The pendulum of religious influence on socio/political issues has begun to swing back to the Left and thank God for it.The unholy merger of neo-conservatism with the holy fever of the Religious Right is at last being countered by a growing contingency of left leaning Progressive Christians.A Christian think tank, the Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC) has risen up like young David to stand against the multi-headed Goliath incarnation of heavily funded Conservative think tanks and fundamentalism.
For more than thirty years, conservative foundations sustained by corporate interests have sown billions of dollars in support of think tanks whose sole purpose is to design ideologies and schemes to advance their economic and militaristic megalomania.They continue to reap countless billions in return and their goal of perpetual war appears to be almost accomplished.
Each election they won came with the blessing of the Religious Right and brought public policy further under their control.This allowed them to further cut taxes on the wealthiest and to issue contracts for federally funded business deals with cronies that drained the national treasury.Conservative Christians were forced to look the other way and condone some policies that flagrantly violate moral principles.Every strategic and ideological move made by the conservative ruling elite is conceived and developed behind the walls of those conservative think tanks.
Liberals and moderates during the same time frame have not effectively matched the investment or countered the potent focus that sustains the blended neo-conservative fundamentalist movement. This lack has been especially evident in the realm of mainstream and Progressive Christians whose voices have not come close to matching those of the Religious Right in magnitude or volume.The adherents of the many variations of Christian fundamentalism have learned to speak with one political voice while moderate and more liberal Christians are just starting to.
Conservative think tanks have worked in close conjunction with conservative Christian leadership to develop mutually compatible platforms and positions.Linguistic scholars design language filled with buzzwords and catch phrases that encapsulate their values and impassion their zeal.Massive funding for marketing ensures their ideas will be presented with the highest profile.This carefully engineered ideological hybrid of rabid fundamentalism mixed with greed driven neo-conservatism has grown like kudzu and has begun to strangle the very foundational premises of our democracy.
There is no group or individual outside of the Christian community that could adequately respond to the religious dimension of this threat without being perceived and painted as a persecutor of the faith.A movement from within the Christian world was required to take a lead role in repairing the breach in the wall between the institutions of religion and government.Thankfully, there is an innovative movement developing to fill this need.
One of the stalwart examples of this new movement emerged when a diverse group of moderate and liberal Christian activists coalesced a few years back to form Crossleft.org.This Progressive Christian site was designed to help reframe the conversation of faith and values in the realm of political discussion.A little more than a year ago, CrossLeft inaugurated the Institute for Progressive Christianity.The IPC was expressly designed to strengthen a broad based Progressive Movement with much needed academic and moral capital while refuting the undue influence of fundamentalism in public policy.
The IPC is arising as a strategic nerve center for research and development of the Progressive Christian movement and offers a robust response to the Right.The institute has hosted innovative symposiums, published revolutionary research papers, issued provocative press releases, and is designing compassionate public policy proposals while championing the separation of church and state.
The IPC produced a comprehensive White Paperon8/30/07 entitled An Unholy Alliance .This compelling and thoroughly documented paper, co-written by IPC director Frank L. Cocozzelli and Eve Herold, conclusively exposes how the Religious Right and Neo-conservatives joined forces to fight against stem cell research.This document makes a convincing foundational case for support of this vital area of research and effectively arms proponents with spiritual and moral arguments to face down those on the Right who oppose it.
Newly contested neo-con/fundamentalists have taken notice and not surprisingly have begun to lash back.Even Rush Limbaugh, king pin of far right talk radio, blasted the IPC during his 12/01/06 broadcast.He seemed offended when the fledgling IPC issued a press release publicly rebuking and refuting Dr. Dobson after his disparaging analysis of liberals on Larry King's 11/22/06 show.
Rush said, "So you watch. This group is going to be acclaimed. This is the one Christian group, the Institute for Progressive Christianity, which will not be laughed at, which will not be made fun of, which will not be impugned, they are going to be applauded, and the whole point of this is to further fracture the 24 million evangelicals and conservative Christians in this country."
All Progressives have been forced to endure the seven painful years since neo-cons gained control of the government and steered the nation into the ditch on the Right.Dispirited moderate and liberal Christians helplessly watched as the Christian image was hijacked by extremist fundamentalism and they were politically marginalized.Standing against the giants on the Right, this emerging Progressive Christian movement is a long over due and promising response to the fundamentalists that have dominated the political arena far too long.
Gary Vance is an evangelical pastor/writer living in rural Tennessee. He is the author of "Wasn't Jesus a Liberal?" and other published essays.
I can appreciate your sentiment. However, there is a strong religous streak in most Americans and religionists have the same right to petition and lobby as any other special interest groups. The progressive Christian agenda is really basically the same as all progressives whether of faith or not. Compassionate public policy is at the heart of Progressive Christian ideals and that is a good thing.
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 7:27:38 PM
If there is a moral code by which individuals in government make decisions, then there will be religion in government. The only question is from where will that moral code come. Is every individual a God unto themselves, fashioning the law by which they will live, or is there some external standard by which we are all to gauge our actions? The only other option is to legislate standards by which all shall live, something like fascism, where every citizen would daily commit his felony and duly submit to his punishment. 1984.
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W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 265 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 7:32:07 PM
Micah 6:8 says, "He has shown thee oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, do justly, love mercy and walk humbly..."
You don't have to be religious to see the wisdom in this scripture. Religionists don't have a patent on virtue, integrity, honesty, etc. You can't legislate such qualities any more than you can legislate morality.
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 7:41:38 PM
I don't what you mean by legislate moraliy. Please give me a concise definition & site an example. As Bertrand Russell once said "If it was not for the morality of law, murder might have become a virtue".
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iman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 89 comments)
on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 3:40:18 PM
Morality seems to be a really subjective concept. I think compassionate policy is something that can be attained and it doesn't necessarily involve religion. Compassion is universally represented by kindness. Ambiguous moralistic concepts can be debated by religionists.
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 8:25:39 PM
To be anti-Christ, is to be anti/against what Christ taught.
The term "antichrist" only appears five times in the Bible, but a cult not based on sound theology has created an urban legend that seeks Armageddon. The term "antichrist" never appears in John's Revelation or Daniel, two disparate works of literature written three centuries apart and under very different circumstances, yet the Left Behinder's weave them together.
The small texts that mention the "antichrist" were written to attack the Gnostic understanding of who Christ was. A Gnostic relies on intuition and not on dogma and doctrine. Gnostic's were most certainly free spirits and most all of the writings we have about Gnostics, have been the attacks upon them. That all changed when the Nag Hamadi Library was translated and published, for what had been deemed heretical by those in power in the fourth century can now be read in most every language.
Biblical scholars today agree that many books of the Bible were written by others in the name of an apostle, for the quickest way to gain credibility is to trade on another's reputation.
We may never know if the author who coined the term "antichrist" was actually the apostle John who wrote I John and 2 John-the only sources where the term appears.
John also say's much more:
"Dear Children, ...as you have heard that the antichrist is coming; even now many have come..."- I John 2:18
"This is how we know who the children of God are not: anyone who does not do right; nor anyone who does not love his brother."-I John 3:10
"If anyone has material possessions and see's his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ...let us love with actions and in truth."-I John 3:17
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment." 1 John 4:16,18
The theology promoted in the "Left Behind" fiction is a theology based on fear and punishment.
The followers of this heretical theology worship a false god: a punitive father, who seeks obedience, is patriarchal, demonizes woman, gays, lesbians, and seek empire on this world and care naught for the fragility of Mother Nature. They resist what science offers, in particular they are antichristic in their refusal to see that stem cell research could lead to actual HEALINGS of diseases, and JC was very big into healing.
I cite John 5: 1-6, which in some readings is prefaced with an angel from heaven, would descend and agitate the waters of the Pool of Bethsaida. Only the first leper, blind, or invalid who made it into the water would receive a healing. One day while Jesus was there, he walked by a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” The man answered he had no friends to help him get into the water first. Jesus asked him again, “Do you want to be healed?”
JC is always a gentle man, he never pushed anyone into anything!
The antichrist theology is the opposite and in the 21st century, these fundamentalists among are seeking theocracy based on fear of others and seek empire in this world.
Not at all what JC was about; he was about liberation from the bondage of corrupt teachers of The Law, that God loved ALL and the Kingdom of God is NOT of this world.
Antichrists do not have eyes to see that nature is God's primary temple, and war the greatest abomination.
During the time when the writer of John was writing about the spirit of antichrist, Gnosticism was still in its evolution and far from the intricately developed system of the second and third centuries when the church and its institutional hierarchy became firmly established. During the time John was writing against the false teachings, the Gnostics were by and large libertines who denied Christ's humanity. Some said that Christ only appeared to have a body; others said the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at his baptism and left him when he died.
The Gnostics left no testimony in their behalf, so all we have to go on is what was written against them and the texts that survived and are now the Nag Hamadi Library. These texts offer no new information but prove that early Christian's were just as diverse as Christians today.
The Armageddon groupies believe they will be lifted out of the misery of the world, and neglect to reflect upon the antichrist within, which is how centuries of theologians understood the term. For many, the term anti/against Christ means to be anti/against his teachings.
Christ was ALWAYS pointing to the Father, saying he only did what the Father wanted, and the prophet Micah summed it up best:
"What does God require? He has already told you o'man! Be JUST. Be Merciful! And walk humbly with your Lord."-Micah 6:8
The antichrists take certain scriptural passages literally, and totally neglect those they do not want to see or hear. Such as, Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10 which are simpatico with Gnostic Thomas saying 44:
Jesus said: "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."
The Holy Spirit, AKA the spirit of God is within all created things.
One should wonder what spirit is driving those that torture and bomb another, for just who would Jesus torture and bomb?
No religion owns God and no church owns Jesus.
Jesus has been hijacked by the right wing fundamentalists and the time of his liberation from the antichrists is NOW.
Christ was no Christian, that term was not even coined until three decades after he walked the earth. But JC was a social justice radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who challenged the job security of the temple priests and disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces for teaching subversive ideas such as all people are equal and valuable.
The antichrists of today, neglect the non-negotiable's that JC commanded that his followers must do: LOVE, pray for and forgive your enemies, treat all people the way you want to be treated and remain NONVIOLENT, even if nailed to a cross.
Christ dealt compassionately with sinners and outcasts, but hypocrites received his wrath.
Compassion, which is sorrow for the suffering of others, is accompanied by the urge to help. This should define the Christian attitude.
If there is no compassion within a Christian, then it is the spirit of the antichrist that rules.
that what I just wrote? Or have you not read 1984? Everyone has a moral code. The question is from where it arises. Most Americans derive their moral code from the Judeo-Christian ethic, whether they are "religionists" or not. They, therefore, carry religion into politics whether you want it there or not. Hence, my headline of IMPOSSIBLE. On the other hand, secular humanists see themselves as being able to fashion their own moral code depending upon changing circumstances. This places the individual in the role of God, and is a religion unto itself. Again, religion carries into the government, but with no way to predict how the government might react to any particular set of circumstances. No matter his protestations to the contrary, the Bush administration is an excellent example of a secular, humanist administration: one where Bush has substituted the tried and true morality of his forebears for a set of moral rules based upon the expediency of the moment. And finally, as you seem to agree, and as all of the founding fathers believed, a nation bound by an internal moral code was necessary for a Constitutional Republic to continue to exist. Otherwise, all conduct would have to be legislated, and government would become immense, a God for all intents and purposes. I believe you called it the nanny state. I call it fascism.
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W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 265 comments)
on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 7:24:56 AM
You said, "Most Americans derive their moral code from the Judeo-Christian ethic, whether they are "religionists" or not."
What are ethics and how do we get them? Liberals generally believe there is something inately good in humanity. Morals seem to be a subjectively defined term more attached to religion. Ethics however, seems to have a more universal and perhaps more ambiguous and even eclectic origin. I think the world at large understands and is more amenable to universal standards of ethics than any specific religion's demands for adherence to particular creeds or tenets in government. Fascism and theocracy go hand in hand. Justice, integrity, compassion etc. should be the guiding ethics of civil and effective government.
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 7:56:35 AM
Paul NEVER hesitated expressing his freedom of speech and provoking believers to THINK deep.
What Paul said was:
"Who am I to judge the nonbeliever? IT IS NONE OF MY BUSINESS! God is the judge of all...But, the believer is to provoke their sisters and brothers onto good works."
Jesus said: "I came that you would have life to the FULL: ABUNDANT life." [John 10:10]
He was NOT talking material wealth-he was talking about THINKINK DEEP and then taking action.
e
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Eileen Fleming (139 articles, 47 quicklinks, 262 diaries, 579 comments)
on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 10:38:52 AM
Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other.
St. Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a Just War.
Within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity began.
With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War Theory, wrong became right.
Nothing much has changed in two millennia, for in today’s Orwellian world politicians claim the way to peace is through war and that nuclear weapons provide protection.
I don’t care who wears the uniform, or how noble they believe their cause, war is the ultimate form of terrorism for any civilian caught in the crossfire of violence. Even as a kid, I could not understand the logic that promoted the need for Hiroshima and Nagasaki to save American lives; and why there was never a mention of repentance for the innocent that died. Eisenhower warned America not to bind our economy to the Industrial Military Complex. But, like most prophets, he was ignored.
In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity and thus, those who had been considered rebels and outlaws began to enjoy political power and prestige.
Jesus’ other name is The Prince of Peace, and with the marriage of church and state, his true teachings were reinterpreted.
The justification of warfare and the use of state sponsored violence corrupted what Christ modeled and taught. Jesus was always on about WAKE UP! The Divine already indwells you and all others.
Christ taught that to follow him requires that one must love ones enemies; one must forgive those who hate, curse and revile them, without a thought of payback.
Christ lived a life that proved evil can be opposed without being mirrored, and that the cycle of a “tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye”, will never bring peace and justice.
Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other.
The term Christianity was not coined until three decades after Christ walked the earth. Until the day of Paul, followers of Christ were called members of The Way; the way being what he taught!
Christ was never a Christian, but he was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up/intifada and challenged the corrupt Temple and disturbed the status quo of the Roman occupying forces by teaching that God was on the side of the poor and the outcast.
Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence was a contradiction of what Christ was all about.
There have always been those Christians who spoke out against this corruption of scripture and they have been ignored, reviled, rejected, mocked, persecuted and maligned throughout time.
There have always been Christians who have never abandoned the true teachings, such as the Quakers, Mennonites, some Catholics and Protestants who have been faithful witnesses to Christ by denouncing violence and caring for the poor.
There have also always been Jews, Muslims, atheists, anarchists, secularists and other’s who have lived lives that embody the message of Christ.
e
by
Eileen Fleming (139 articles, 47 quicklinks, 262 diaries, 579 comments)
on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 10:45:22 AM
"I said, 'You are "gods": you are all children of the Most High God."-Psalm 82:6
It has been said that evolution is being held up by fundamentalism and the surge of fundamentalism throughout all faith paths sends shivers through cynical atheists and mystics alike. The bumper sticker actually did get it right: "We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
According to the 1987 classic, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, Dr. Scott Peck defines the spiritual life as fluid and that one may pass back and forth repeatedly through any of the four-probably more-stages of the soul.
Stage one upon this journey -that begins from within-is essentially our infancy in the spiritual life. Like a wild child, a person in this stage reflects the inner chaotic and anti-social, unregenerate soul that is interested only in its own self-satisfaction and ego, much like the stereotypical spoiled child. Stage one people may claim to love others, but their behavior reflects they love their own pleasure, money, power, prestige, and security above any other. For stage one people, it really is all about them.
The good news is that the vast majority of humanity responds to that inner tug which is God, for lack of a better word. Catherine of Sienna wrote that within us all is the divine diamond. But life and all our baggage dulls the flame of our divine brilliance. Stage two souls seek to "let their light shine" and will live virtuous lives and do many good works. They also can be judgmental of others, self-righteous, rigid of thought, cold of heart, legalistic concrete literal thinkers and may even be guilty of a lukewarm faith. They want to do right and they even may desire to love and please God, but have not yet fully opened up to the Inner Light, as Joan of Arc did when she challenged church and state and persisted that she had intuited God within -even while being fried.
Stage two souls have not yet been set fully free and prefer the security of a higher human authority than themselves for guidance. They submit to institutions, scripture, dogma, ritual, ministers, or gurus. This is the most appropriate stage for older children and most adults who live busy lives just trying to keep bread on the table and a dry roof above. The difference between a stage one and stage two soul, is that a one wouldn't even notice a neighbor in need, while the two has awoken to the fact that we are to be our neighbor's keepers and they will respond to a friend-and like the good Samaritan, even to a total stranger in need.
Most theologians would agree that the opposite of faith is not disbelief: the opposite of faith is fear. Stage three souls have not just fearlessly awoken, they have evolved! This evolution has led them to the realization of what Christ was really talking about in the Sermon of the Mount AKA:The Beatitudes.
Now, a stage three soul may well reject Christ as God, but often agree with the philosophy of Jesus, which Thomas Jefferson laid out when he weeded out the miracle stories from the gospels and clarified the teachings and ethics of Christ in:
THE LIFE AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH
1. Be just: justice comes from virtue which comes from the heart. 2. Treat people the way we want to be treated. 3. Always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with COMPASSION. 4. Consider valuable the things that have no material value. 5. Do not judge others. 6. Do not bear grudges. 7. Be modest and unpretentious. 8. Give out of true generosity, not because we expect to be repaid. 9. Being true to one's self in more important than being loyal to one's family...those who think they know the most are the most ignorant...
A stage three soul will see that a neighbor is everyone on the planet and not just those who think and look the same. Stage three's are seekers, doubters, skeptics, atheists, agnostics and frequently adults who grew up disenchanted with institutionalized religion. Their inherent intellectual curiosity leads them to seek their own way towards the Mystery of the Divine through philosophy and the study of multiple faith paths choosing and discarding according to their "inner light."
Stage three souls often become activists for social justice and reform and it has been said we are all called to be mystics in the market place; which is a stage four.
Two examples are Thomas Merton and Rumi who gave voice to that experience of the curtain being lifted and seeing through the glass a bit less darkly.
A mystic can best be understood as one who is in love with the divine mystery and is viscerally connected to the unity of all creation.
Mystics are not navel gazers, they feel the pain of the world within their hearts and grieve at what humans do to the other when they have no clue that The Divine is within the other as much as within themselves.
Mystics have detached from their concepts of God-not by their own efforts, but by the invitation and action of God upon a willing and simple soul in love with Pure Being, AKA:God.
The mystic fool, Saint Francis, the leper kisser of Assisi, was so head over heels in love with God in everyone and all of creation that most people of his time considered him crazed, or at least, extremely eccentric.
One needn't be a mystic or move beyond stage two on the spiritual journey to do what is good and right just because it is good and right.
On that foundation alone people of faith, atheists and agnostics can surely find something to agree upon.
"I said, 'You are "gods": you are all children of the Most High God."-Psalm 82:6
The fundies generally subscribe to the rapture cult, which beckons nuclear war. They also believe in dispensationalism, which basically allows believers to cheat and amass money in this life with impunity, as well as dominionism, which touts US hegemony. Do the progressive Christians address these issues? Peace, Carol Wolman
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Carol Wolman (215 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 97 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 9:51:55 PM
Great question... yes the Progressive Christians take a more realisitic approach to living in the here and now. Social justice, compassionate policies, accountability for the use of the time we have now and utilizing the resources at our disposal rather than the fatalistic and dispensational mentality of fundies. Most progressives don't embrace rapture theology. We believe in making the most of every day and trying to humbly affect our world for the better through love and peace building endeavors.
I love your work and especially your handling of Romans 13.
Peace to you!
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:11:04 PM
There is a scripture that says, "Great is the mystery of Godliness." Who can tell anybody they don't understand God unless they are willing to say the same thing to themselves? The whole attitude of moral superiority stinks even if it comes from atheists. I truly believe in the concept of "separation of church and state." I do not believe in the concept of separating integrity, justice, mercy and compassion from government. If these qualities can flow from the religious into legislation, then bring it on. If they can flow from secular humanists...bring it on.
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Gary Vance (13 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 13 comments)
on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:36:18 PM
