Evangelicals Beware!
Monday August 11, 2008
Over the last few weeks, Mara Vanderslice and Amy Sullivan and others have drawn needed attention to some more and less subliminal messages coming from the McCain campaign. These TV ads, they explain, seem to target Evangelical Christians in profoundly...
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About Progressive Revival
Diana Butler Bass and Paul Raushenbush both stand firmly within the Mainline Protestant tradition and, along with guest bloggers of all religious backgrounds are dedicated to the revival of religious progressivism and its influence in American politics.
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Diana Butler BassDiana Butler Bass is a commentator and scholar in American religion. She is the author of seven books including A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009).
» Posts by Diana Butler Bass
Paul RaushenbushModerator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University.
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I am anti-Republican, but I suppose I wouldn't put it past the Dems to pull a similar stunt if they felt they had to. Dirty politics has been alive and well in this country since the very beginning, and it's just a testament to what people will do to gain and consolidate power. The sad fact is that it will keep happening because, as we all saw with the Kerry Swiftboat campaign to tarnish his reputation, it works.
I hope that the real author of the text be found and openly shut down by the Graham group. Not only is it unlikely for anyone who worked for Graham to write it, it is extremely unrealistic to imagine Graham endorsing or opposing any candidate for president.
If fact the only President Billy Graham did not care much for was Jimmy Carter, the only Evangelical President ever elected.
whwn every anybody sees a post that does sound like it could be true, believe me, it is a lie disguised to deceive and confuse. Verify everything!!
I'm a Democrat, but I'm not going to repeat the charges that are about to be used to Swiftboat John McCain. I believe that's next on the political scene. While I think that in children's games "turn about is fair play," I'd prefer to get past personalities to the issues that have been neglected for eight or more years.
I am glad to see that some Evangalists actually see the bullying tactics against Obama from the Republicans. The "manipulated by unscrupulous political operatives who have studied us carefully and are willing to push any button - not just the old abortion and gay marriage buttons, but now even the Anti-christ and Hitler buttons - to instill fear and so secure our vote." is what they have been doing for the past 8 years to Christians.
Obama has tried consistently to spread hope, doesn't cut down others or use smear techniques like McCain is. It has always amazed me that so many Christians would believe anything a person said and not sit back and review the motives and the hate enimating from them. Look at McCains & GOP sites and it has negative, hateful messages and lies about Obama which dominate their sites. Obama has tried to stick to the issues and respect others and bring hope and responsibility to the people.
Some of what the Republican party "stands for", they don't even practice. Neither party or any of us are perfect and we shouldn't expect that of Obama, McCain or others, but we should step back and see how much this hate/fear tactics is dividing our loved ones and country. Quit passing along hate/attack emails to friends. We need to each be responsible and look past the manipulations that the McCain campaign is doing...its a sad day in our history when we can be so easily swayed by hate and fear. Our country can't afford to continue dividing. I have seen Obama and he made both myself and my 14 yr old son leave feeling like we did matter and that we had a say in our govt. He can inspire people to try to be responsible and he has said that there is much more that unites us than divides us. We need as individuals to stand up to the negative attacks, not spread them.
Cheryl, It is not enough to be inspired to action. It is right (correct) action, that moves governments to righteousness. I pray for my enemies as commanded in the NT but I also believe we must provide protection and safety for our nation as God provides wisdom to do so. We cannot ever be safe as long as our leaders ascribe to supporting abortion and homosexuality as an "acceptable" lifestyle decision with God. The bible says that we must stand for the orphans and widows, the poor and the hopeless. In this we fail as a nation, not because of God fearing believers, but because of a government that supports lust, perversion, laziness, Godlessness and lacivious behavior. God loves the sinner, hatyes the sin, our purpose as evangelicals is not to accept sin but to expose it and lead sinners toward Jesus, the "waay, the truth, and the light." Now, Obama may seem to convey hope, however, a man cannot serve two masters, he must at some point choose, and if a man has already said the he supports late term abortion and the right of a mother to terminate an already born child, then at what point to we know he has changed his position; and, has he repented of this travesty or is he continuing in the back of his mind to aligned himself with the socialist leanings of his youth? Cheryl, look closely at the Bible, don't be tickling your ears with unsound doctrine. Endure the Gospel of truth and the doctrine of the apostles, read the prophets and learn the ways of the righteous, they are not a social liberation political religion, the are fire to your bones and cannot stand for murder and derision.
I appreciate someone providing the truth of the situation. I get bombarded with this junk from my "believing" relatives, who unfortunately seem to believe most anything that claims to be Christian. This is all over the internet and internet blogs. I wish someone would start suing for slander. If I were Bill, I wouldn't want my name used without my permission, particularly to slander any person publicly. Thank you for making this public post.
There's a real fear in many when the idea of change is brought up. The present administration has road the wave of Christian support to economically devastate many American families like a tidal wave washing out many hopes in home investments, retirement funds, and service careers. It seems the only antichrists, in the context of denying the humanitarian purpose for which Christ came, are those who are the most publically vocal in claiming Jesus Christ as their lord while accusing others for sinning and being supposed antichrists.
Thankfully, this topic addresses the ways in which most Evangelicals are being exploited by fear mongers who reveal they will take the lowest moral roads to undermine and scandalize others whom they dislike or want to gain advantages over. That behavior is unlike Christ who enforced the law that forbid bearing a false witness against ones neighbor. As someone mentioned, if people were sued for libel, slander and defamation, maybe such issues as this topic addresses would not be such a common practice among people running for public office or everyday backstabbing and gossip done by everyday people to degrade and devalue the worth of fellow US Citizens.
I have studied Brian McLaren, and he is more interested in electing liberal politicians than he is in supporting Christianity.
He talks about the fact that Obama may be the anti-Christ, but none of us can know that for sure.
What we DO know for sure is that Obama fought HARD to make sure unborn boys and girls who survived an abortion did not receive any medical care. Obama said that if we help these live born babies, that might be a slippery slope to taking away our so-called "rights" to kill these same babies when they are still in the womb.
This is an anti-Christian position. It is infanticide.
McLaren and Obama can blather on and on about how much better Christians they are because they are for confiscating more money from American working men and women, or they are better Christians because they would sit back and let Al Qaida establish safe haven's in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, but we as Christians are not buying it.
It's not Christian or non-Christian to want to vote for someone who believes in higher or lower tax confiscation rates. It's just one way ruins the economy by punishing success, and the other way, keeping taxes low, makes the economy do better by incenting more jobs and more economic activity.
So, Democrats and Republicans can have a disagreement on tax policy, but it is a political argument, a policy discussion about what works better to reach the same common goal: helping to raise more people out of poverty and give them the self-respect of a job and the ability to care for their own family. If McLaren and Obama want to increase handouts, that just keeps people dependent on big government...which may be what they want.
But there are no "two sides" to infanticide and abortion. They are wrong, sinful and anti-Christian. Obama is wrong in his policies that would enable the killing of more babies. He is wrong to push for no medical care for Born Alive Infants.
Therefore, we as Christians can't vote for Obama, and we can't support men like McLaren who support the anti-Christian Obama.
Uh, Brian MacLaren is .....weird.
His bandwagon is heading down the wrong road, not only in his skewed political fling, but his understanding of the Bible and doctrine.
Come to think of it, he thinks about Christianity in a sort of "different" "relative" way, kind of like Obama. Not a coincidence that they have both scored financially "using" their odd religious brand, in a capitalistic way, no less!
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