Leonard Pitts: 'Whatever happened to the Christian left?'

If it's a duplicate, I apologize...

From:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/10184230.htm
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Whatever happened to the Christian left?

LEONARD PITTS
Knight Ridder

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No political tactician am I, but I think Democrats made a fundamental mistake when the Christian right rose as a political force: They watched it happen, ceded God to the GOP without resistance, without so much as a beg your pardon. Democrats, fearful of unsettling the secular West and Northeast, only shrugged as the Almighty was packed up and shipped South, where He is routinely trotted out to endorse would-be governors, senators and school board members.

<snip>

And if you are, as I am, a Christian who remembers what Jesus told Simon Peter, it is galling to see Him reduced to a GOP shill, wrapped in a flag and used as a prop to advance a conservative agenda. Which, by the way, stands the Bible on its head.

After all, the book says Jesus consorted with lepers and prostitutes. It says He talked with women -- which was beneath a man of His time and place -- and washed the feet of his followers...There was nothing conservative about this man.

So I look at the success conservatives on the so-called Christian right have had in claiming Him as their exclusive property and I wonder, where in the heck is the Christian left? Where are the people who preach -- and live -- the biblical values of inclusion, service, humility, sacrifice, and why haven't they coalesced into an alternative political force?...nobody's shouting these things. It occurs to me that maybe they're all too busy building houses for poor people...

the message for their lust of power and greed. christ is just a means to an end for these people.

message. christ NEVER said anything about gays, guns or megachurches with drive-in windows. his actual message was very simple. almost zen-like.

I thought they used Christ as a means to forgiveness for their sins and since they believe once saved always saved, they can do as they please and still go to heaven.

was founded by a group of "liberal Christians" who broke away from their extremist brethren and moved farther north, to Yellow Springs, OH (!) establishing Antioch university more than 150 years ago. They embraced monorities, and actually practiced waht they preached about compassion and acceptance, do unto others, etc. For instance, the school was a stop on the underground railroad, employed the first full-time woman professor, and Coretta Scott King graduated from ther (so did Rod Serling, interesting bit of trivia, remember how hald his shows were about "the bomb"?). Now there is no religous overtone whatsoever, except that in the counseling program we are required to take a few classes about world religons to help us understand and help our clients better.