Submitted by
Richard Burden on September 11, 2008 - 2:18pm.
Jean Fitzpatrick, over at the Episcopal Cafe (Daily Episcopalian), offers a nice meditation on being a "liberal religious voter," and the difference between being an LRV and what she, following Andrew Sullivan, calls "a Christianists." "The view that religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda."
It reminds me of the distinction Diana Butler Bass has made between "generative" and "militant" Christians.
Here's some samples to meditate on...
People tend to pass you over in all the speculation about which candidate the evangelicals and right-wing Christians will support. Nobody polls us, and sometimes it seems as though nobody knows how we see things -- or recognizes that ours isn't "religion lite."
It's sad, hearing speech after speech by sarcastic Christians at the Republican convention. What was that nasty tone? We all have our moments, God knows, but it wasn't as though this was road rage -- these people were reading speeches off a teleprompter. Snarky might play well in the convention hall, but seeing it on the small screen I wondered where love thy neighbor fitted in.
The God who loves me loves Muslims and Jews and atheists, blacks, whites, and browns, gays, straights, wearers of flag pins, snowmobile racers, Eastern elites, moms of special needs babies, teens who have abortions, Republicans and Democrats, loves us all. Somehow we've all got to start doing a better job of leading this country, not to mention sharing this tiny, precious globe. A good start would be getting our facts straight and respecting one another. That's the candidate who gets my vote.
Amen.
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Richard Burden's blog
Being generative
Yes, getting our facts straight, (where's our moribund press?) respecting one another, and telling the truth. A commandment for campaign season: thou shalt not lie.