"Christian Progressives Fight for Their Faith"

I'm staying on the theme of the progressive's resistance movement to the attempted Republican party's attempted coup of Christianity.

This is an excellent articlle in the Colorado Springs Independent News Weekly, right in James Dobson's backyard, that tackles this topic in some detail.

Here is one example of the outrage of Christian progressives. That is a label I would happily accept to describe my views, and I share the outrage spelled out below:

"The day after the [2004 presidential] election, Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) pastor Robin Meyers, of Oklahoma City, delivered a fiery speech that excoriated Bush for claiming the Christian faith while acting contrary to its tenets. As examples, Meyers cited a litany of "immoral" behaviors, including prosecuting an unjustified war, giving tax breaks to the wealthy, dismantling environmental protections and using hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out evangelical voters. "

Retired Colorado Springs pastor Jim White had this insightful take on the venom that spews from from religious right fanatics:

"The religious right has always been moralistic," White says. "Usually, they've focused on genital sins, but there have been times when other issues dominated — like alcohol, Sunday store closings, divorce. ... But people on the religious right like to shop in Wal-Mart on Sunday, and they like their beer when they watch football, and they get divorced at higher rates than atheists do. So you can't condemn that; it won't sell."

"You can sell something that people are not. You can say, "The problem is outside; it's other than me.' Terrorists, communists, homosexuals, liberals — whatever it may be. But it's someone who's not me."

I feel that instead of trying to solve more globally important social issues, they divert attention because they don't have answers. The religous right is relying on exaggerated fear and base emotions like hatred and bigotry to engergize their base and hide the fact that they really don't have effective policy ideas nor are they being true to the word of God.

Pastor White a take on the issue of homosexuality:

"People who were against slavery were folks who took a broad view of the Scriptures — namely that the witness of Scripture is for freedom, for the release of the captives, for the rights and dignities of people, and love extended to all," White says. "Other people, especially those in the South, read the Bible more literally, and there, the plain sense of the Bible was that slavery is acceptable to God ... "

"So I can say, "Yes, there are these texts which look like they condemn same-sex behavior.' But the greater, larger, stronger witness in Scripture is always on behalf of the oppressed, the outcast, the marginalized. If you want to be faithful to the basic intent of the Scriptures, you've got to be identified with the outsider, and not the power."

The right wing has the power right now and I sure don't want to be identified with them.

There's plenty more in the article I've linked. I strongly suggest you take time to check it out. Thanks to Queer Faith for the link.