Unite Left Wing Evangelicals!

[knothead]

Originally Posted by lbdavis

KH,

There are right-wing evangelicals that spend all their time trying to stop abortions,

Don't be so sensitive.

There are very few true evangelical congregations that spend all their time in any single pursuit.

I am a little sensitive about stupid remarks that are only meant to offend. Sorry.

[lbdavis]

Smack,

Do you think that the political representation of Christians reflects an accurate cross section of Christians in the US? (I'm assuming your talking about US politics here?)

Does the right accurately fight for all things Christian or just for the big three? (Death, Life, and Gays.)

Do Christians hold these three things to be most important to their beliefs? If so, how many? All? 10%? 50%?

I realize there's far more to it than this, but these issues seem to be inseparable from any talk of religion in politics.

[PBzeer]

smacky - within the context of your post, left wing evangelical is an oxymoron.

[chucklesR]

Originally Posted by PBzeer

smacky - within the context of your post, left wing evangelical is an oxymoron.

and coupled with the 'outta here' and past behavior an obvious attempt at trawling for trouble.
BFS means Ban freaking smackdaddy doesn't it?

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by lbdavis

Do you think that the political representation of Christians reflects an accurate cross section of Christians in the US? (I'm assuming your talking about US politics here?)

Yeah - US politics. Maybe there are parallels in other countries - I don't know.

Now, for "full disclosure", I will say that I'm personally extremely apolitical. Being an ex-Peace-Corps-volunteer-turned-entrepreneur will do that to you (serious clash of ideals). However, I do like to observe...I just try not to complain. So...

I don't really know about the political representation per se. I'm talking more about the issue as typically presented/discussed in the media, etc. I think it's most likely pretty skewed and much more nuanced. Hence the question.

Originally Posted by lbdavis

Does the right accurately fight for all things Christian or just for the big three? (Death, Life, and Gays.)

What do you mean by "accurately"? My guess is that no one in politics really fights for "all things Christian" left or right. Hence the nuance. It's always some level of compromise.

Originally Posted by lbdavis

Do Christians hold these three things to be most important to their beliefs? If so, how many? All? 10%? 50%?

No clue.

Originally Posted by lbdavis

I realize there's far more to it than this, but these issues seem to be inseparable from any talk of religion in politics.

Agreed, they do seem inseparable. But there's a lot of stuff Christian beyond these three issues. Yet, they seem to serve as the pigeon holes in the portrayals of where evangelicals actually "sit".

I'm just curious as to whether this "seat on the right" is wholly accurate. Obviously, there must be a good deal of satisfaction in this portrayal. Otherwise, I think it'd be much more of an issue. Still...

[lbdavis]

Originally Posted by smackdaddy

What do you mean by "accurately"? .

I have no idea what that meant. It must have been left over from an attempt at a completely different sentence.

I can say that there certainly is an evangelical left. In fact, an entire mega church has turned this way.

However, they don't seem to have the political impact of the evangelical right. Perhaps this is because of the big three I mentioned.

[smackdaddy]

LB - Interesting. I've heard of those guys. So maybe religion in politics IS only tied to the "big 3" (hence the "right" moniker). That in itself is probably not the greatest thing from the religion standpoint - but who knows?

Thanks for the link.

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by PBzeer

smacky - within the context of your post, left wing evangelical is an oxymoron.

Is it? How do you mean?

[sck5]

for PB anything left wing is always and everywhere bad. If something is good, then as far as PB is concerned it cant be left wing.

[danjarch]

Smaky, there are more then a few philosophical issues that prevent a large evangelical movement on the left. Even if you were to leave out abortion and gay marriage, you wouldn't ba able to substain a left evangelical movement. Starting with the whole Idea of extorting money from others to spread the wealth, to gambling, to drinking, to divorce, there are to many points along the way that would either force you to stick with the christan philosophies or the socialist philosophies.

Remember that in christs teaching, that you're in this world not of it recures over and over. Your constantly refocused on acting, thinking, and becoming like christ so you can move into heaven, not so you can turn earth into heaven. Liberal ideaology on the other hand assumes the reverse, rather that you force your nieghbors to be more like christ so to speak, creating heaven on earth. Hence the problem of substaining a liberal evangelical movement.

There are plenty of liberal who consider themselves good christans and I'm not one to disabuse them of they're belief. There are in fact plenty of christmas christan on both sides of the aisle, people who show up for mass at christmas and easter, some who sit there every sunday, but if someone takes the time to read and contemplate the messages in the bible then they will have a easier time falling in with the right then the left.