Leaders of Christianity-based political action groups are finally looking beyond opposition to abortion and same-sex unions and are heeding the Christian call to consider the "least of thy brothers."
Christian leaders such as the Rev. Richard Land (in photo) of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, are pressuring President Bush to ease the suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Washington Post reported. The leaders are also taking a closer look at environmental issues.
Some conservative Christians feel that a broader approach threatens their current agenda, which has defined and sustained support. But the new leaders are looking at the younger supporters who are more globally aware.
The new head of the Christian Coalition, the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, is seeking to "rebuild and rebrand" the conservative lobbying group by reaching out to a broader base.
Posted by Angie Holladay
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53 Comments
As a Catholic, I can say that the Catholic Church lost much of its political power when the Bishops went all over the map on “social justice” issues.Jesus was not and is not a pacifist. “If you do not own a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”Jesus was not a socialist, “The poor will always be with you.”The Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are right on many issues. I wish they would lighten up on the Evolution issue, since it isnt as important as many other issues and we should all pick our fights wisely.I also dont like it that some conservative candidates lose votes on the gambeling issue, but here, again, they have a point. There will be some pain and questionable gain. Except for the Zoo, we cant run our current amusements that nobody else has — How can we bring gambelers to Kansas from states that already have gambeling?For the above reasons, I frequently find myself voting for religious conservatives that I don’t agree with 100%.I sincerely doubt that most Christian Conservatives will buy into the global warming hysteria.Also, most Christians don’t see the government as a substitute for charity, and will never consider taxes a tith. (This is one of the points the Catholic Church leaders often forget. Charity is what you do, voluntarily, with your own money.)It is OK that some Christian leaders are taking up some new causes.Hey, gives me a chance to argue with some Ministers.Why should you Atheists and Democrats have all the fun?As for Darfur and Somalia and other trouble spots:The United States has saved more lives in Iraq than we have lost, more lives have been saved by our troops than have been taken by our troops.Likewise, we can save lives in Darfur. Just remember, people die in war. Darfur means war.We can not “feed” people who are being starved as an act of war, without taking sides in that war.I support US Troops in Somalia.I will still support US troops in Somalia and Darfur when the people are fat and our troops are being shot at by those who want their power back.On the Island of Iwo Jima, I think the US death toll was 7820. I had that number pounded into me in bootcamp. I will be embarrased if I got it wrong.One Island, one battle, lasting only several days, and America remembers the flag raising, not the carnage. (In fact, most of the deaths happened AFTER the flag was raised!)I honestly wonder if America has that kind of courage anymore!Darfur will be bloody.——Religious people belong in politics, that is what our founders intended.Moral authority will be watered down, however, if those preaching from the pulpit on policy matters dont make sure of their facts as well as their theology.
“finally” looking beyond same sex marriage and abortion?
Where were you during the faith based initiative drive?
Yep… there was absolutely no hint of bias in your opening paragraph there Angie… nope none at all.
As a matter of fact you didn’t make it sound like the only thing Christian Political groups care about is abortion and same sex marriage issues and never cared about the “least of my brothers”
I couldn’t tell that at all in your opening paragraph.
Wow Paul and Nathan are even more closed minded and misinformed than I ever thought before. We’ve saved more lives than we’ve taken? Are you kidding?
Darfur hasn’t been touched because the Arabs that are doing all the killing there have given Bush information about Al Qaida. In turn for this information, Bush has looked the other way on Darfur. I suppose Paul’s thinking will change now, afterall killing is a Jesus kind of thing apparently- as long as all those people are dying for the good of our nation.
Religious leaders would do good to take on the real issues that face the world instead of trying to dictate what others do with their lives. If they do that, I might have more respect for them.
“Jesus was not a socialist, ‘The poor will always be with you.’ “I guess the more important point is what you do to/for them, exploit or be charitable. For what one does for the least amongst them, is what is being done for Jesus. Sounds socialistic, doesn’t it?
On another note, I strongly support their pressuring for Darfur actions. Maybe US can play support on having peacekeepers from non-Arab Islamic countries on the ground in addition to African contingent.
The libs talk big about Darfur. Why don’t we just talk to them?It would be a war, then the libs will say, after the first casualty, enough! Let’s declare victory and go back to hiding under the bed!Who cares what an Intern thinks anyway?
Let’s send Jimmy Carter over to Darfur, or would this be a job for Jessie?
We have to be very carefull, anything we do as a nation will only create more terrorists.
Hank
Don’t forget the battle of Antietam. One day battle, over 3,600 killed, over 17,000 wounded. One day. Overall, the American people have lost that kind of courage.
Long past time the Christians started worrying about this world instead of the next. “Render unto Ceaser…..”etc.
Faith based initiatives Nathan? Spare me. What “faith based initiatives” means is you get your bowl of soup AFTER you listen to the sermon. Give out the bowl of soup and keep the sermon.
I usually try not to get involved with religious discussions.. But this one is eating my stomach.
I’ll keep this simple..
RELIGION HAS NO PLACE IN GOVERNMENT WHATSOEVER..
In fact it should be point blank illegal for religion to be discussed in government, to be used a basis for a campaign, and it should be illegal for anyone to question someone in government beacuse they are of a certain religion.
*awaits the flaming that will come*
Paul – “I sincerely doubt that most Christian Conservatives will buy into the global warming hysteria.”
I think that as the scientific evidence becomes more well explained they WILL buy into the global warming REALITY. Regardless of what lies your “politically correct” doctrine tells them.
Paul – “I sincerely doubt that most Christian Conservatives will buy into the global warming hysteria.”
I think that as the scientific evidence becomes more well explained they WILL buy into the global warming REALITY. Regardless of what lies your “politically correct” doctrine tells them.
JR..”Faith based initiatives Nathan? Spare me. What “faith based initiatives” means is you get your bowl of soup AFTER you listen to the sermon. Give out the bowl of soup and keep the sermon.”
Mostly true… but not ALWAYS true…
And when it comes to street people… they will choose to sit through the sermon because it’s warmer than being outside! What’s wrong with that?
Erik,
Don’t think anyone will flame you on your position. I grew up Christian and don’t recall at any time where Political stump speeches were done during church services. The churches I went to, had food stock for the needy and the poor. When they couldn’t come to us, we went to them. Although, I’m not Catholic, people like Mother Teresa show that through charity others can be helped if you are willing to sacrifice vanity.
The Global Warming issue: Here’s one subject that is a mystery to me. If the Evolutionists and Global Warming supporters want to explain this to me: Why was the Jurassic period so warm? Why did the ice age come and go? Why do Meteorologists insist that La Nina and El Nino are the cause of what kind of weather conditions we have?
How come eras like the dust bowl occurred before the Greenhouse days of doom?
JM – I would love to explain it to you but it takes a lot more time than we would have here. Also I would need to provide you with extensive graphs and figures and a reference list.
The dust bowl was a strictly localized phenomenon; not global. It was caused by poor land-use practices.
Where does the white go when the snow melts? Where does the green go in the fall? Why can’t we put twenty year old data into our computer models and come up with today’s climate?
Hank
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0319dustbowl.html
Ben: Certainly poor land use practice contributed to the Dust Bowl, but it was a very severe drought that is still being studied.
Hank, as to your last rhetorical question: because the models are not sophisticated enough.
What am I missing here?There are literally tens of thousands of US churches who support and/or send missionaries to Africa, India, Indonesia, South America, the ghetto’s of our own country every day or every year.I don’t see why the government needs to get involved any further.
Good stuff here, my question is why should America solve anyones problems but our own 1st? this country is in decline and has been since “the great society” mentality took over. the government should get out of the charity business. The government is not capable of doing anything efficently, effectivly or with any fiscal restraint. The current congress is inept. They have not passed a significant piece of legislation this term. Both parties are to blame. Vote out all incumbents and get some new blood in there. Impose term limits on congress and for dam sure freeze their pay. Better yet make it a job that is non compensated, then maybe we could get some leaders that are really wanting to make a difference instead of just serving their own self interest.
Ben,
I figured an Environment guru like yourself would know an answer to my questions.
I took two courses in Bio-Environmental Engineering, just enough to make me dangerously incompent. But I can do a wicked CO2 collection process for mosquitos.
that should be incompetent, spell checking should be part of my daily self-improvement.
True outlander – but it was still a local drought – not a global disruption.
Hank – we DO put past data into computers and ‘predict’ today’s climate. We don’t try to predict daily weather that way.
By the way, Jurassic was VERY different because the continents were not where they are now. In particular Antarctica was not on a pole. Also the Isthmus of Panama had not closed. Today’s glacial-interglacial cycles are largely influenced by continental alignment. Then superimpose upon that the anthropogenic effects and what is happening today (”super-interglacial”) becomes apparent.
Perhaps WSU will repeat the paleoclimatology course they had a year or so ago. If they do you might find it interesting.
JM – I have posted many answers to these questions over the years. And yes, I do have some answers for you; however trying to draw a graph here is a bit difficult.
It has a lot to do with positive feedback loops – both ice/albedo and carbon/CO2.
Milankovitch cycles triggered the Holocene glacial/interglacial cycles; the feedback loops fed them.
Mr Kia,
There are hundreds if not thousands of missions/churches etc. that support the homeless and the needy in the U.S. The problem here in the U.S. and of course it is not unique for the U.S. are the dishonest and the predatory greedy people that claim to be poor and get foodstuffs or other items for free. A lot of these people are capable of working for a living bu t prefer to milk the system and get handouts.
When you’re in the middle of a desert in Africa and their are Warlords confiscating your lands/livestock and etc., there isn’t much choice but to die or hope for help from the outside. This is where missionaries and other charities come in.
We need both government and NGOs doing these things. As JM points out – when you have the kind of armed thugs we see in Darfur we need a few Warthogs and some choppers to support the NGO efforts.
BTW – Sam Brownback has been a leader in trying to get some attention paid to the genocide in Darfur. I salute him for that.
Paul F. Rosell,
“As a Catholic, …”
You previously posted that you are a “LAPSED” Catholic.
“I sincerely doubt that most Christian Conservatives will buy into the global warming hysteria.”
GW is reality… research what’s happening in the Arctic.Even Bloomberg News recommends reducing your carbon footprint. http://desmogblog.com/
Hank,
You should quit living in denial. Computer models correctly predicted the future impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption — and today’s models are much more advanced. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Volcano/
Well cosmos, there is much more and better company here in denial. I think I’ll continue to live here.
I don’t care if it does get a little warmer!
Hank
Yes, there is global warming; the earth is in one of its warming periods which have occurred throughout geologic history. The contentious issue is one of man’s contribution to the current cycle. As I believe I have posted before, I claim no expertise in this area, but it seems reasonable to me that increasing the volume of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, among other things,as the result of burning fossil fuels must make some additional contribution to the warming; the quantity of which I do not know.
VT – the term being used is “super-interglacial”. This reflects the fact that we have excursioned far outside of the envelope of the ‘recent’ (past million years) cycles.
Current CO2 level (about 370 ppmv) is as much higher than a normal interglacial (about 280 ppmv) as an interglacial is higher than a glacial (about 190 ppmv).
Fossil fues contributing CO2; deforestation and other disruptions decreasing carbon uptake. Then add the feedback loops that have been studied in connection with the Milankovitch cycles and you have a transition into a scenario not seen t any time in the Holocene.
Leave it to a conservative (Hotlick) to think of mass death and killing as “courage.”
Maybe we’re just not that dumb anymore, Hotlick.
I was taught that the pilgrims came here to avoid the religious persecution they were suffering in England. Eventually it became part of our Constitution, creating a separation of Church and State. In a Democracy (which we are slowly moving away from) it can’t be totally seperated because we don’t ban religious leaders, or any one for that matter from running for office. It is virtually impossible to separate a persons moral values from their opinions and decisions in government. The danger comes when only one voice is heard or listened too. It’s why we have periodic house cleanings (via elections.)
It seems the evangelicals and others of the Christian right are now raising their voices to this administration because they were promised more help in aiding the poor and needy in exchange for their votes on election day – they now realize thet’ve been lied to.
We could build a strong case for bringing back the poor farms of the 1920’s and 30’s. Some fine tuning could be made so that it can be a revenue source for the state and provide necessary skills training for industry. But unfortunately, companies like Halliburton would get the contract, botch it and make it cost prohibitive.
The old CCC etc might also be things to consider looking at.
Bring back the poor farms??CCC ??Would you people listen to yourselves?Just wait for two more years, you can get your president in the White House and we’ll all sit back and enjoy Nirvana. Then we won’t need the poor farms.
Hotlick, why do you assume that the person who advocates bringing back the poor farms is a democrat? I would think by his suggestion that he was a conservative republican.
And how is the CCC comparable to a poor farm? I would think that providing jobs via public works projects like what the CCC did would be a good thing.
Poor farms and CCC were not brought up my me. We don’t need either one. I made the assumption because a good conservative knows that those are goverment programs and cannot work. The classic goverment jobs program (public works projects) is to have the goverment pay people to build things and then throw them into the ocean.Libs-Making Themselves Feel Better With Other People’s Money
You’re both wrong — I’m an independent compassionate conservative — the CCC was instrumental in helping us out of the depression. Somewhere between the CCC and poor farms is a good idea? And did you see where I said something about it being a potential revenue source — it would take some creative thinking — oh I forgot this is Kansas — creative thinking here comes from outsiders like downtown condos … you guys slay me – read only what you want to read and pounce on anything that doesn’t put a dime in your pocket –
I care about people like you wanting to take that dime OUT of my pocket.And just what is an Independent?
Wow,I had no idea that when Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers”, that He was really taking about peacekeeper missles.”Who Would Jesus Bomb”? I guess I finally found the answer, thank you, Paul.
Well in this case an independent is some one who doesn’t give a rats ass what you a narrow minded bigot thinks
The narrow mindedness in this state is embarrassing.
Mary – Paul likes to claim to be Catholic when it suits him and follows the GOP line. But let the Church teachings conflict with his GOP dogma and you get his claims that the Bishops are clueless.
BenExplain how it was that the Norse or Viking settlers farmed in Greenland?In other words, it was a good deal warmer in Greenland, during the time of the Vikings, than it is today!
Cosmos,I do not go to church regularly, I should but I don’t. I am not a good Catholic since my divorce. Divorce, in itself, is not a sin, but perhaps I have been bitter about it. The Catholic Church, as practiced and taught by Conservative Bishops, is closest to my views.The Catholic Church, as practiced and taught by liberal Bishops, is very, very far from my views.There are huge splits within the Church.I have considered the Greek or Lebanese Orthodox as being even closer to my views on many issues, but I don’t fit in socially with those crowds, though many are my friends.I was only being honest. This blog is not an autobiography, but someone asked and I answered.I come from the investment and insurance business.We believe in “full and fair disclosure” — so I always admit my bias, up front.It was meant as a humble admission, not a boast.—-By the way, I have, in the past, been asked to speak at Catholic institutions.Governor Sebelius is not allowed to speak at Catholic institutions since she is recognized by the Catholic Church as being pro-Abortion and a friend of George Tiller.
Ken and EricChurches and Politics were FAR more intertwined in our first 100 years than the last 100 years.Actually, it was the IRS Code and the Income Tax which “seperatated” partisan politics and state.Churches can still say what ever they want to say, it is their First Amendment right. It is only the tax exemption of the Church which is at issue now.Of course, prior to the modern Income Tax, which came about after 1913, when the 16th Amendment was ratified, no Church ever cared about “tax exempt status.”Church and State were intimately involved with each other since our founding.Today, it is entirely LEGAL for a church to discuss political issues, government policy and urge church goers to study the issues and vote.It is entirely legal for the Church to publish voters guides with the views of each candidate listed.The Church simply can’t endorse or financially support, with church funds, specific candidates, without bringing their tax exempt status into play.This “Seperation of Church and State” stuff is bogus garbage.This has NOTHING to do with the phrase Jefferson coined, Jefferson who did NOT attend the Constitutional Convention!Up until the time of the Income Tax Churches routinely got involved in political races.Today, they can still urge their members to get involved.Today, they can still discuss political issues.The founders didnt want a nationally endorsed church denomination.At the time of the Constitutional Convention, many individual states DID have official State Religions.
KenHaliburton is an old LBJ (Democrat) company, used exensively by Carter and Clinton.
Mary”For everything there is a season, a time for peace and a time for war.”Yes, the above is “Old Testament” but Jesus came “to fullfill the law” not to overturn the law.
Jesus also said”Greater love hath no man than he who would lay down his life for his brother.”I see that as a call to arms when arms, and courage, are needed.
Again, Jesus was NOT a pacifist.
The Catholic Church is apostate and has been since Vatican II. Every pope has been an anti-pope since and every bit of filth and nonsense emanting from Rome is NULL and VOID.
V.L.R.B!!
IanAs politics goes, you remind me somewhat of Phelps.You are not at all as hateful and vile as he is, dont get me wrong.But as I once asked Phelps, directly:”Sir, lets assume, for argument, that you are right on your theology concerning homosexuality. Doesn’t God Command, However, that we ‘go and make believers of all nations.’ How on Earth, Sir, does your repulsive behavior bring more people into the fold? How many converts to Christianity can you claim, through your ministry?”
Paul,
I can assure you that there is method to my “madness” and I, WE, never have to seek out converts. :)
By the way, how did Phelps respond to your query?
V.L.R.B!!
People use the bible to justify anything. Instead of being used as a guide for how to live a good life, it’s used to manipulate other’s to one’s personal agenda without having to take any real responsibility. I don’t believe Jesus was god, he was a teacher whose message has been twisted and turned according to whims of his followers in order to control others.Paul, you may believe that Jesus wasn’t a pacifist and I may believe he was a man of peace. I guess interpetation of his word is as individual as we are. I was raised Catholic, and it’s hard for me to accept that Jesus would ever have condoned war.