The close alignment between many evangelical leaders and the Republican Party over the last 30 years has resulted in a growing dissatisfaction from some evangelicals about the appropriateness of these ties, and there has been a new movement from evangelicals to advocate for policies that are more traditionally aligned with the goals of the Democratic Party.
Hagee’s letter explains some of the harsh words he has used when describing the Catholic Church. “I better understand that reference to the Roman Catholic Church as the ‘apostate church’ and the ‘great whore’ described in the book of Revelation” — both terms Hagee has employed — “is a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary,” he wrote.
Brian McLaren, well known here as a leader of the Emerging Church movement, has written a new book that argues that “Christians must move beyond traditional charity and work for systemic change that addresses the causes of human suffering.” Earlier this week, Rachel Zoll interviewed McLaren about this book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope.
Signs are pointing to increasing dissent among conservative Christian leaders with regard to their involvement in politics. Recently we’ve seen acknowledgment of climate change from Southern Baptist leaders, and the growing influence of Sojourners within the faith-meets-politics landscape. Now, the Associated Press tells us, a group of conservative christian leaders are working on a “starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.”
In today’s Washington Post, columnist Michael Gerson once again takes Sen. Barack Obama to task for his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In breaking with Wright, Gerson writes, Obama has woken from a theological slumber. But contrast Wright’s words and actions with those of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, the leader of Gerson’s church, and ask yourself who has been sleeping.
Episcopal Bishop Charles Jenkins along with other clergy oppose and ordinance that would require New Orleans police to arrest homeless persons if they refused to go into a shelter.
The author, James Baldwin spoke about the danger of allies with savior complexes. Have any of us had experiences with allies who thought of their role in that way? Have we fallen into that mode of acting ourselves?
My ethical problem with justifying the execution of one individual to deter other persons from committing crimes is that this reduces the one executed to a means to an end, thereby denying that person’s inherent dignity and worth as a child of God. Christians should never view a person as simply an instrument for achieving a goal, no matter how laudable the goal.
The President’s people got the Pope wrong. They did so because they wanted to be able to say that we are right and others are wrong. (The press got the Pope wrong because they apparently let the President’s writers to do their work for them.) But it’s not just the President’s speech writers who chase after the mirage of absolutes. We all want to know for certain what God wants us to do.
Christians on both sides of the border between Mexico and US processed along the border, detoured but undeterred by the presence of the expanded wall system growing along the US side, and sharing an agape meal.