Posted on 06/23/2005 4:34:29 AM PDT by Mo1
WASHINGTON - Liberals say they believe in God, too.
It's one of the hottest trends in politics today. Prominent Democrats are suddenly quoting from the Bible - as John Kerry said recently, "I went back and reread the whole New Testament" - but what's truly striking is the determination of liberal Christians to create an effective religious left.
That's why Tim Simpson trekked to Washington yesterday. A Presbyterian pastor from Tallahassee, Fla., he wants to counter the power of the religious right, which works in tandem with the Republican Party, and, as he sees it, "has taken control of the language of our faith... to promote an extreme and divisive political agenda."
As religious-affairs director of the newly minted Christian Alliance for Progress (which was unveiled yesterday at the National Press Club), Simpson said in a subsequent interview, "We decided we could continue to sit around and grouse, or we could do something about it." So this fledgling grassroots organization, headed by a trio of devout Christians with seed money from private Florida donors, argues that progressive values mirror the teachings of the gospel.
It's a Democratic-friendly message - the same message that the bestselling liberal evangelist Jim Wallis has been imparting to Democrats in private - and it's designed to close the God gap that has increasingly plagued the party at election time. It's also a priority message for former Clinton White House aide John Podesta, whose think tank, Center for American Progress, has been hosting events this year for people of faith.
It's also an uphill struggle worthy of Sisyphus.
The problem for the underdog Christian left is that, since the advent of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Republicans have successfully promoted the argument that a vote for Christian values is a vote for the GOP. The exit polls tell the story. Last November, Kerry won only 21 percent of white evangelical Christians (thereby dooming his candidacy). Al Gore's share in 2000 was only 30 percent.
Kerry was partly victimized by the GOP's hardball rhetoric. In Arkansas and West Virginia last autumn, the Republican National Committee sent out flyers telling evangelical Christians that "liberals" would ban the Bible if Kerry won.
Depicting the Democrats as godless is still a GOP tactic, as evidenced three days ago, when Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana said on the House floor: "Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians."
But Simpson said yesterday - and Wallis has argued this point as well with Democrats - that many in the party have exposed themselves to GOP caricature by telegraphing their discomfort with religiosity.
Simpson said at the Press Club launch, "There is a sector of folks on the left that have been enormously vocal about [stressing secularism], that have shouted down the vast majority of folks on the left who are people of faith, who do believe in God... . We don't believe that people should have to check their faith tradition at the door of the public arena."
The party's secularism, he said, has alienated a lot of voters who don't necessarily wish to embrace the religious right.
As one anti-Bush Christian recently told Wallis, "It's easier to 'come out' as a gay person in Boston than as a religious person in the Democratic Party."
Mindful of that lesson, some Democratic senators are already recalibrating. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who's mapping a reelection race in 2006, recently invoked "Jesus of Nazareth" during an attack on Republicans. His colleague, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has retained the Rev. Don Argue, a past president of the National Association of Evangelicals, as an informal adviser. And eschewing the traditional party rhetoric of "choice," she has introduced a bill that is designed to reduce demand for abortions.
Notwithstanding these efforts, Christian right leaders are dubious about the prospects for a powerful Christian left.
Gary Bauer, a former presidential candidate who runs the group American Values, said by phone yesterday: "We can all agree that the gospel of Jesus Christ is bigger than any political party. But it's also true that the overwhelming majority of regular churchgoers have decided that, at this point in our history, the Republican Party is closer to what they are looking for, in terms of leadership.
"So [the Christian left's] argument is not with Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson or James Dobson. It's with their bright and intelligent co-religionists."
But the upstarts on the Christian left believe Bauer and other conservative leaders are turning off voters by pushing too hard and implying that their agenda is sanctioned by the Bible. National example: the Republican Congress' intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, and its subsequent attacks on the judiciary. Local example: the North Carolina pastor, Chan Chandler, who last autumn told parishioners that anyone voting for Kerry needed to "repent or resign."
Simpson thinks there are millions of "independent, moderate, swing voters" who believe in God but distrust the religious right's power. He said in an interview, "When Democrats have talked religion to those voters, looked 'em in the eye, they have been successful," citing Bill Clinton's two election victories. (Clinton and Jimmy Carter, both Southerners who talked religion openly, are the sole Democratic winners since 1964.)
The Christian left cites Bible passages to buttress their agenda (antiwar, universal health care, fighting poverty), but it's not clear how the movement can break the power of the religious right by advocating "equality for gays and lesbians" - when, in most polls, a majority of Americans currently side with the religious right against gay marriage.
But it's early days for the Christian Alliance, which is trolling for small donors at christianalliance.org. In the words of businessman-founder Patrick Mrotek, "You have to walk before you can run."
Well duh! Boston and Massachusetts embraces the homosexual agenda, while the modern democrat party shuns religious people like lepers.
I never heard of Tim Simpson the minister from Florida.
But any preacher who heads for Washington just to attack other preachers and make his mark in turning religion into political war isnt much of a preacher.
And one that is very easy to do as Democrats fight against;
1. All Public Prayer.
2. All Public religious symbols.
3. The Pledge of Alligence.
4. Any Restrictions on Abortion
5. Defining marriage between a man and a woman.
6. The right of Churches to make free speech.
It's funny that the article didn't mention these issues.
Oh yeah? Tell that to Teddy the Swimmer and the other Dems who persist in blocking nominees to the Federal Courts because their strong personal religious beliefs happen to differ from the Dem members of the Judiciary Committee, and other leading Dems in the Senate and House.
And you wonder why the anti-Christian lable stickes.....
Uh huh. They also say Bill Clinton is not a crook. If it was fashionable, they'd say they were striped-butt baboons.
It's one of the hottest trends in politics today.
And this is a clear example of how the left just doesn't "get it." Religion isn't a "trend" or a pop phenom. It is something that consumes one, that permeates the soul. It is not merely an ideological mood watch or the moral equivalent of bell bottom trousers.
Prominent Democrats are suddenly quoting from the Bible
Because Mao's Little Red Book has fallen out of favor ...
- as John Kerry said recently, "I went back and reread the whole New Testament"
... the popup version ...
- but what's truly striking is the determination of liberal Christians to create an effective religious left.
What's truly "striking" is the utter GALL of amoral opportunists to co-opt religion as an advertising gimmick.
That's why Tim Simpson trekked to Washington yesterday. A Presbyterian pastor from Tallahassee, Fla., he wants to counter the power of the religious right,
News flash, Tim: the power of the religious right (whatever THAT is) arises from its moral dimension, something a religion of convenience lacks.
I think Dean has made it pretty clear which party is the Christian party.
It's pretty hard for these pretenders to convince real Christians of their sincerity, when the high ground they're standing on is a mountain of 40,000,000 aborted babies.
Jesus said, "By their fruit, you will know them." Look at what liberal Democrats have turned our country into in the last 40 years and tell me we aren't going to hell in a handbasket. No real Christian will be fooled by the false prophets of the godless left.
yep .. they still don't get it
That about sums up the Democrats position on faith. Keep this in our memory banks. It will be used in coming elections, I’m sure.
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