Mark Tooley, "Religious Left Coalitions"
Two relatively new religious coalitions are combating the burgeoning influence of Christian conservatives. The Interfaith Alliance, created in 1994, is largely a mishmash of fading, old-line Religious Left fixtures whose predictable denunciations of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson have failed to attract sustained attention or new allies. But the Call to Renewal, which Sojourners publisher Jim Wallis helped create last year, has been considerably more successful in portraying itself as a viable alternative to the Christian Right.
Many National Council of Churches types have endorsed the Call, but their profiles have been kept noticeably low. More prominent have been "progressive" evangelicals and Roman Catholics who claim their politics are "above" and "beyond" the "traditional politics" of Left and Right. . .
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Of the Call's 100 prominent endorsers, eighteen are Roman Catholic, including Bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit; Raymond Lucker of New Ulm, Minnesota; LeRoy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas; Francis Murphy of Baltimore; Peter Rosazza of Hartford, Connecticut; Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Virginia; and, Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee.
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Cafferty was joined by Wallis and other Call founders, including Baptist evangelist Tony Campolo, who seemed to summarize the Call's objective when he said, "We want to change the purpose of evangelism. . . Political issues are at the heart of the Christian faith. We thank them [the Religious Right] for making America aware that politics is religious."
Campolo, whom President Clinton has cited as one of his ten most admired preachers, pledged that the Call's "progressive evangelical caucus" would "avoid Left and Right" while advocating community programs to battle "gay-bashing, racism, and poverty." He said they would seek "reconciliation and not polarization."
Note on the Thomas Gumbleton mentioned above:
On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition held a panel discussion/press conference entitled Iraq: George W. Bush's "Vietnam"? at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The panel featured former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, family members of U.S. GIs, and other leaders of the anti-war movement, who collectively discussed the growing mood in the United States to bring U.S. troops back from Iraq and to end the occupation.
Doug Maben, an ex-intern who is a Presbyterian pastor, organized an exciting Denver town meeting, and one of the most moving local speakers was another former intern, Mara Vanderslice, who challenged the enthusiastic audience to join the Jubilee 2000 campaign. A beloved teacher and mentor of mine, Vincent Harding, introduced the evening. Call to Renewal and Sojourners board member Leah Gaskin Fitchue is now dean of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, which hosted the Atlanta Faith Works Forum. Media coverage was very extensive in Atlanta as it was in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Former Sojourners magazine editor Bob Hulteen now works for the Minnesota Council of Churches and organized the successful town meeting we held at Rev. Al Gallmon's Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.
Nice deconstruction.
On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition held a panel discussion/press conference entitled Iraq: George W. Bush's "Vietnam"? at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The panel featured former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, family members of U.S. GIs, and other leaders of the anti-war movement, who collectively discussed the growing mood in the United States to bring U.S. troops back from Iraq and to end the occupation.
Couple this with the recent coming out party for Jim Wallis and Clinton's new-found charitableness ... and I have to wonder if the recent abduction of a Catholic archbishop in Iraq will be the next thing libs can associate with to try to draw some religious folks to their ranks.