Posted on 12/26/2003 5:20:08 AM PST by toddst
Most regular churchgoers want to re-elect President Bush. Most non-churchgoers plan to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.
That's the finding of a recent poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press -- and it's a finding that Lexington's Albert M. Pennybacker hopes will change between now and November.
Pennybacker, a former Lexington Theological Seminary professor, a Disciples of Christ minister and a lifelong Demo-crat, is chief executive officer of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new organization that hopes to mobilize thousands of moderate and liberal religious leaders before the Nov. 2 election.
Due to the group's non-profit status, it won't be able to explicitly tell people to "Vote Demo-cratic." But it can hint a lot.
"We can talk about the need for national leadership change and new directions in public policies," says Pennybacker, 72, an elder at Central Christian Church. "I hope there's national leadership change, not just in the White House, but in Congress as well."
The group will focus on issues such as peace, justice, poverty, civil rights, health care and housing. It will steer clear of abortion and gay rights.
This isn't Pennybacker's first foray into liberal politics.
He worked as the National Council of Churches' associate general secretary for public policy during the 1990s (commuting from Lexington to his offices in New York and Washington each week). During that stint, he was a frequent guest at the Clinton White House, attending presidential breakfasts and state dinners. On Capitol Hill, Pennybacker testified before congressional committees, lobbying the nation's political elite.
He also served as chairman of the Interfaith Alliance, a liberal religious political organization that frequently clashes with the religious right.
While with the National Council of Churches, he helped raise millions of dollars to rebuild black churches that had been targeted by arsonists. He traveled to every continent except Antarctica. And he took sometimes controversial stands -- vigorously defending China's religious policies when the Communist government was arresting evangelicals and persecuting Catholic bishops.
(The Christians who are persecuted, he says, are "anti-government, anti-Communism and have been infected with all that kind of propaganda.")
Pennybacker opposed efforts to have the U.S. government declare an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and argued against unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iraq.
He supported Elian Gonzalez' return to Cuba -- and was a guest with Fidel Castro at the child's seventh birthday party. (Elian, Pennybacker says, is mischievous, funny and rambunctious. "He's a great kid.")
Meeting newsmakers and celebrities is nothing new to Pennybacker.
Over the years, he has worked with such luminaries as former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, former anti-Vietnam War protester William Sloane Coffin, and retired CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite.
On the wall of Pennybacker's office, on the 21st floor of a Lexington high-rise, are pictures of him with former President Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.
Now, with an election looming, he will be in the center of things again.
That doesn't surprise Lexington Theological Seminary president R. Robert Cueni.
Pennybacker "has always been a minister with a strong social conscience and concern for issues of peace and justice and a willingness to speak out even on political issues," Cueni says. "The question is, will he have an audience. ... There are those who argue that there is an American middle and left that is ready to rise up. I don't have a clue if that's true or not."
Pennybacker argues that there are millions of people who could be mobilized to support progressive causes. He hopes his group will reach them.
Although recent polls have shown that churchgoers are more likely to vote Republican than non-churchgoers, Pennybacker says Democrats must not write off religious voters.
"The main religious heritage of America is moderate and progressive, and that voice has not been heard in recent years," he says. "A vast majority of Americans are religious people of the moderate center."
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler says Pennybacker's views are out of step with most Christians and most Americans.
"This group holds positions that have been repudiated not only in recent elections, but for years," Mohler said. "They're far outside the mainstream. They were far outside the mainstream in the '60s."
Pennybacker says the reli-gious right has been "far better organized, far better financed" and far better at articulating its positions.
But he says the Clergy Leadership Network's message will "resonate with moderate and progressive religious people" -- if the message gets out in time.
With the first presidential primaries and caucuses barely a month away, time is of the essence. "It's a lot of work, and we're late starting," he says.
But since the group was introduced at a news conference in Washington in November, donations have been pouring in (as much as $12,000 a week). And up to 100 people a day have been signing up.
The results are encouraging, Pennybacker says. "It tells you it strikes a note, it strikes a chord, that was there long before."
Pennybacker was referenced in another thread on FR earlier but I can't find it.
One of my questions is why the "Clergy Leadership Network" qualifies for non-profit status? This organization is one that needs to be countered.
Right. So that's why the Clinton judicial appointees and their media buddies spent so much of 2003 attacking things dear to Christians.
Maggots like him will get the rest of us killed.
Good point I had not seen in this light.
As a religious leader, he is frightening!
10-4, but changing "ignorant" to "well informed and dedicated."
If it walks and talks like. . . .
This commie was interviewed on one of KSFO's weekend shows. He bristled at any criticism of Castro saying that he has visited Cuba many times. Claiming that Christ's teachings advocate socialism he vigorously defended communism and communists against "all kinds of propaganda." He is today's progressive Democrat, Clinton puke.
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