and their fellow travellers...
Posted on 08/26/2005 10:55:38 AM PDT by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
A senior representative of America's evangelical Christians is to make an attempt to set up a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Rev Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, wants to distance American Christians from the remarks of a tele-evangelist.
Pat Robertson earlier this week called for Mr Chavez to be assassinated.
The US State Department called his remarks "inappropriate" and Mr Robertson later apologised for them.
Mr Haggard says he wants to meet Mr Chavez face to face and apologise for Mr Robertson's remarks.
He also wants to secure assurances about the safety of American evangelical missionaries working in Venezuela.
Mr Haggard is in Mexico, where he is meeting a friend of Mr Chavez.
If that encounter goes well, the leader of America's evangelical churches will travel on to Caracas for a meeting which is bound to embarrass the White House.
Political rivalry
Mr Chavez is locked in an acrimonious dispute with Mr Bush.
Washington regards the Venezuelan leader as a dangerous left-winger with ambitions to dominate South America, says the BBC Justin Webb in Caracas.
Mr Chavez - a friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro - equally dislikes Mr Bush, and regularly suggests to his people that the Bush administration provides a military threat to Venezuela.
The two nations have recently broken off co-operation on combating illegal drugs, though America still buys Venezuelan oil.
The nation is the world's fifth-largest producer.
The Venezuelan government is adamant that it has no quarrel with individual Americans, and certainly not with the Christian community.
A meeting with a senior evangelical would provide a stage for Mr Chavez to reach out to Americans and poke the White House in the eye - an opportunity he is unlikely to pass up.
Here come the lefty Communist sympathizer Christians
Jesse Jackson and Tony Campolo to follow!
GO PAT GO!!!!
I don't know the Hagard fellow, but the NAE has beeen around for years.
Keep in mind he did not jump into this controversy until Pat Robertson made a fool of himself and all other Christians by call for Chavez' assassination.
("I was misunderstood because I never said that" and later "oops, I guess I should apoligize for saying it."
and their fellow travellers...
The National Association of Evangelicals is not the "Commie Sympathizers". That would be your National and World Council of Churches folks. The likes of Jim Wallis of Sojourners. The Evangelical groups are not really a political group but conservative theological Christians.I would not be surprised if the Rev Haggard did express concerns of human rights violations under Chavez and the like.
And ANOTHER media whore.
Is there even a "conservative" church left in the world? Check out the book, "Paradigm Shift" at www.TheLutheranChristConnection.org and see how churches globally are changing from religious to secular. With so many "evangelicals," "liberals" and other far left and far right organizations that call themselves "churches" it's hard to say which is worse. It's getting harder and harder to find anyone who actually cares about genuinely conservative ideologies, but plenty who want to push their own personal agendas. How sad!!!
Whatever - Paddy jumped the shark big time, yet again. Real Christians have an obligation to marganalize this fruitcake as quickly as possible.
bump
Markox is right.
From what I understand the NEA and many other leaders of the faith are no longer theologically conservative. Evangelical "conservatives" are now into the new spirituality of global ecumenism, UN-style unity and marxist social theology.
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