[Dialogue] God's Politics

Mon Nov 7 12:16:18 EST 2005

Colleagues, I hope this is a helpful article. Peace, Harry 
  _____  

AlterNet

God's Politics

By Brian Fanelli, WireTap
Posted on November 7, 2005, Printed on November 7, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/27745/

With nearly 10,000 members, The
<http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.christianall
iance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.592941/k.CB7C/Home.htm%E2%80%9D>  Christian
Alliance -- a new national spiritual organization dedicated to progressive
causes, such as peace, gay rights, and environmental protection -- is
challenging the stances held by the religious right through grassroots
activism, national debate, and by reaching out to young people.

Disgusted with the outcome of the 2004 presidential election and the debate
over moral issues, an electric group of thinkers launched the organization
in June, 2005. The group's founder, Patrick Mrotek, is a businessman from
Alabama who belongs to the Episcopal Church. The group's Director of
Religious Affairs, the Rev. Timothy F. Simpson, is a minister for the
Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and an editor of the Journal of Political
Theology.

Because of the swelling power and control the religious right harnesses over
Christianity's meaning and interoperation in the United States, the
Christian Alliance seeks to network with Christians on the left, including
young people, and support progressive causes often condemned by the
religious right.

The organization strives to unite and motivate progressive Christians at the
grassroots level in order to influence local politics, such as school board
decisions and campaigns between mayors. "You've got to be organized because
the country is moving towards a theocracy," the Rev. Simpson said.

The organization has found over 250 leaders among its members, who agreed to
mobilize their communities. "It really shows that people are ready for the
message," said Kathleen LeRoy, the group's vice president of operations. 

The group's leaders will reach out to young grassroots activists by visiting
campuses and networking with youth-oriented Christian organizations. Jenny
Wright, 21, who now works as the group's website manager and researcher, met
LeRoy when she spoke at a Liberal Christian Society meeting, which she
started at the University of North Florida with her husband, Joel Sumner.

Wright joined the alliance for several reasons. "I became stuck in this
state of mind where I realized everything I had been taught about
Christianity my whole life had been wrong," she said. "I began to learn
about Christianity for myself and saw that Christ was not an unloving man,
rather he was an individual who sought out the most unloved members of
society and loved them."

Wright did acknowledge that some of her Christian friends have disagreed
with her beliefs and have given her trouble. "My conservative friends
shunned my ideas and felt that continuing a friendship with me would be
'unequally yolked,'" Wright said. "I was told that I was a rebellious
sinner, wasn't following God's will, and that they would pray for me."

She also acknowledged that The Liberal Christian Society was started as a
response to the overwhelming number of conservative Christian groups on her
campus. She said that at the University of North Florida, which has about
18,000 students, there are about 20 conservative Christian groups. 

Besides sparking grassroots activism, the Christian Alliance is also working
to spread their message at a national level. When the organization started
in June, its leaders held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and
received broad media coverage, including the BBC News. 

To combat the views of the religious right, the Christian Alliance formed a
declaration to state that leaders of the religious right do not represent
progressive Christians. The
<http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.christianall
iance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.686289/k.ACEF/The_Jacksonville_Declaration/ap
ps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=bnKIIQNtEoG&b=686289&en=kuIPJ0OPJmLRK1NNJkISK0OJKkK
YJ2ORJrLXJbO0KuKbF%E2%80%9D>  Jacksonville Declaration contains signatures
of Christians who do not stand behind the rhetoric of the religious right.

"We say 'No' to the ways the leaders of the religious right are using the
name and language of Christianity to advance what we see as extremist
political goals," the Jacksonville Declaration says. "We do not support your
agenda to erode the separation of church and state, to blur the vital
distinction between your interpretation of Christianity and our shared
democratic institutions."

The Jacksonville Declaration has drawn fire from the religious right. Dr.
Edward Hindson called the Christian Alliance and liberal Christians "nothing
more than a small, inconsequential fringe of loosely organized pawns of
political liberalism" recently in the National Liberty Journal, which is
published by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. 

The Christian Alliance supports several issues that the religious right has
condemned. For instance, the organization believes gay and lesbian people
are children of God and should be treated with respect and tolerance.

The organization supports equality under the law and believes that
discrimination against any person or group violates the gospel. To support
their argument, the Christian Alliance quotes Jesus' teachings, "Love one
another as I have loved you." (John 15:12).

The Christian Alliance also joins the peace movement in demanding an exit
strategy from Iraq. "By rushing to war and having no plan for peace, our
leaders used their power irresponsibly and betrayed America's trust," the
organization's website says.

The organization also believes it is immoral to ravage and pollute the
Earth. The group believes that the Earth is meant for future generations to
inherit, so the organization encourages its members to be responsible
stewards. 

One of the most surprising causes that the group supports is a woman's right
to choose. For decades, many religious leaders, especially those on the
religious right, have condemned abortion.

Instead of seeking to overturn Roe V. Wade and outlaw abortion, the
Christian Alliance wants to protect a woman's right too choose, while
seeking methods to lower the abortion rate.

The organization believes that emergency contraception should be made more
available to the public, and the group is a vocal critic of the abstinence
education programs supported by the religious right.

"We believe that Jesus would recognize the inherent hypocrisy in decreasing
support for family planning or reducing access to contraception while
simultaneously seeking to criminalize abortion," a statement on the
organization's website says.

It has yet to be seen how powerful the Christian Alliance will grow, but the
organization does give a voice to progressive Christians that have been
alienated from the mainstream religious debate for decades by leaders of the
religious right.

In the future, the Rev. Simpson said that he hopes the organization's local
chapters will flourish and grow. He also wants values like compassion and
peace to be the center of the religious debate, and he believes the
progressive Christian movement will be successful when those values dominate
religious debates and discussions. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20051107/a0554770/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1542 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20051107/a0554770/attachment.gif