Opinion of the Christian left

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Take a guess.

That list is kind of weird though especially with the inclusion of various "liberal Democratic politicians who are Christian", which is basically "liberal Democratic politicians who aren't Jewish, Keith Ellison or Pete Stark."

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes, as I've pointed out before, there haven't been any Christian left terrorists, or any murderous dictator slaughtering people in the name of liberal Christianity.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Take a guess.

That list is kind of weird though especially with the inclusion of various "liberal Democratic politicians who are Christian", which is basically "liberal Democratic politicians who aren't Jewish, Keith Ellison or Pete Stark."

*or André Carson

Ah yes. And there's also the two Buddhists in Hawaii and Hank Johnson.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That's kind of a stupid list (though by the standards of most Wikipedia lists it's not really worse than average), it includes a ton of people who don't have anything to do with Christianity besides a nominal affiliation (like the vast majority of people in the Western world), and even some people who don't have much to do with the left either. Like I love Mr. Rogers as much as anyone who was a kid during the era I was, but it's quite the stretch to call him a left activist. And I'm sure Katherine Jefferts Schori opposed the Iraq War and she was OK with Gene Robinson's consecration but to stretch from that to "religious left" is also a leap (and yeah I'm sure she voted for Obama too but did she even make a public statement to that nature?)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

joke distortion of Christianity

I found this quote retweeted by the Twitter of the church the woman who spoke yesterday mentioned as the one she went to when she was teaching at a Christian college in Santa Barbara:

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[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Entirely setting aside the sheer ridiculousness of the idea that the precise means by which the poor are provided for is of anything approaching primary importance, why on Earth would you assume that leftist Christians do not preach repentance from sin?

He's obviously referring to LGBT acceptance.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The omission of Obama is also fairly curious considering all the included failed Democratic candidates, I can understand McGovern who has always been a pretty outspoken Christian but Mondale, Gore, Kerry and Dean aren't any moreso than your average politician and certainly less than Obama.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I know of at least two evangelical churches that preach openness to universal salvation (My own and one planted by a buddy of mine that I've helped out with.), at the very least they do obviously reject that no one isn't Christian can acheive salvation, that's quite obvious from some sermons at that neocharismatic (and incredibly nasty holy roller right wing one if we believe afleitch. ) Seriously though there was even a sermon encouraging people to study and look for value in other religions and the intro to Advent one took time to note the work of God is not restricted to people who are Christians noting the Magi who followed the star to the birth of Jesus were not Christians or Jews and there is no mention of them becoming so either. And this has been part of ELCA doctrine too for as long as I can remember.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

My buddy kind of rejects the "traditional" view of the afterlife in favor of a N.T. Wright type view and all of his first couple sermons were on moving the past the traditional evangelical "being saved" type dichotomy. I'd actually be interested if jmfcst ever came to Minneapolis for whatever reason debate him on things like his interpretation of the true meaning under John 20:15-17 except I have a feeling jmfcst would just end up turning the whole thing into being about gays.