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
She is another example of an out-of-touch press person, and this one even lives in the deep South. They just do not understand Christianity. I would be interested in how much money she gave to her local church, how often she attends, how often she reads the Bible, and if her church actually preaches the gospel. Liberals are the people who ocassionally TALK about their faith, but do not practice it. Hypocrite!
She's pro-choice so that means she goes to a main-line church. She's a member of the Presbyterian Church USA, or the UCC, etc.
The Presbyterian Church USA is part of the Evangelical Left. It is one of the various Marxist-left-thinking offshoots of the origional Presbyterian Church, which is still in existence.
Susanna Rodent is a cookie-cutter example of why libs were on the bloody end of the sword this Nov. - right out of the blocks throwing barbs and insults.
Goes on to insult Christians labeling all of them extremist wackos. Obviously not true, and only energizes the religious in our society.
Quotes from foreign friends, another energizer of the right.
This is just great! I'm beginning to think this Rodent-Person is a conservative plant to make libs look like idiots!
Most PEOPLE in the PCUSA do not believe in the same things as those non Christians who currently operate the national polity. The battle for the church continues.
The Presbyterian Church USA has been taken over at the highest levels by Democrats. Even though I was a life-long Presbyterian, I got fed up and left because I am not a Democrat.
Life is too short, and I'd rather be with fellow conservatives who voted for Pres. Bush. We now give our money to a bible-believing conservative church that is pro-life. My church teaches children in Sunday School real values. I could no longer belong to a church that gives pastors abortion coverage.
No one is more arrogant, bigoted and evangelical about their beliefs than a Liberal. But religion they keep to themselves.
The irony.
If we abandon all the institutions we treasure as soon as the liberals infiltrate, we will have nothing left.
Some things are worth fighting for.
Hollywood's plan was to convert and degrade us through their R-Rated movies. Although, PG-13 movies are as bad as R used to be.
maybe you should read the books of the prophets again.
Our messiah was already here. We missed it, but its not too late. He is coming again VERY soon!
Jesus Christ was a Jew, the Apostles we all Jews. John the Baptist was a Jew. Christianity is just an offshoot of the Jewish faith.
"Those that keep the commandments and follow the teachings of christ". Have you ever read the New Testament? Studied the teachings of Christ? with an open mind and heart? If you are so sure in your beliefs I ask that you would please go to this site with an open heart.
G_d Bless You.
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/index.htm
A religious liberal would belong to the cult of Satan.
Not only the movies, but TV....even family shows were extremely secular.
And as someone else pointed out here, the quickest way to spot the killer in a drama is he is the one wearing a cross.
I didn't believe it at first, but I'll be darned if Law and Order ain't battin' a thousand on that!
There is a little-known provision in the Presbyterian Church USA that will exempt your church from paying into pastor's abortions. My pastor was unwilling to follow up on that, even though he's a single man and a very big liberal. Has your church followed up on that?
The word of a gay-rights activist that this happened, however, is meaningless.
Almost all "hate crimes" alleged to have been committed by preferred-group "victims" are made up. This absurd concoction breaks new ground, "false hate-crime by proxy".
Look for more of it if it has the desired effect.
Yes. And I have also declined to have any of my contributions sent to the national, as is my right.
Sounds like you should have changed CONGREGATIONS.
'Says he from the Cult of the Bloody Fetus.'
Yeah...funny they have no problem whatsoever shoving all their other views down other people's throats.
People who have myriad priorities far above their "spiritual views" such as this author and sKerry don't "evangelize" because they could care less...and wouldn't know how to share a meaningless "faith" if they did. Like everything else, though, they are sanctimonious about it, trying to make their self-centerness feel like consideration and concern for the views of others.
Good for you. My pastor was even for gay marriage. I used to wonder if it was because he's in his 40's and still single. Our old, conservative pastor retired several years ago.
There are many excellent CHRISTIAN congregations in the PCUSA. A good place to start would be the "confessing" church movement. But it is by no means the only place.
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