This is a question being asked not by some "liberal media." Instead, Ethics Daily, a Baptist site I link to regularly, is addressing this concern.
Here is the key quote:
"If the Christian Coalition wants to present itself as a Christian group, and invoke the name of Jesus as their standard, then some drastic reform is needed. First of all, disclose funding sources. Faith based non-profits like Alabama Arise and Greater Birmingham Ministries make regular public statements about where their money comes from. Why can't the Christian Coalition do the same thing? In fact, it ought to be a state law. Citizens have a right to know who is funding efforts to affect our state government.
And the CCA needs to decide once for all whether they are a voter education group or a political action committee. Voter education is a worthy goal, but it should be carried out in a non-partisan manner. Candidate surveys should be designed to elicit and present actual information and not just weighted information designed to advance the cause of pre-ordained candidates.
Politics can be a rough and dirty business. The faith community is in a place to make the process better, but not if we get down in the dirt ourselves."
Amen.
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It's not just their political activities they need to reign in if they want to be justified in calling themselves a "Christian coalition." It's also their exclusionary and judgmental brand of theology that all too often results in hatemongering.
ReplyDeleteJim Evans, author of the column you're quoting, is a wonderful, thoughtful man with a progressive view that, ironically, is based in the traditional Baptist focus on the priesthood of the believer and the separation of church and state. I wish more Baptists like him would speak out.
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