I recently started reading God's Politics, by Jim Wallis. I was going to wait until I finished to write a review but after reading one chapter I can tell I'm going to have enough thoughts on it to fill a book! :) So I want to start with a simple idea.
The Christianity community has a voice in America. Unfortunately that voice is coming from individuals such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
"It is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew, every Reagan Democrat, and everyone in between to get serious about re-electing president Bush." -Jerry Falwell as quoted in God's Politics.
"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. The Lord has just blessed him....It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad." - Pat Robertson as quoted in God's Politics.
Hmm.... I hardly feel like I need to say more. In the last presidential election, religious leaders mistakenly communicated that to vote for anyone other than George W. Bush was nothing less than sin.
The Religious Right has used fear and manipulation to convince Christians that values-driven politics centers around two issues...abortion and homosexuality. This is not biblical.
No political party has a monopoly on God and family values. It's time for Christians to broaden our understand of values and faith in politics and change our voice.
Helping the poor is a biblical issue. War vs. Peace is a biblical issue. Taking care of our environment is a biblical issue. How we respond to terrorism is a biblical issue. And yes, homosexuality and abortion are biblical issues. We must change our voice.
If our nation is becoming more hostile to Christianity it is because we are becoming more hostile to our nation. We must change our voice.
Progressive Christians have changed politics in the past through movements such as the Civil Rights movement, women's suffrage and more. We can change the face of politics today too. But we can't do it with the voices that currently represent us. It is time for a change. We must change our voice.
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