Progressive Revival

Mara Vanderslice: August 2008 Archives

Saturday August 23, 2008

AP: Obama Chooses Biden

ABIDEN_P1.jpg

I think Biden is a great choice for the Obama campaign!  His working class roots in Scranton, PA, foreign policy bona fides and deep Catholic faith- that you can just tell is in his bones- will be a great addition to the ticket.

There will be a lot more discussion on these topics in days to come, but in the meantime, check out this great Christian Science Monitor piece on Biden's faith: "Joseph Biden: A Frank and Abiding Faith". Read it here

Here are some of my favorite excerpts from the article:

"The animating principle of my faith, as taught to me by church and home, was that the cardinal sin was abuse of power," he said in an interview with the Monitor. "It was not only required as a good Catholic to abhor and avoid abuse of power, but to do something to end that abuse."

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Biden says he grew up feeling at home in the church. In the Irish neighborhoods in Scranton, Pa., where he spent most of his weekends, a majority of the kids were Catholic. Neighbors attended mass, and nuns and priests were a respected part of daily life. "Wherever there were nuns, there was home," he writes in a new book on his life and politics.

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Biden is troubled, too, by ongoing sexual-abuse scandals involving children within the church. But he says his commitment to church remains unchanged. "This is my church as much as it is the church of a cardinal, bishop, or janitor, and I'm not going anywhere," he said. "I care a great deal about my faith."

It gives us a taste of how well Biden's tough talk and Irish Catholic roots will play on the stump as he travels to places like Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Youngstown.

Great choice by the Obama campaign!  I can't wait to watch.

Monday August 4, 2008

Senator McCain: Take Down this Ad

Thank you everyone for your emails and response to my earlier blog post on McCain's "The One" ad.  The McCain campaign has said that they meant the ad to be humorous.  But make no mistake about it: this ad is directed at Christians with a very dark message.

Please join us in asking John McCain to repudiate and take down this offensive ad. Sign the petition here.

Please help us get thousands of signatures in the next 48 hours by sending this petition to every person of faith and conscience that would join us in rejecting of this kind of insulting and divisive politics.

Saturday August 2, 2008

New McCain Ad Implies Obama is the Anti-Christ?

I don't know about you- but I found this McCain campaign ad "The One" to be one of the most offensive ads we have seen in American politics to date.  

 

At best, this ad implies that those who plan to support Senator Obama are looking for a new savior or a replacement Messiah.  But many are reading it even more darkly as an attempt to portray Obama as an anti-Christ figure. 

A vote for Senator Obama is a vote for the man we think will make the best President, not for a new Messiah.  As Christians, we have one Lord And Savior.  Jesus Christ.  It is blasphemous to suggest otherwise.

And it is beyond offensive to suggest that Senator Obama is a false Messiah or the anti-Christ himself.  How low can we go?  It shows the McCain campaign is willing to make a mockery of our faith to feed people's fears.  Christians need to reject this out of hand.

We will be calling on the McCain campaign to repudiate this ad and take it down immediately.  If you would like to add your voice to this effort, please email me at mara@matthew25.org. 
 

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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 Bass
Diana 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).
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Paul Raushenbush
Moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University.
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