Posted on 11/08/2004 6:27:21 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
I know bunches of people who take their faith very seriously and shudder at the works of George Bush: the WARMONGERING, the DISREPECT FOR THE POOR and the WEAK, the ARROGANCE.
Here’s the problem: RELIGIOUS LIBERALS don’t wear their faith on their sleeves. We don’t evangelize; we consider it disrespectful to shove our spiritual views down other people’s throats.
Faced with a movement that has no such scruples, unfortunately, we’re flummoxed.
We’re always on the back foot, being forced to resort at the last minute in an election cycle to taking out ads in newspapers under the umbrella of People of Faith Against the outrage du jour: wars, the death penalty, assaults on women’s rights, whatever.
Candidates like John Kerry who share our values feel they have to make uncharacteristic public noises about their religious views. It all seems kind of tacky. We’d prefer to wear our faith like a nice little black dress, not like a G-string.
If you think that analogy is over the top, consider a conversation my kid had at school last week. They were discussing the election, and the other child said, “KERRY’S for QUEERS.” She also informed my daughter that “GOD KILLS QUEERS.”
You see the problem? The other side’s ammunition is so inane, we haven’t taken it seriously. But they’re WINNING. These little slogans, appealing to gut instinct, beyond rational discourse, have power. That’s partly what being a liberal is about: live and let live.
But times have changed, and we need to change with them. The RELIGIOUS BIGOTS, who think it’s CHRISTIAN to hate gay people and who are ready to forgive any degree of callousness toward their fellow humans — as long as it’s cloaked in pious clichés — are winning the ideological battle in this country.
The rest of the world is horrified and perplexed. Friends from other countries ask me, “How could you let this happen?” I have to admit that I don’t have a good answer. Or maybe the answer is just too uncomfortable.
We’ve screwed up. We haven’t found a way to counter the religious right, because we’re all too damned tasteful and tolerant to be pushy about our beliefs.
That has to end, friends. We have our work cut out for us. If we’re going to rescue this country from the GAY-BASHERS, the CREATIONIST SCIENCE-HATERS (Good Lord, what more gorgeous divine plan could you find than evolution?), we’re going to have to stop being so nice and restrained.
We’re going to have to start doing some pulpit-thumping ourselves. We’re going to have to put OUR VALUES(you remember the ones: CHARITY, LOVE, that sort of thing) back into the public eye and we’re going to have to be loud about it.
We’re going to have to stop being so WASPY and RESTRAINED. We’re going to have to take on these neo-Pharisees, Bible verse for Bible verse.
We haven’t really lost this fight. The problem is that we haven’t been fighting at all.
Susanna Rodell is editorial page editor of The Charleston Gazette. E-mail: srodell-wvgazette.com
I think it's time you found a Bible-teaching church.
NO Presbyterian church in my liberal area of PA belonged to the Confessing Church Movement. We looked all over.
What is it about being "poor" that demands respect.
I may respect a person who happens to be poor, but I certainly do not respect someone simply because they are poor.
We have found a Bible-believing church. We became members of the Wesleyan denomination, which is Bible-believing and extrememly conservative.
"Go and make disciples of all the nations."
--Jesus
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
You did what you had to do. God bless you going forward.
We all end up where God wants us to end up. And the PCUSA will cease to exist if he wants it that way.
This is a joke, right?
Wesleyan greetings to you. Theological and social conservatives who also were in the forefront of the fight against slavery.
Religious, (in the true sense of the word), and liberal are mutually exclusive concepts.
I've read this four times - are you saying "paying into pastor's abortions"????
Surely I'm reading this wrong and maybe you've clarified it by now.
I just don't know what to say....
Thanks
First off, the liberals captured the headquarters and seminaries of the mainline denominations before World War II. The decks of these denominations have been stacked against Bible believers for a very long time on the denominational level. A local congregation may retain autonomy for a while, but the bishop, conference, presbytery, etc., can foist a liberal pastor on a congregation at will. (That all mainline congregations do not have liberal pastors by now is a concession tor realism by the higher level church officials, who recognize that sending a Bolshevik with a backwards collar to a moderate or conservative church would cause many congregants and their donations to leave.) Secondly, UMC, ELCA, ECUSA, PCUSA, RCA, etc., do not permit the congregations to own the church buildings. A restive congregation cannot secede without an expensive court fight, which at best would result in the denomination compelling the church to pay a second time to retain the building.
Besides, were the mainline denominations products or services in the marketplace, they would be marketing disasters. Declining patronage, low intergenerational loyalty, and a diminishing number of outlets characterize the mainline denominations. Let's look at Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the northwest corner of that state. This was predominantly Congregationalist (Puritan) country, with some Episcopalian and Methodist influence. A century ago, a majority of county residents adhered to one of these three denominations, as had been the case since the first white settlement in the 18th Century. As of 2000, the combined membership in said groups represents only 24% of churchgoers and 12.7% of residents of this county. In 1990, the comparable percentages were 25.1% and 14%, respectively. Despite the absence of large industrial towns that tended to attract (mostly Catholic) European immigrants in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Roman Catholics represent 66% of churchgoers and 34.9% of all county residents as of 2000. (Evangelical Protestant, Lutheran, and Jewish residents each represent less than 2% of Litchfield County's population in 2000.)
The liberal establishment has recognized that the National Council of Churches affiliates cannot deliver the liberal "sacraments" of money and votes. Hence, they largely ignore these churches. In the early and mid 20th Century, liberal clergy like James Pike, Walter Rauschenbusch, Harry Emerson Fosdick, etc., were well known nationally, as much as Billy Sunday or Billy Graham. Other than Bishop Spong and Peter Gomes (who are far from widely famous), few liberal Protestant authors even receive widespread circulation in book stores. Usually, they are buried amidst racks of books by conservative evangelicals like Chuck Swindoll, Kay Arthur, or R.C. Sproul.
Whether dealing with theological issues or with church sociology, the plain truth is that the mainline denominations are in terminal decline.
"We have our own homegrown version of the Islamic jihad-mongers here at home, and they're among Bush's most ardent supporters. Call them the Christian Taliban, for want of a better label."
HollandSentinel.com -Maybe America's critics have a point 12-05-03
Some things are indeed worth fighting for, but the bricks and sticks of the mainline churches are not.
We disagree, although I wouldn't characterize it as "bricks and sticks" like you did.
Whether dealing with theological issues or with church sociology, the plain truth is that the mainline denominations are in terminal decline.
The seem moribund, but God works in mysterious ways.
STOP SPECTER FROM BLOCKING BUSH'S JUDGES
Contact Senator Frist 202-224-3135
Contact Senator Santorum 202-224-6324
Tell them in no uncertain terms that Specter cannot be made Senate Judiciary Chairman
Do NOT take "no" for an answer!
Bush has no Mandate?
Just say "NO" To Specter's Games!
Senate Judiciary Committee GOP Members
Contact Senator Orrin Hatch 202-224-5251
Contact Senator Charles Grassley 202-224-3744
Contact Senator Jon Kyl 202-224-4521
Contact Senator Mike DeWine 202-224-2315
Contact Senator Jeff Sessions 202-224-4124
Contact Senator Lindsey Graham -202-224-5972
Contact Senator Larry Craig 202-224-2752
Contact Senator Saxby Chambliss 202-224-3521
Contact Senator John Cornyn 202-224-2934
Wouldn't spending the time and money fighting apostates be better spent in missions and evangelism, or for that matter establishing and improving evangelical schools, colleges, and seminaries so that they may someday replace the liberal institutions?
Perhaps, but everyone is free to do what they are led to do. You are free to approach the problem your way, and others their way.
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