On the other side, we also get the paranoia. Bush stole the election. The Diebold machines were rigged. No paper ballots. Voter intimidation. Karl Rove is a diabolical genius.
Blah, blah, blah.
I don't blame the youth vote. I don't blame the DNC, the minority vote, or the media. I don't blame Diebold or election day shenanigans.
I don't even blame Karl Rove.
I blame my father-in- law.
Don't get me wrong - he's a great guy for a Red Sox fan. He is warm, funny, and -- as they say up here in the wonderfully blue state of Massachusetts -- wicked smart. He is a fantastic grandfather to my son and my son's two cousins and he has raised a truly great family.
He is also a Christian. An evangelical Christian. Hell, he has written books --big, lengthy books with words like 'exegesis' and 'hermeneutics' -- about evangelism. He is an ordained minister and has run bible studies.
The problem is - Christianity (the middle America hate filled version of Christianity) has become something else in this country, and the good decent caring people like my father in law need to speak loudly and clearly about what being a Christian and a liberal mean in the USA today.
There is a proud and wonderful tradition of this. Christianity is NOT Robertson, Falwell, and Swaggart. It is Chavez, Day, and King.
My wife wrote a letter to my father-in-law today. With her permission, I share some of it here
Your community needs to come up with a real strategy to take back religion from these guys. That is where we lost. Religion. The battle has to start now and it must be a focused, well thought out approach. This is your area.
How do you introduce a kinder, gentler religious conviction? How do we get them to see that helping the poor in our country and the world is what Jesus would want? How do we get them to see that taking care of the environment, which God left to us, is what God wants? How do we teach them that knowlege and true education for all, helps everyone reach the potential given to them by God? How do we get them to see that Jesus taught us to love our enemies, not bomb them, even when it seems so hard not to lash out and fight? How to we frame it so they see it as a test of faith from God to see if they truely are willing to love the enemy, even when the enemy has hurt and scared us? Not that it is a battle against "evil" that God wants us to fight. We have to reframe their outlook and it will take time and hard work, especially from your community.
We lost to the evangelical Christians. That is who we must recapture. Your religious community can no longer sit this out. It is time to start organizing,
Books need to be written that equate God's will with our side of the issues, just as they have written books to equate the war on Islam, etc as God's will. Sermons need to be given, students need to be taught. We need to reframe everything. Paying your taxes needs to be reframed into helping your neighbor and those who need help. We need to examine EVERY issue and see how to restructure thought to justify our ideals through God's love.
They corrupted religion and took advantage of it to pass their agenda. We need to take it back.
We need Christian leaders on the left. Not to turn the Democratic party into a religous organization, but to let the faithful in this country know that they can be a Christian and a progressive at the same time. That, in fact, the two go very well together.
Jesus was a liberal.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 4 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
