Why the 'Christian Left' is not

townhall.com ^ | January 14, 2007 | Kevin McCullough

[ohhhh]

Why the 'Christian Left' is not By Kevin McCullough Sunday, January 14, 2007

For the Christian Left to claim connection to true Christianity is to deny its leftist tendencies and for them to claim connection to the aims of the political left is to deny its Christianity.

U.S. Senator Barrack Obama (D-IL), makes Pastor Rick Warren (R) laugh during a news conference at the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California December 1, 2006. REUTERS/Mark Avery (UNITED STATES) They seem to share more anger for fellow Christians than they do towards evil. And this reality while unexplainable is nevertheless present and growing in influence.

This week I entertained one of the main spokespersons for the movement Dr. Tony Campolo. I asked him directly as to why his new book Letters to a Young Evangelical seemed to have such great disdain for the Christian Right.

He responded, "It's the sense that they come across as judgmental, they come across as being the people who have the whole answer to everything and are not willing to give credulance to any other point of view, and it’s that absolute closed mind set that emerges from that context."

Dr. Campolo went on to complain, as is also reflected in his book, that in the 2004 election cycle, ballot initiatives across 11 states to ratify marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, "In almost every case in the marriage initiatives the ballot measures were used to deny gays all kinds of other rights." When asked for proof of this assertion, he cited two examples neither of which held weight under even simple scrutiny - and he admitted as much too at least one of them.

Another key figure to this group is Jim Wallis, who preaches the gospel of helping the impoverished wherever he goes. His claim is that this is the single focus issue of his life's work. He and Campolo both do so interestingly enough while complaining that the Christian Right are only a "two issue" focus group - abortion and gays.

Neither is truthfully representing their positions in doing so however. Both are on record opposing the efforts to defend biblical marriage from being redefined. Both viewed the state ballot initiatives as insincere merely meant to gin up an angry evangelical riot in the voting booth. Both have branched out to embrace the false issue of humanity caused global warming. Both also supported the Christian Left's newest star - Rick Warren - in the controversy his stubbornness dug himself into by insisting upon the right to have Barack Obama give advice at Warren's recent AIDS conference.

All three men shun the thought of biblically based Christians from standing firm against the creeping peril of evil in our culture. "Be more tolerant," they would advise. "Reach out with love and understanding, not judgment and division."

The 'Christian Left' is rife with such belief.

Unity, forgiveness, mercy, and constant appeasement are to be more highly favored than righteousness, holiness, faithfulness, and obedience.

In doing so the 'Christian Left' also claims to align itself with liberal ideas for the cause of helping the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. When I asked Dr. Campolo for an example he actually cited, "a woman's right... to vote." What is this 1920?

[ohhhh]

I can't understand the Christian left wing, they talk and act and are liberal leftists living their own way and pretending to be what they are not as thier beliefs demostrate, that is they are enemies of God and His Christ may be liberal communist athiests, near as I can tell.

[KantianBurke]

The Christian right isn't all perfection either. Judging from their actions overs the past 6 years, they have zero qualms about stealing taxpayer dollars for their "compassionate causes" de jour.

[Mount Athos]

Other revised inspirational stories of moral relativism include:

* The Organic Garden of Eden
* Pharaoh Has Two Mummies
* What Happens in Sodom and Gomorrah Stays in Sodom and Gomorrah
* Noah Builds Ark to Survive Global Warming
* Jonah Saves the Whale
* David Appeases Goliath
* The Bilingual Writing on the Wall
* The Tower of Babel & The Controlled Demolition Theory
* Uncle Samson & The NY Times Reporter Delilah
* Judas The ACLU Lawyer
* Joseph & Mary Celebrate Holiday Season By Donating Fetus To Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Bank
* Government Program Feeds The Multitudes with Five "Whole Grain" Loaves And Two Non-Endangered Fishes

[sageb1]

Would you elaborate, please?

[ohhhh]

Other revised inspirational stories of moral relativism include:

* The Organic Garden of Eden
* Pharaoh Has Two Mummies
* What Happens in Sodom and Gomorrah Stays in Sodom and Gomorrah
* Noah Builds Ark to Survive Global Warming
You make great points on the rewritten Christian left theology and their gross lies; so funny and yet true of the liars on the left.

* Jonah Saves the Whale
* David Appeases Goliath
* The Bilingual Writing on the Wall
* The Tower of Babel & The Controlled Demolition Theory
* Uncle Samson & The NY Times Reporter Delilah
* Judas The ACLU Lawyer
* Joseph & Mary Celebrate Holiday Season By Donating Fetus To Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Bank
* Government Program Feeds The Multitudes with Five "Whole Grain" Loaves And Two Non-Endangered Fishes

[msnimje]

Your first sentence is at odds with your declaration.

How is using tax money for "compassionate causes" un-Christian?

[x]

Already posted here.

A lot depends on what you mean by "left." A hard left socialism, the politics of envy and revolution, has little in common with Christianity.

But for some people anything other than radical free market economics is "left." A lot of political positions people take fall in that range, and not all of them are inconsistent with Christianity by any means.

It would be a mistake to try to pin religion down as equivalent to this or that political stance, since the nature of faith is to transcend earthly and material bounds.

[ohhhh]

, they have zero qualms about stealing taxpayer dollars for their "compassionate causes" de jour.

Ha, the left is supported by government funds and would die out but for the taxpayer dollars they steal from taxpayers continuously.

[ohhhh]

... Senator Barrack Obama (D-IL), makes Pastor Rick Warren (R) laugh during a news conference at the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California December 1, 2006. REUTERS/Mark Avery (UNITED STATES) They seem to share more anger for fellow Christians than they do towards evil.

They seem to share more anger for fellow Christians than they do towards evil.

amen to that and to the facts the left wing religion ignores.

[Past Your Eyes]

Lots of people I know and otherwise respect slobber all over Tony Campolo. I can't stand him.

[ohhhh]

(It would be a mistake to try to pin religion down as equivalent to this or that political stance, since the nature of faith is to transcend earthly and material bounds.)

The faith does not support the murder of our children by abortion, democrats do; nor the homosexual perversion of marriage and godless schools, but democrats do; nor the deanial of Gods Christ as deity, but left wing liberal bible deniers do. And that is just the beginning of a long list, more than 10, of why the left wing can not call themselves Christians, though they do.
Someone is lying, I reckon.

[GoLightly]

When "charity" becomes an action of government, the threat of incarceration becomes part of the equation, hardly an act of compassion. Uncle Sugar has become our brother's keeper, so we no longer have to be bothered.

[rob777]

"Government Program Feeds The Multitudes with Five "Whole Grain" Loaves And Two Non-Endangered Fishes"



I do not see how the fishes could be considered "Non-Endangered" if they are about to be used to feed people. Then again, that's liberal logic for ya. :-)

[vpintheak]

You cannot be a Christian and be a Democrat. It is not possible. Being a Christian and a Republocant is getting dangerously close to the same fate.

[x]

Good point. Abortion is a moral issue, as murder is, and Christianity can't be indifferent between the two sides.

But what we do about social security, or environmental protection, or immigration, or anti-trust, or international trade isn't so clear-cut in religious terms.

[Abcdefg]

"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."

[Christian4Bush]

bttt

[ruthles]

I hope I'm not highjacking this thread. But do any of you see membership in the California state PTA as a moral compromise? Many unsuspecting Christians are members, not realizing their money is supporting a left of center organization.

[Wuli]

I believe that any form of Marxism, including socialism is incompatible with the life that I believe Yeshua tried to teach.

Christian charity says: we, as Christians, see this need, this benevolence we could do for others, and we will marshall our resources to do it (aka Habitat for Humanity, Feed the Children, etc. etc.) (It would not surprise me if Habitat for Humanity has placed more poor people in their own homes in the last decade than the socialist federal programs).

Socialism says: we want to do this wonderful thing, so we are going to get the governemt to go and take what we need from everyone that "has too much" and we will determine who deserves to get something back.

When leftist-Christians tie their "benevolent" impulse to socialism, they deny that every program for it is based on taking, not giving; that taking is a demand EVERYONE be taken from to supply the "giving" that they want to do.

Can you imagine Yeshua telling his supporters to go demand that Herod and Pilate raise their tax confiscations on everyone, and give the proceeds to Yeshua so he can "feed the mulititude"?

No. Even without the parables of the miracles in "feeding the multitudes", Yeshua taught his followers to offer all that they themselves could, demanding nothing of others, taking nothing of others and with faith it would grow and it would be enough. Anyone who has ever engaged in Christian charities knows that this is true, and the record of charitable giving in the US reflects that - Christians, small-town people, poor and middle class people and GOPers give to charity far more than liberals and the elites; far, far more. And US-based Christian charities are the largest private non-governental foreign aid organizations in the world.

American Christians live their faith in their charitable works without the takings of the world's Marxists. And guess who spends more on such benevolence, world-wide? Americans in general and American Christians in particular.

No. Socialism/Marxism and what Yeshua taught are, to me, incompatible.

[gcruse]

It's stuff like this that convinces me worshipping the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the right thing to do.