Republicans did their level best to slow down the Democrats' momentum last week by picking a fight on perhaps the only remaining issue on which they still think they have the upper hand with voters: faith.
The lack of the word "God" in the Democrats' platform, they contended, was proof of the "hostility President Obama and the Democratic Party establishment have toward religion and people of faith." So determined to create trouble around the initial absence of the word "God," Republican pundits missed the greater point: the Democratic platform was, in important ways, far more consistent with the Word of God than their own platform.
One of the indelible lessons from my time at Yale Divinity School and a lifetime of devotion to the Christian faith is that there is more to honoring God than reciting His name. If we're going to try to measure the Godliness of our politics, it shouldn't be by the number of times the word "God" is used, but by the strength of the values put forth in our policies.
It was striking to see how much the Democratic National Convention had matured in welcoming public expressions of faith since my first convention in 1988. The open embrace of faith by convention planners and party leaders was on display each day last week with opening and closing prayers offered by leaders of many faiths, delegate prayer gatherings each morning, and gatherings of the Faith Caucus throughout the week.
On the sidewalks of Charlotte, though, caricatures of faith leaders berated delegates, journalists, and bystanders. Occasional summer showers only barely cooled the heated exchanges. On several corners, angry street preachers stood on boxes with bullhorns, waving Bibles and shouting calls for repentance amidst graphic posters condemning Democrats to Hell with photos of aborted fetuses and placards proclaiming "God hates fags!"
Back inside the arena, Democrats' strong commitment to faith was on full display at the podium, too, with loud cheers from the floor Wednesday night for Sister Simone Campbell -- one of the "Nuns on the Bus" -- who declared "I am my sister's keeper" and repeated the declaration of the Catholic Bishops Conference that Congressman Ryan's budget failed a basic moral test because of the harm it would do to families living in poverty.
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, himself a Methodist clergyman, lifted up the discussion and brought down the house with a positive, passionate, faith-filled call for bipartisanship and principled progress that elicited not only applause, but pronounced exclamations of "Amen!"
People of faith have long played a central role in shaping the values of the Democratic Party, even during its most tumultuous times. From Dr. Martin Luther King and African American churches' leadership in the civil rights movement to Rev. William Sloane Coffin and the anti-war movement, a faith-inspired focus on justice and peace, tolerance and inclusion have long driven the Democratic Party.
What matters more than whether in the party's platform the word "faith" was followed by the phrase "in God" was whether the values reflected in the platform showed an intention to honor God's call to us for action that shows His preference for the poor, His demands that we care for each other as neighbors and work to heal the sick, feed the hungry and protect those in need.
The Democratic platform fully embraces those values, but they are hard to find in the Republican platform.
Psalm 72 teaches us that to defend the cause of the poor and to give deliverance to the needy is one of our highest callings -- a call that is repeated throughout books of the Torah and the New Testament. To reject the great tradition of a circle of protection defies God's will and undermines America's values.
As the last night of the convention came to a close, the soaring rhetoric of our President had barely finished echoing from the hall when the final benediction was offered by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the same head of the Catholic Bishops Conference who had famously battled with Obama over access to contraception and religious liberty just months earlier. He'd offered the closing prayer at the Republican Convention in Tampa, too.
The patience and reverence showed by the thousands of delegates who prayed calmly with the Archbishop showed a party inclined to respect rather than conflict. Even when his reflection turned to explicit advocacy against abortion and marriage equality, the convention hall remained quiet. I held my breath in fear of a shouted objection or disrespecting catcall that would overshadow the positive tenor of the whole week, but none was uttered.
Ours has grown into a party, a platform and a convention that highlights the best of our values -- traditions of respect for one another, of tolerance, of inclusion, and of a willingness to fight for a path forward that embraces our obligation to invest in each others' education, opportunity and prosperity.
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Doug Kendall: Conservatives Seek to Celebrate the Constitution by Undermining It
These commands were given to Christians living in a Roman Empire that was throwing Christians to lions in the arena, conducted legal abortion and infanticide, engaged in homosexual marriage, and sponsored violent occult rituals in the town square. If those Christians were commanded to submit, and to not engage in political activism, what excuse do we have?
Salvation or even true loving service of your fellow man will not come out of the exercise of power. If you read the Bible with honesty the followers of Jesus were indifferent to politics and power. They considered the pursuit of such things useless. Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of this earth. He rejected them. Every Christian who pursues such things is saying Jesus was wrong. If Jesus was wrong, why bother with being a Christian?
If religion is the word of god, as everyone claim that it is, why are there so many of them? Are there competing gods? Or the one god was never satisfied with each one and kept creating new ones? And, why would an ever loving god make one gender subservient to the other?
To believe in any religion, one has to check all logic and rationale at the door.
I have a good friend who is religious, always trying to get me to attend his church on Sundays (my day of rest and the NFL besides) and when I point out that, during the week I might care for my neighbor, donate money to an organization that works to heal the sick, protect those in need or volunteer my services at a food bank to feed the hungry--he nonetheless expresses deep concern for my 'soul,' he alludes that, 'despite my good deeds, I won't be eligible for god's grace, won't get into heaven (or some other mumbo-jumbo). He warns me I must first accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.
I know, I find it unsettling because we're close friends--but his concern is so preposterous on its face. The so-called christian right and their mythological savior seems unmoved, even perturbed by goodness--just for goodness sake!!
(Don't know how anyone trusts them on the definition or substance of 'marriage,' either...)
The GOP is ANTI-99%! Learn more @: ** ALECexposed.org ** re: the Powerful group of Koch Bros./ GOP/ & corporations changing laws 1 state at a time. Ex.) Voter I.D.; 'wrongful birth'; 'Personhood', etc. They want to make birth control illegal -- what?!
ALECexposed.org
*** GodsOwnParty.com ** re: the GOP radical religious right beliefs. Dominionism. Wikipedia has a good definition. Site has blog, too. Only Their interpretation of the Bible is right! It's non-traditional / radical.
To destroy an able bodied person, just give that person some money and then tell that person to stand out of the way while other people are working. Also, I believe that it is writen that we should teach a hungry person how to fish. Now, to understand Christian behavior, don't seek self glorification at somebody elses expence.
That said, there is more than a hint of hostility to Christianity among Democratic intellectuals. It's not for nothing that atheists overwhelmingly support Mr Obama.