almost all religion, it boils down to $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for them. Pass the collection plate.
High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD SYN ULX VLB YHF
Low Traffic CIO MIW
Non Traffic ABC BAY FDU GBZ HNC NDP OEM ROV TMS ZWL
Tony Campolo, one of American Christianity's most well-known evangelists, is doing the Gospel of Jesus Christ a grave disservice with misinformation, unscriptural political analysis and dangerously bad theology. In a speech in Canada recently, Campolo gave a rambling presentation explaining the absolute necessity of creating a new Palestinian state to win over the Muslim world. If Campolo really believes what he said in this speech, he is ignorant of history. If he doesn't believe what he said, he is a politically motivated liar misusing the Gospel to further a hopelessly evil political agenda.
You decide for yourself.
He claims firstly that the church "has forgotten that there's a group of people called Palestinians. And unless we stand up and speak for justice on behalf of the Palestinians, we are going to lose the missionary struggle in the next hundred years." These "Palestinians," Campolo explains, are being suppressed by the Israelis. He then explains that Israel is a state birthed only in a relentless war of terrorism waged by Jews against British rule after World War I. "The British were so worn out [by] terrorism over the next 20 years that they wanted out of the mess," he says. "So after World War II, they presented to the United Nations meeting, in New York, a proposal: that the land that hitherto had belonged to people who lived in Palestine was going to be partitioned and made into the state of Israel." This simplistic statement is so wrong in so many ways I could write 100,000 words refuting it. In fact, I already have. But let me, as an Arab-American Christian, just try to set the record straight in the limited space I have today. The British, who conquered the region (not the country – but the region) of Palestine in World War I promised to recreate a Jewish state there. It was an ideal piece of real estate – neglected, largely uninhabited and the historical homeland of the Jews who had been massacred by the Roman Empire and dispersed throughout the world many centuries earlier. Nevertheless, despite enormous persecution throughout those centuries – persecution by Rome, by Christians and lastly by Muslims – a significant remnant of Jews stayed in their Holy Land. Before the British won their military victory in the Middle East, Jews represented the majority of the population of Jerusalem and other cities in the region.
In fact, right up until 1947 when Israel was re-created as a Jewish state by a vote of the United Nations, the term "Palestinians" was synonymous with "Jews." Today the term has been co-opted by Yasser Arafat's terrorists and propagandists who suggest Palestine was an Arab country. There has never been an Arab country known as Palestine in the history of the world. The overwhelming number of Arabs in this territory today have come from other Arab countries for very good and understandable reasons – jobs, economic opportunity, freedom that they have never known in their homelands. The British did not throw any Arabs out of their homes. The U.N. did not throw any Arabs out of their homes. The Israelis did not throw any Arabs out of their homes. Some left the region in 1948 at the urging of Arab leaders who declared a war on Israel the day it was reborn.
Why did they declare war? Because they didn't want any Jewish state in the region. The U.N. had voted to create two nations – one Arab and one Jewish in the region of Palestine, but that was not acceptable to the Arabs. It is still not acceptable to the vast majority of Arabs today. They want it all – and nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish state will satisfy them. Campolo conveniently forgets that some 750,000 Jews – all living in Israel today – were kicked out of their homes in Arab and Muslim countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc. They were forced out with little more than the clothes on their backs. Many didn't make it at all. Many died in pogroms before they got the chance to leave.
Tony Campolo is a moral relativist and a political ideologue – a man who embraced Bill Clinton and rationalized and excused his unconscionable behavior in the White House for eight years. He served as his personal spiritual counselor. Judge him by his fruits.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30994
High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD SYN ULX VLB YHF
Low Traffic CIO MIW
Non Traffic ABC BAY FDU GBZ HNC NDP OEM ROV TMS ZWL
all i am saying is that i echo the sentiment that jesus is not a republican and that i believe that he would be for funding of social services, universal health care, redistribution of wealth, against war, for peace, he would heal the the aids patients, the "lepers" of today and would not condemn or judge them, he would not divide the world against itself like the so called christians that run this government have done such a good job of doing.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
-Bill Hicks
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
Wasn't Jesus a communist?
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
hearing things like this make me feel like there might still be hope for christianity. i like the sound of this movement.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
he he.. you too are smarter than Jesus
- the great Sir Leo Harrison
I think from the standpoint of wealth, helping the poor, loving your neighbor, anti-war, etc., Jesus probably would lean a little left today.
From the standpoint of sex before marriage, adultery, other sexual sins, abortion plus the garbage that is put out in films and music, etc., Jesus would most definitely be on the conservative side of the fence.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
i truly dont get the christian obsession with sex. what is the deal there?
id agree jesus would probably be big on fidelity, but im not so sure he'd be as anti-sex as the conservative movement seems to be (dont tell teens about it, dont let them ever see a condom, etc etc). i also think he might be a bit disgusted by some of what passes for entertainment, but i rather doubt he'd support censorship. ive got to agree with abortion though, i cant see jesus being a big supporter of it, though i also dont think he'd be in favor of banning it, more making it unecessary.
i have found it amazing how the right has hijacked it and perverted it to fit their agenda of power, profit, and war
that's the conservative way ... "me" before "we" ...
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
whatever you need to believe dude is fine with me ...
except he wouldn't judge you for it.
what he would preach, he would practice...and he would allow you to live your life, make your mistakes, your choices, and still love you, not tell you you are a bad person, etc. so still a rather open and tolerant mindset. jesus wanted you to CHOOSE your own path, not follow for the sake of following.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
I love how - in threads like this - that perfectly rational and obvious statements like this are often ignored.
While not central to the discussion, it's an argument I'd like to see many of the hardliners on here argue against.
Well said.
My god these sound like real Christians! I didn't know they existsed anymore!
At least not in politics..
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
as private citizens, the can still affect change, demonstrate and when the time comes, go and vote. doesn't the religious right do that now? we are simply lauding the fact that some other points of view are coming to light within the religious community. no one is inviting religion into government here.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
keeping gays apart is forcing a religion..
helping the poor isn't. (and as decides to dream said, it isn't even about politics there).
there's a HUGE difference.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
Hail, Hail!!!
Thanks. The thing is, it's not just a sermon I heard. It's something I've believed myself for a long time and so I was glad to hear it preached.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
Right...because the only people in this country who have ever been power hungry, profiteering, or used war to line their pockets have been conservatives. A true Chirstian faith is based upon spreading the gospel of Jesus in order to lead others to Christ. That's the biggest message that Jesus asked of us. It's not about left vs. right. There are many aspects of both ideologies that Jesus embraced. Unfortunately, you seem to be unable to comprehend that conservatives also want a clean environment, a solution to poverty, that we ARE accepting of homosexuals (yes, even in the church), and many other things. Instead of listening to us, you simply re-state our words in such a way that they fit your preconceived notion of what a conservative suppossedly is.
High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD SYN ULX VLB YHF
Low Traffic CIO MIW
Non Traffic ABC BAY FDU GBZ HNC NDP OEM ROV TMS ZWL
And whatever you need to believe is fine with us too...;)
High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD SYN ULX VLB YHF
Low Traffic CIO MIW
Non Traffic ABC BAY FDU GBZ HNC NDP OEM ROV TMS ZWL
Civil marriage
Matthew 19
Marriage and Divorce
3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made[a]them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?[c] 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, ..committs adultery”
So Jesus never said a word about civil marriage? Hmmm. Also referenced in Mark and Luke.
And abortion wasn't a medical practice so I don't know how he would address this. But there are many references to the child in the womb in the Bible...
Jeremiah 20
17 Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
How do you kill what is not alive, not a person?
Jeremiah 1:5 (New King James Version)
5 “ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;...”
All I am pointing out is this guy truthful in his original statement? I don't care what his politics are, just his inacuracy of the faith he is supposed to be preaching.
But...
That doesn't say "and man shall not marry another man". It's just the application of the reproductive cycle.. the most common "union". I don't think Jesus made sure to keep in mind to include homosexual's marriage rights.. you're twisting the words to say what you want them too there.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"