Pols ignore liberal Christians' efforts to show reality of poverty

[Lydia Leftcoast]

While state officials were getting hip to crank yesterday, leaders of Minnesota's two largest religious faiths were two miles away, visiting the West Side of St. Paul in an attempt to show lawmakers the human faces of poverty and to change the nature of our political debate, which has been dominated in recent years by budget squabbles and juvenile promises not to raise taxes.

Every one of the 201 legislators was notified of the effort by Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and his Lutheran opposite number, Bishop Peter Rogness of the St. Paul Synod of the ELCA. Powerful pols on both sides of the aisle were specifically invited to join the churchmen in a hardship tour of the West Side, a microcosm of poverty and problems too often seen by politicians only as troublesome line items.

Not a one of the pompous windbags showed up. None of them.

No state senators, no representatives, no staff people. No Republicans, no DFLers. Hundreds of these same empty suits had traveled down to Rochester on Tuesday to applaud Gov. Tim Pawlenty as he promised, once again, to balance a deficit on the backs of the disadvantaged. But none could get their tuchis over the Wabasha Street Bridge to St. Matthew's Catholic parish, practically within the shadow of the gold-plated jackasses on top of the Capitol, to find out how political games affect the people where they live.


If I were a bishop, I'd read the windbags' names from the pulpit.


http://www.startribune.com/stories/357/5195594.html
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This type of thing happens again and again. But let one of the rightwing bigots say a word, and the mass media are all atwitter.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Nick Coleman is consistently excellent.

I just sent him an atta-boy e-mail for this one.

[Warpy]

2. Mainstream religion has been ignoring the unchristian nature

of the Repuglican party for 25 years now, with disastrous consequences. Yes, they've managed to keep the collection plate a little fuller by not alienating their Repuglican parishoners, but they've sacrificed everything they should stand for on the altar of greed and political expediency.

It's high time every minister and priest with a nodding familiarity with the words of Christ contained in the Mark and Matthew gospels to return to those teachings. If they don't, they'll be as relevant as the DLC led Democrats are quickly becoming and for the same reason.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. I don't know where you were, but there were religious activists

in both the nuclear freeze and the anti-intervention movements during the Reagan administration. :shrug:

[Warpy]

5. I'm talking about the rule. You're talking about the exceptions to it

Big difference.

It's like saying because Phyllis Schlafly is s successful woman heading a major conservative think tank, all women are successful.

It's like saying since Clarence Thomas is a USSC justice, all blacks are successful.

Yes, there are always a few out there. However, visit some big suburban churches and you'll see what I mean.

[Wapsie B]

4. That's because Christians like us

don't have the Democratic Party by the balls. The konservative fundies have done much of the grassroots organizing in the gop. That party is at the mercy of the Dobsons and Falwells. We are not at the mercy of the Flynns, the Rogness's, or the Spongs.

[kwassa]

6. The political influence of mainline denominations has waned

They don't have the clout they used to have, because politicians don't see them as being able to deliver the vote, and therefore not a constituency that they have to pay attention to. The evangelical community, on the other hand, does deliver the vote for the spectrum of issues that they see as important, and are patronized by conservative politicians.

The Washington Post did an article on just this awhile back, and I wish that I had kept a copy.

Here in the DC area, the Episcopal diocese is extremely liberal, yet Reagan's funeral was held in the Episcopalian National Cathedral, though it is simply refered to as National Cathedral, as if it were non-denominational. Many state services are held here. This morning, Bush walked across the street from the White House to St. John's Episcopal for a morning service, a conservative Rite 1 church in the ultra-liberal diocese. Where is the consistency of message here?

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. The trouble is that liberal believers do not feel they

have to go to church regularly. Fundagelcials do, therefore it is easy to look at the number of bottoms warming the pew and think "Hmmm.. there are more fundagelicals, we need to cater to them".

But, that is very very wrong. I have no doubt that liberal believers outnumber the conservatives.

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Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/liberalchristians.htm