Liberal Christians: We need to take back our good name!

The time has come for us to stand up and be counted. We need to stop viewing our religion and its practice as a social club, and re-commit ourselves to what Christ himself taught when he lived among us: charity, love and compassion. We have allowed our 'good manners' and natural reluctance to engage in confrontation to permit the RW fundies to hijack a religion that preaches tolerance, and turn it into a vehicle for intolerance! We have begun to substitute the forms of worship for the true practice of the basic tenets of what Christ taught!

I stood up today at our parish council meeting and just layed it out as to why I would not EVER support Bush or ANY Republican who believes as he does on the fundamental issues facing our nation and the world today; I don't know if I made any new friends as a result of my speech, but I clearly set forth who I am and what MY religion teaches me.

Take back our faith from the new 'money changers', and help to restore its good name.

/rant off

edit: typo

Time to turn the new Pharisees on their ears.

http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

As Popeye says, "I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!". :hi:

Practically all of my church is nothing but Conservatives except my family. And every time you talk about politics all they talk about is abortion and gay marriage. I hardly hear anything about the economy. My next door neighbors were nothing but conservative Christians who did not care much about the economy and hated liberals for supporting abortion and gay rights. In fact they hated any organization that did not support Bush.

So keep on fighting Cuban Liberal!

We ALL need to make a huge coalition to oppose the Christian Right, this could easily beat them. I would support a group that was led by Liberal Christians that had tolerance and acceptance of people of other religions. This may mean though that these Christians would have to join forces with people that have radically different viewpoints, such as Atheists. GAMPAC is very large, maybe the Christians should join them. Then we should help mobilize other people in other religions to vote and who to vote for. We should especially encourage Muslims to vote as it was Bush's supporters who called them evil and violent.

that I have more in common with my atheist friends than with the right-wing "christians." Most of the atheists I know love their children, respect the truth, and believe in the sum total of the laws of the universe. Love of children is God. Truth is God (quote from Gandhi). The universe is God.
My Muslim friends believe in one God, the creator of the universe, who sent prophets from Abraham to Moses and Jesus to teach people the proper way to live. We may place slightly different weight on Jesus and Mohammad, but we love our children, respect the truth, and seek to live in harmony with universal law.

is a convention, and not a neccessity. If we cannot protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us, our children and those who nurture them, what IS the point of civilization?

I'm not a believer, but I love the teachings of Jesus. Christianity is a wonderful faith, and I've been waiting for years for Christians to take back their religion.

Keep up your good work, and let us know about it.

I really hope you can bring some sanity back to the Christian religion.

I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work. We've had a few threads on here today discussing spirituality, the works of Martin Luther King, and Jesus. Although thereare a few people who are disrespectful, dismissive, or insulting, there are plenty of folks who feel very similar to you. I count myself among them.

Another liberal Christian here, I'm glad you're making yourself heard. :)

after all-the greatest commandment is to love, and let's not forget what He said about not making His father's house a house of merchandise-even He got pissed at that one and overturned the tables of the vendors and moneychangers.

Plus, early Christians lived communally ergo they were commies-not Calvinists, capitalists, globalists, free marketers or entrepeneurs!

Good luck, Cuban_Liberal!

Christ never adovcated greed. He supported taking from the wealthy to give to the poor. It's insane the way some of these so-called "Christians" give the rest of us a bad name.

We have a group here called the Civic Association, and it helps 'in need' people with everything from rent to power bills to medicine to glasses to car repairs; the Association has experienced a huge upsurge in requests for help, primarily due to increased energy costs this winter and a couple of major layoffs at area factories.

The Association was requesting a supplemental gift from our parish to help them offset the increased demands for assistance, and ONE man (A Republican, of course) opposed any increase unless the C.A. started a 'means testing' of its applicants and stopped assisting transients and the homeless altogether! I happen to sit on the C.A. board, too, and I see every application and set case notes that accompanies it. The people who seek our help are not 'scamming' the C.A., but are genuinely poor and have run out of places to seek help, usually. Like people who finally declare bankruptcy, about 3/4 of them should have come to us BEFORE they actually did.

I just lost it over his callousness and blatant insinuations about who the people needing help are, and how they came to be that way. What started out as a gentle reminder to this man that 2 of Christ's miracles involved food and drink (the wedding in Cana and the feeding of the multitude from 2 loaves and 5 fishes) just took on a life of its own, and I wound up 'giving him a head full', as they say hereabouts.

I saw the face of the Beast, or a premonition of it today. Must we also humiliate the poor, or punish them? Is it not punishment and humiliation enough to know the fear of hunger, cold, illness or homelessness?

It's so hard for me to catch a break. Everything is on the side of MAKING MONEY and it gets so hard I sometimes feel like giving up.

Hearing my mother talking about "cutting out some of these programs" to pay for the war...man...it's enough to gut whatever faith you had left in humanity.

It's hard to confront people sometimes. I'm glad you did it!

:yourock:

Silence implies consent, and in no way was I willing to consent to his proposal, or allow his entire attitude toward the problem to go unaddressed.

Progressive Christianity was prominent in the abolitionist movement, and was important in the struggle to free our brothers and sisters from their bondage.

Progressive Christianity played an enormous role in overthrowing American apartheid during the Civil Rights movement.

Progressive Christianity could be found in the movement against our government's genocidal intervention in Vietnam.

Make no mistake, progressive Christianity will be elemental in dispelling the influence of the dreaded right-wing.

Remember Garrison and Brown, King and Abernathy, Coffin and the Berrigans. In the end, we will win.

I think this may indeed be the final battle on this front. The time is ripe, and the choices are clear: do we, or do we not join the rest of the civilized world in our approach to those among us who are less fortunate? We will win, because we must.

I'm a Christian who is appalled at the shrub, too. Over the summer, I will compile a list of Bible verses, several pages long, and contrast Jesus' teachings to the shrub's actions. I expect to have this ready for release around September for release to fundies everywhere.

I have had people question me when I say I am a liberal Christian. The only thing I ever say back to them is: "Am I not my brothers keeper?" This one statement says it all for me. It is up to me to make sure the less fortunate are taken care of, no ifs ands or buts.

I am a proud Episcopalian. Our national church has taken some stands lately that have really pissed some conservatives off and I am so happy.

you have done it unto Me."

Pretty well sums up my take on things, too.

:hi:

It's absurd that the rightwing keeps getting away with propagandizing itself to be the only political party with "real" Christians.

We have to elect city council members, and school board members, and become involved in our parish councils, and civic organizations, and elect people to legislatures and as mayor, and sheriff, etc. . We must donate to progressive causes and candidates,and take a play out of the book they wrote.

about out beliefs. For me, its a very private matter that I don't want to shove down others' throats. But, I believe you're onto something CL. We can be humble but also very politically active and up front about our Christianity.

:kick:

Frankly, I think all the preaching turns off a lot of people who might otherwise be our natural allies: some pagans, Wiccans, atheists and agnostics, Muslims, Jews, etc., and the preaching isn't really neccessary; they already share our values--- our common belief in the dignity of the individual, and of our collective responsibility to mankind.

That's how we improve on the fundies' game plan. :)

I think I'm half Wiccan, and half Christian anyway. I'm an amateur astrologer and have been known to cast a spell or two in my lifetime! God bless us all!

O8)

Good job!!

However, people like to use religion as a mask for bigotry. They are not Christians just like many of the world's mass murderers who have pretended to be Christian while violating every tenant of Christianity. Christ's teachings are compassionate and tolerant and nothing else.

Another Liberal Christian here and as the daughter of a retired Episcopal priest, I'm horrified by what these so-called "men of God" preach. My father was so furious at what Jerry F and Pat R. said after 9/11 regarding fault, that he couldn't even speak. (and let me just say, that's pretty ding-dang mad)

in his campaign. It isn't just Christianity but most religions teach that those who have more should help those who have less. Having been a Christian, I learned that Jesus said the second commandment was for man to love his neighbor as himself. In the words of Al Sharpton the Christian Right is neither Christian or right.

In my lifetime I've sojourned through churches (by birth and inclination) and synagogues (by marriage), and I have nothing against either -- they just weren't a good fit.

Nonetheless I keep looking for signs of interfaith tolerance and compassion: hey, I've read your holy books, and I know Jesus never said a word about gays (or at least none that were recorded), but he did say that it's one mark of a hypocrite to ostentatiously display one's piety in order to put down other people's faith.

As a woman on the Goddess path, I feel rather personally threatened by these anti-Christ Christians. Liberal Christians should also feel the threat (and I see that you all do), because the Bush-Falwell-Robertson-Dominionist types are extremely intolerant of the diversity of opinion that has been a hallmark of American Christian sects since the first Puritans, Unitarians, and Quakers arrived.

For anyone looking for fellow travellers to help you and give you a sense of community, I recommend the Interfaith Alliance (online activism and information on what the Bushites are up to in Congress) and the Christian journal "Sojourners: Faith, Politics, and Culture" (online and in print). I've sent my standard small donation ($25 to just about any group that is opposing Bushites in some rational manner) because these are exactly the kinds of Christians who would have run the Underground Railroad and thought it no more than their duty to their fellow man.

Hekate

I notice this in the Lutheran church. Ministers are losing control of THEMSELVES. I'm getting reports from several different places from several sources.

Cubano, careful with the use of NOT EVER. Part of Christ's teaching is that redemption is possible no matter the infraction. They do need to feel the seed from your passion. Patience, it takes some time to root. Cultivate firmly but tenderly. Your friends will grow.