NYT - Liberal Christians Mobilize to React to Religious Right

[rndmprsn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/16/politics/campaign/16christian.html

Long scattered and out of the limelight, some liberal believers, led by Christian groups, said they saw this election as the first step to regroup and take back an agenda and a faith that they believe the religious right has hijacked.

Liberal preachers are barnstorming the country, telling Christians that they are not alone in their moderate views or their questioning of the government. Parishioners are registering people in their congregations, going door to door in their communities and enlisting volunteers to get out the vote.

No one says these Christians are as well organized, well financed or politically formidable as conservative Christians. But they are rousing people, mainly in areas that lean Democratic, around issues of social justice like the environment, the war and, most often, poverty.

"In this election, some religious voices say all our beliefs can be boiled down to - I'd say strangled by - two hot-button issues, abortion and gay rights," the Rev. Jim Wallis, convener and president of Call to Renewal, said in a sermon here.

[intheflow]

1. Rev. Jim Wallis is Right On

He's a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, and also the founder and editor-in-chief at Sojourners Magazine. His big thing is that Xians are not, and should not be, one-issue voters, like the religious right wants to paint them. Sure, maybe most Xians do believe that abortion should not be used as a form of birth control, but it does not follow that banning it will automatically cure all social ills around repro rights and what happens to unwanted children.

AND the majority of Xian churches have statements against the Iraq invasion and occupation, as well as statements in favor of socially funded healthcare and in support of increased adherance to UN campaigns for human rights.

Check out these other Wallis links:

Petition: God Is Not A Republican. Or A Democrat. Includes an ad Sojo's posted in the NY Times the week of the Rep. Convention.

Commentary: Evangelicals and Race

Article: Nuclear Denial

Sojourners Magazine

[MatrixEscape]

2. That is good news!

I guess they were sleeping like many of us where. Bush is has become an alarm clock. They have a lot of work to do!

From the Yurica Report: The Despoiling of America

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

Most Americans have been aware that religious right Republicans have become extremely active politically in the last twenty years. But because we're Americans and we're mostly tolerant of other people's religious beliefs, their rise to power hasn't really troubled us. We should be troubled. There is now overwhelming evidence that conservative Christians set out to overthrow the government of the United States, dispense with our democracy, and institute in its place, a government ruled by Old Testament laws--including an expanded litany of death penalties. This article is not a conspiracy theory. It contains the legal elements required for the prosecution of any criminal or civil conspiracy in our nation.