Evangelicals Branch Out Beyond Hot-Button Issues

[Frodo]

And it is about time.......

Evangelicals Branch Out Politically:

A growing movement sees myriad causes beyond abortion and gay marriage. What about helping the poor and global warming?

By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer

Answering an evangelical call to arms, Christians will gather in communities across the nation tonight to watch President Bush's State of the Union address. They will invite local media to listen in as they measure Bush's policies against the moral values laid out in the Bible.

But don't expect a lot of applause for the president.

These "watch parties" are being organized by a small but growing movement of evangelical Christians who no longer want to be defined by gay marriage and abortion. Plumbing the Bible for God's priorities, they are talking instead about global warming and affordable housing, about fewer tax cuts for the rich and more food stamps for the poor.

"The typical image of evangelicals is that they're concerned with the sanctity of life, the traditional family and that's it — they buy the whole Republican agenda when they vote," said Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, a think tank based in Wynnewood, Pa.

Without giving up their opposition to abortion and gay marriage, "they're asking, what [else] does God care about?" Sider said.

Citing Jesus' concern for the most vulnerable, evangelicals last month led a protest against a proposed federal budget that would cut deeply into food stamps, subsidized health insurance and student aid.

The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, has spoken out for clean-air and clean-water policies, arguing that God ordered man to be a good steward of creation. He hears pastors everywhere picking up the theme.

"It's happening more and more: A Republican hunter from a Southern Baptist church in Oklahoma knows he has a responsibility to the environment," Haggard said. "The community that drives pickup trucks is also learning to drive scooters."

It was an evangelical minister, the Rev. Jim Ball, who launched the "What Would Jesus Drive" campaign that made a brief splash promoting hybrid cars in 2003. More recently, Ball and others have been working on a policy statement on global warming.

The most liberal voice in the evangelical movement belongs to the Rev. Jim Wallis, author of the book "God's Politics." Wallis heads the advocacy group Sojourners, which is sponsoring the State of the Union parties in 160 communities nationwide. He is not in favor of abortion but opposes criminalizing it; he cannot accept gay marriage but would welcome civil unions.

Mostly, though, he doesn't like answering questions on those issues. "It's such a tired conversation," he said.

When critics ask him how any issue could be more important than the 1 million lives aborted each year, Wallis challenges them to take a broader view of "pro-life" values. He asks them how many children go to sleep hungry each year, how many sicken because their parents can't afford a doctor, and whether God would approve.

He's starting to hear some answers he finds encouraging.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Wallis spent hours in conversation with the Rev. Rick Warren, the author of the mega-bestseller "The Purpose-Driven Life." Warren recently launched a global anti-poverty campaign with the Rev. Billy Graham.

The National Assn. of Evangelicals, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is urging its 30 million members to pursue a "biblically balanced agenda" — by fighting poverty as well as pornography, protecting the environment as well as embryos, promoting good government as well as the Gospel.

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[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

In the bible, helping the poor was ALWAYS an issue of personal giving; it was NEVER done through force.  Christian responsibility is personal; it doesn't include a state enforced tax from those unwilling to give in order to redistribute income.

Mat 25:45 I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.

I find it quite amusing that some Christians want to practice charity with other people's money!

[opebo]

Only hatred will really get the attention of these people, I assure you.

[TheresNoMoney]

A growing movement sees myriad causes beyond abortion and gay marriage. What about helping the poor and global warming?[/b]

These hardcore evangelicals have been brainwashed to not care about economic issues.

I predict that abortion and gay marriage will continue to be the issues used to motivate these people.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

A growing movement sees myriad causes beyond abortion and gay marriage. What about helping the poor and global warming?[/b]

These hardcore evangelicals have been brainwashed to not care about economic issues.

I predict that abortion and gay marriage will continue to be the issues used to motivate these people.

Definitely. The right-wingers who control the government and the media do their best to get people to not vote based upon economic issues. It's all either wedge issues or "likeableness".

[opebo]

A growing movement sees myriad causes beyond abortion and gay marriage. What about helping the poor and global warming?[/b]

These hardcore evangelicals have been brainwashed to not care about economic issues.

I predict that abortion and gay marriage will continue to be the issues used to motivate these people.

You are correct about the hate-issues that will continue to motivate them, but they brainwashed about every issue.  On economics they hate the poor, and view them as both inferior and placed in that condition by their fantasy 'god'.  This is really no different than their view of abortion or gays.

[Sam Spade]

It's these types of issues that will probably push the Republicans further to the left on certain economic and environmental concerns as time moves on.

[opebo]

It's these types of issues that will probably push the Republicans further to the left on certain economic and environmental concerns as time moves on.

No, part of the evangelical cult is a worship of wealth and a belief that it connotes approval from the magic 'god'. 

[MODU]

"Evangelicals" have always been beyond hot button issues.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Good. I hope the populilist movement splits the social conservatives and prevents them from getting power.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

People, wake up.  This whole "news" article is a wet-dream trying to create a wedge where no wedge exists.  If anything, the social conservatives are moving closer to the GOP, not further away.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It's these types of issues that will probably push the Republicans further to the left on certain economic and environmental concerns as time moves on.

I doubt it.

[Beet]

It's these types of issues that will probably push the Republicans further to the left on certain economic and environmental concerns as time moves on.

I doubt it.

Republicans have already moved to the left on economic issues, and Sam Spade is partially right about the causes.

However, the main reason Republicans moved to the left here is broader re-election concerns. The public simply doesn't support things such as social security privatization, or massively cutting off federal institutions.

Pork barrel projects, subsidies to powerful special interests, heavy state spending in the realm of health insurance, etc. are all popular with both powerful interest groups and the people in general because they like to see the government bring home the meat.  The Republicans realize if they don't compromise on these issues, they won't win elections.

What they can do-- and what Bush has tried to do instead, is expand the constituency being served by big government from just "the people" to financially wealth industries such as the medical industry or the financial services industry. This is very similiar to what Walter Reuther and Lyndon Johnson did in the fifties and sixties, that is, turn companies like Ford and GM into constituencies served by the unions and the government. Bush is turning industries that he wants to consolidate into the GOP fundraising fold into big-government constituencies by indirectly funneling government money to them.

Anyways, that's the GOP economic 'ideology'.

[Frodo]

I would wait and see whether this movement within the evangelical community develops into anything approximating the current strength of the Christian Right. 

If it does -and the Democratic Party would do wisely to court it-, the progressive evangelical community could reshape the party along more populist lines -it would bring the party more within the mainstream on cultural issues, and reinvigorate it with new activists who would form the new grassroots of the Democratic Party, enabling it to appeal beyond the traditional left-wing base to those culturally conservative voters who nonetheless favor some form of government intervention to help the have-nots left behind by capitalism.

Republicans have over the past several decades succeeded in contriving an unlikely alliance between libertarian business-friendly conservatives and the authoritarian Christian Right to create an enduring governing coalition that has learned to work together on behalf of common goals.

If we are to ever regain the initiative and a governing majority throughout the country, it is incumbent on Democrats to create a similar (if uneasy) alliance between leftist liberals and progressive (though culturally conservative) evangelical Christians.  The two already have common ground on economic and environmental concerns, and that should enough of a starting point to form the basis of a coalition. 

 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I would wait and see whether this movement within the evangelical community develops into anything approximating the current strength of the Christian Right. 

If it does -and the Democratic Party would do wisely to court it-, the progressive evangelical community could reshape the party along more populist lines -it would bring the party more within the mainstream on cultural issues, and reinvigorate it with new activists who would form the new grassroots of the Democratic Party, enabling it to appeal beyond the traditional left-wing base to those culturally conservative voters who nonetheless favor some form of government intervention to help the have-nots left behind by capitalism.

Republicans have over the past several decades succeeded in contriving an unlikely alliance between libertarian business-friendly conservatives and the authoritarian Christian Right to create an enduring governing coalition that has learned to work together on behalf of common goals.

If we are to ever regain the initiative and a governing majority throughout the country, it is incumbent on Democrats to create a similar (if uneasy) alliance between leftist liberals and progressive (though culturally conservative) evangelical Christians.  The two already have common ground on economic and environmental concerns, and that should enough of a starting point to form the basis of a coalition. 

Well, obviously the Democratic party should court them, but guess what, the media likes to focus on helping the Republican party. Progressive evangelicals already vote Democratic.

[Frodo]

Well, obviously the Democratic party should court them, but guess what, the media likes to focus on helping the Republican party.

What pile of crock... 

I hear the same damn thing about a liberal media bias from conservatives, and I am just as dismissive towards them -why should I believe either one of you if you are both claiming the media is biased in favor of your opponents? 

Apparently they are doing a fine-enough job if both liberals and conservatives are unhappy with them. 

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Apparently not enough of them do..............

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well, obviously the Democratic party should court them, but guess what, the media likes to focus on helping the Republican party.

What pile of crock... 

I hear the same damn thing about a liberal media bias from conservatives, and I am just as dismissive towards them -why should I believe either one of you if you are both claiming the media is biased in favor of your opponents? 

Apparently they are doing a fine-enough job if both liberals and conservatives are unhappy with them. 

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Apparently not enough of them do..............

Do you ever listen to what people like Chris Matthews say? The media blantantly lies for the Republicans. Look at the whole Ambramoff gave money to the Democrats meme.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

OK, clueless DINO. After Bush has lied about everything, how many newspapers have called for Bush to resign?

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Now compare to all of the newspapers that called for Clinton to resign after lying about a blowjob.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/7/21120/07652

Get a clue.

[opebo]

People, wake up.  This whole "news" article is a wet-dream trying to create a wedge where no wedge exists.  If anything, the social conservatives are moving closer to the GOP, not further away.

No one who understands your ilk woul suspect otherwise, religious.

[Frodo]

OK, clueless DINO. After Bush has lied about everything, how many newspapers have called for Bush to resign?

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Now compare to all of the newspapers that called for Clinton to resign after lying about a blowjob.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/7/21120/07652

Get a clue.

Wow, what a convincing argument you made there Jfraud -and with DailyKOS, no less! 

Don't waste my time.  Anyone who considers DailyKOS as a credible source does not deserve to be taken seriously.   

[TheresNoMoney]

Don't waste my time.  Anyone who considers DailyKOS as a credible source does not deserve to be taken seriously.   

Did you even read the link?

The Daily Kos has links to other news sources to prove the point.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001773188

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec98/editors_8-26.html

[A18]

JFraud is begging the question, not engaging in serious debate. Clinton was under oath when he lied, BTW.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Apparently not enough of them do..............

They do. All 3 that exist. They don't make enough of an impact because there's so few of them. Of course Democrats can usually get around 35% of the evangelical vote usually because of minorities.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

OK, clueless DINO. After Bush has lied about everything, how many newspapers have called for Bush to resign?

Chirp Chirp Chirp

Now compare to all of the newspapers that called for Clinton to resign after lying about a blowjob.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/7/21120/07652

Get a clue.

Wow, what a convincing argument you made there Jfraud -and with DailyKOS, no less! 

Don't waste my time.  Anyone who considers DailyKOS as a credible source does not deserve to be taken seriously.   

Go screw yourself, Republican.