I'm proud of my church.

Look what's posted in the Easter Sunday program:

"Announcing group study of Jim Wallis's best=selling book,
God's Politics--Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It

...This book is important because it says, "Don't let the radical right people claim to be the only moral ones." It also states that (in addition to abortion and gay rights which the "right" uses as election issues) important moral issues include peace, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, health care and the environment."

I just might start going to church more often with this kind of encouragement. ;-)

(Note: we attend the San Carlos United Methodist Church, which is cosponsoring this book study along with Summit Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship)

I plan to attend. We need these book studies at every congregation in America.

a statement rejecting anti-Semitism, saying that God's covenant with the Jews is still in force, the Jews are not responsible for the death of Christ, and do not need to be "saved" by Christians.

with a guy because he went to my roommates and asked if they ever tried to talk to me about Jesus (I'm Jewish). They were like "WTF??" I found out about it, and gave him hell. I told him I respected him for his religious beliefs, and as a friend, I expected the same. That was the end of that. The whole saving thing from him came totally out of the blue, too. I'm glad to hear that the minister (pastor? Not sure of the proper title for the religious leader, or if they're one and the same. Maybe you can educate me.) is educating his/her congregants by telling them that the Jews aren't responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people out there who call Jews "Christ killers." A lot of us were, frankly, frightened what might happen when "The Passion" came out for fear of what it might incite.

What kind of church do you attend?

I don't know if all Methodist Churches are progressive, but the ones in our area all seem to be.

what is right and wrong in government and politics. Okay so today you are agreeing with them but my question is shouldn't they be telling you to pray, and how to go to heaven, not who is defining political movements and whether the right or left don't get it right?

Posters on other threads are telling us DU Christians that we should speak out against the fundies and ragging on us for not being able to make Jerry Falwell see the light.

As long as churches do not endorse specific candidates or parties, they have the right, even duty, to make statements about how people should behave as members of society. This is a tradition that goes back to the Hebrew prophets condemning their people for not taking care of the widows and orphans.

institutionalized religion. I think our laws should define how people should behave as members of our society. Think how much easier it would be if everyone was on the same page with this instead of a bunch of religious institutions pulling against each and trying impose their views of what is moral into our laws like the pro-life movement.

If we had proper social laws the widows and orphans basic needs would be taken care. Of course that would be swinging left into communism, but then I am a social democrat at heart. Charity then could sponsor the arts and other institutions that need a sponsor.

If religion kept to teaching enlightment, spirituality and meditation and did not interfere with social order, then we would be someplace. Let's face it the Abrahamic religions evolved among nomadic, desert people who were outside the jurisdiction of kings and kingdoms and had to develop a code for living that was enforced by their religious leaders under the name of their God. But, these religions are not suitable for our lives today.

I don't mean to dump on you and you should believe what you think is right in your heart and mind, but the above is an explanation of how I view things.

a reaction to the many vocal religious voices that claim to represent all people of faith. The God's Politics movement is an attempt to unmask the hypocrisy of the far right's claim to moral superiority.

-- "All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

or donate money to political candidates and parties. But a discussion on morality is clearly within a church's perogative, whether I agree or disagree with their viewpoint.