Voting God's Politics

[pamela]

Jim Wallis and Sojourners have put out some wonderful Voting Guides. They are out of hard copies but you can download and print copies from their site.


Issues Guide http://www.sojo.net/Action/Alerts/VGP_Issues_Guide.pdf

Action Guide http://www.sojo.net/Action/Alerts/VGP_Election_Action_Guide.pdf

Discussion Guide http://www.sojo.net/Action/Alerts/VGP_Discussion_Guide.pdf


Karl Keating of Catholic Answers, and other right wing fundie groups, distributed voting guides in 2004 based on the "non-negotiables." (Which pretty much came down to abortion and gay marriage.) They distributed these guides in churches and published them in newspapers. They are distributing them for the upcoming elections as well. Many main-stream Christians see these guides and think they are sanctioned by their church and there are some churches that probably do sanction, and even distribute, them.

I think it's important for us to get the message out about OUR values like peace, poverty, social justices, the environment, etc. I don't think anyone articulates this position as well as Wallis and Sojourners. (Well, except for Jesus, that is.) So, please, check out these guides, download them and make copies to distribute at your church or put some copies on the cars in the parking lot at your neighborhood church. The nut-jobs have been monopolizing this conversation for far too long.

[NMMNG]

1. I'll be printing out some of these tomorrow

Then I'll leave them lying around all over the place. :thumbsup:

[pamela]

2. Hey thanks, Buffy!

Blessed are the peacemakers!

O8) :toast: :evilgrin:

[pamela]

3. Related Article...

I just wanted to add this article that I found about Voter's Guides. This article mentions that the (right wing) Catholic Answers Voter's Guide was distributed to 10 million people in 2004. That's the bad news. The good news is that a group called Catholic Alliance has put out a guide with an "opposing" viewpoint.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801664.html

I really hope we can win back some of the Catholic voters this year. The news isn't so good on the Protestant front. Looks like the Christian Coalition is sending out way more guides than Sojourners. Maybe we can change that.

From the article...

"In Protestant churches, the Christian Coalition's guides will face competition this year from "Voting God's Politics," a brochure produced by the liberal evangelical magazine Sojourners and the anti-poverty group Call to Renewal. Like the Common Good guide, it discusses issues, not individual candidates.

"Even the term 'voter guide' has been so tainted by the religious right that people are afraid that ours is going to be just a left-wing version of theirs, a thinly camouflaged signal to vote for particular candidates," said Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners. "Our guide levels the playing field; it makes clear that God is not a Republican or a Democrat."

In numbers, however, the battle of the voter guides is still not an even match. Sojourners has distributed 50,000 of its brochures and plans to print 150,000 more. Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, said her group will distribute "millions" of its guides, which she said it is now compiling, to candidates in key races."