by KeithE » Sat May 21, 2016 8:45 am
Very interesting article Stephen. To unpack all it’s features for the non-link readers herein is a challenge I won’t accept (got work to do today - packing to move houses).
So let me provide links (for those that care) to a couple of related articles and give my summary.
First recognize that Donald Trump’s candidacy is creating a fissure in the political conservative stranglehold on Evangelicals. Read for more info as of Jan 2016, but still true today. Trump’s past behavior (with no remorse shown) and words today are simply not reconcilable with any form of Christianity.
Then read Ruth Graham’s (no, not Billy’s wife) article for Slate which she concludes that there is an opportunity to re-insert the Christian left into national politics like in the days of Rauschenbusch (1920’s, 1930’s).
Then read a couple of responses to Graham’s article:
Stephen’s religious dispatches article and .
Sorry about all caps - it was the way they came.
My summary: I agree with the excellent last article at least in the short term. Hillary does not anymore have the creditability to claim the mantle of Christ (if she ever had it) despite her reference to Angelou, etc. Too much support for deaths via drones and too much coziness with Wall Street. Both Sanders and Jill Stein would have much more credibility but will not do so since both are ethnic Jews and non-believers in Christ. Nor (regrettably) does Christian Left have much power in America today. The Christian Left needs to enlargen it’s base (by reading the Gospels, understanding our social ills and developing the zeal that should naturally flow) and develop a viable candidate for 2020. Separation of Church and State (the institutions) does not entail a separation of Christ’s teachings (help the poor, turn the other cheek, against money hoarding, welcoming foreigners, ....) from political thought.
I’ll add that the political environment today may be an opportunity for mainline churches. I know of three couples that have recently joined our church (or are attending regularly in one case) that came expressly because of the political right wing environment in their Baptist churches they came from. But realistically it will take time for the Christian Left to have much influence on secular politics.
Informed by Data.
Driven by the SPIRIT and JESUS’s Example.
Promoting the Kingdom of GOD on Earth.