Politics

From an article of the same title on beliefnet by Daniel Burke:

A "new generation of Religious Right" pastors is turning churches into Republican political machines, three left-leaning interest groups charged on Tuesday (Aug. 22). The report, titled "The Patriot Pastors' Electoral War Against the `Hordes of Hell,"' was issued by the NAACP, the People for the American Way Foundation and a subsidiary group, the African American Ministers Leadership Council... In particular, Ohio pastors Russell Johnson and Rod Parsley have been active in Buckeye state politics, the report says, building "a powerful political machine with growing influence ... and the potential to reconfigure both the political and spiritual map, as godliness becomes more clearly defined on a partisan ideological spectrum."... Both Parsley and Johnson have repeatedly and publicly extolled the virtues of Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, though both insist they lead non-partisan efforts.

From an article of the same title by Christian author Philip Yancey in Christianity Today:

Several years ago a Muslim man said to me, "I find no guidance in the Qur'an on how Muslims should live as a minority in a society and no guidance in the New Testament on how Christians should live as a majority." He put his finger on a central difference between the two faiths. One, born at Pentecost, tends to thrive cross-culturally and even counterculturally, often coexisting with oppressive governments. The other, geographically anchored in Mecca, was founded simultaneously as a religion and a state. As a result, in strict Muslim countries, religion, culture, and politics are unified. Whereas in the U.S. school boards debate the legality of one-minute nonsectarian prayers at football games, in Muslim countries commerce and transportation screech to a halt at the call to prayer five times a day. Many Muslims seek the official adoption of Shari'ah law, derived from sacred writings and similar to the all-encompassing code in the Pentateuch... Theocratic culture also opens up the potential for moral coercion-as Christians know from our own history. In Algeria, radical Islamists cut off the lips and noses of Muslims who smoke and drink alcohol. In some Muslim countries, the morals police publicly beat women who dare to ride in a taxi unaccompanied by their husbands, or who drive a car alone. Adultery or conversion to Christianity may warrant a death sentence... Hearing firsthand about Islamic culture increased my understanding, but it also made me nervous about my own society. The very things we resist in Islam, some Christians find tempting. We, too, seek political power and a legal code that reflects revealed morality. We, too, share a concern about raising our children in a climate of moral decadence. We, too, tend to see others (including Muslims) as a stereotyped community, rather than as individuals. Will we turn toward our own version of the harsh fundamentalism sweeping Islam today?

Via the August 4-11 issue of The Week, from an AP article of the same title by by Beth Rucker:

A gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate felt so strongly about giving voters a "None of the Above" choice that he made it his middle name. Now, David "None of the Above" Gatchell is challenging the State Election Commission in court to get his middle name on the Nov. 7 ballot. Gatchell, a software developer from Franklin, ran as an independent in the 2002 governor's race on the platform that Tennessee election ballots should include a "None of the Above" choice for voters who don't care for any of the candidates. The issue was so important to him that he decided to change his middle name in August from Leroy to None of the Above... Tennessee election officials approved his petition to be on the ballot as an independent in both races, but in April the State Election Commission voted 5-0 to exclude his middle name from the ballot. A state law passed after Byron (Low Tax) Looper ran for state Senate in 1998 says if four or more members of the election commission vote that a candidate's name or part of the name is confusing or misleading, they may either omit the confusing or misleading portion of the name or require further information about the candidate be included on the ballot. Looper, who had his legal name changed to include (Low Tax), is now in prison for murdering his opponent, Sen. Tommy Burks on Oct. 19, 1998. Gatchell is suing the election commission to have None of the Above included on the ballot.

Another AP story by Erik Schelzig reported:

A man running for governor and the U.S. Senate does not have the right to use his middle name, "None of the Above," on the November ballot, a court ruled Friday... Gatchell, who changed his middle name from Leroy, said he planned to appeal. He argues that a number of state gubernatorial candidates - such as Walt "Combat" Ward and Carl "Twofeathers" Whitaker - have been allowed to include their nicknames on ballots, and that his middle name has been widely reported by news media and is known across the Internet.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give $500 million over five years to the United Nations' Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (for example, see an article in the Toronto Star). In contrast, prominent evangelical James Dobson (among others) is erecting roadblocks in the path of the Global Fund because it relies on condoms rather than abstinence and faithfulness as the most pragmatic means to limit the spread of AIDS. Way to let your light shine, James! From a recent article in The Onion titled "U.S. Dedicates $64 Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts":

The Bush Administration unveiled a new $64 billion spending package Monday for a joint CIA-Pentagon program aimed at neutralizing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's global humanitarian network. "The fight against Gates will not be easy, will not be quick, and will not be without enormous cost," said Director Of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte of the new program, which calls for the creation of a new $20 billion counter-philanthropy unit aimed at punishing those countries that accept or use, directly or indirectly, any financial support from the Gates Foundation... "Our enemies want to eliminate disease in the Third World, which is exactly why we're creating a $900 million pro-AIDS campaign that makes the deadly disease available to millions of uneducated poor people," said CIA Africa specialist Alberto O'Hara, who briefed the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Monday. "We're also considering an $800 million food-interception initiative."

I was impressed by this story about Boyd. I ordered a couple of his books and will let you know if they continue to impress. Via Andrew Sullivan's blog, from an article of the same title by Laurie Goodstein in the NY Times:

Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing - and the church's - to conservative political candidates and causes. The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute "voters' guides" that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn't the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary? After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called "The Cross and the Sword" in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a "Christian nation" and stop glorifying American military campaigns... Mr. Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks homosexuality is not God's ideal. The response from his congregation at Woodland Hills Church here in suburban St. Paul - packed mostly with politically and theologically conservative, middle-class evangelicals - was passionate. Some members walked out of a sermon and never returned. By the time the dust had settled, Woodland Hills, which Mr. Boyd founded in 1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members. But there were also congregants who thanked Mr. Boyd, telling him they were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to share... Sermons like Mr. Boyd's are hardly typical in today's evangelical churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal debates now going on in some evangelical colleges, magazines and churches. A common concern is that the Christian message is being compromised by the tendency to tie evangelical Christianity to the Republican Party and American nationalism, especially through the war in Iraq... "There is a lot of discontent brewing," said Brian D. McLaren, the founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and a leader in the evangelical movement known as the "emerging church," which is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical establishment. "More and more people are saying this has gone too far - the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right," Mr. McLaren said. "You cannot say the word ‘Jesus' in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can't say the word ‘Christian,' and you certainly can't say the word ‘evangelical' without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people. "Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.' "... "When we joined years ago, Greg was a conservative speaker," said William Berggren, a lawyer who joined the church with his wife six years ago. "But we totally disagreed with him on this. You can't be a Christian and ignore actions that you feel are wrong. A case in point is the abortion issue. If the church were awake when abortion was passed in the 70's, it wouldn't have happened. But the church was asleep."... He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurch's worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with the chorus singing "God Bless America" and a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses. "I thought to myself, ‘What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?' " he said in an interview... In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek "power over" others - by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have "power under" others - "winning people's hearts" by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said. "America wasn't founded as a theocracy," he said. "America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state. "I am sorry to tell you," he continued, "that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ."... Mr. Boyd now says of the upheaval: "I don't regret any aspect of it at all. It was a defining moment for us. We let go of something we were never called to be. We just didn't know the price we were going to pay for doing it."