Posted on 01/16/2008 8:46:55 AM PST by Between the Lines
Presidential candidates were urged to resist divisive religious rhetoric and respect religious freedom while on the campaign trail by a group of Christian leaders Tuesday.
More than two dozen Evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic leaders signed the statement titled, “Keeping Faith: Principles to Protect Religion on the Campaign Trail,” which affirmed three principles to protect religion during the presidential race.
The principles are: avoid using religious or doctrinal differences to marginalize or disparage each other; acknowledge that no single faith has an exclusive claim to moral values; and recognize that policy positions should reflect the best interests of all citizens regardless of religious belief.
“In this year’s presidential campaign, we are troubled to see candidates pressed to pronounce the nature of their religious beliefs,” wrote leaders in the statement, “asked if they believe every word of the Bible, forced to fend off warnings by a few religious authorities about reception of sacraments, compelled to confront derogatory and false allegations of radical Muslim childhood education, and faced with prejudicial analyses of their denominational doctrines.”
In the race so far, arguably the two candidates whose faith has been scrutinized the most are former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a former ordained Baptist preacher. The former has been criticized for not explaining his Mormon faith and the influence it will have on his presidency, while the latter has been criticized for talking too much about his faith.
On the Democratic side, religious talk has been unusually high with frontrunners citing Bible verses and Sen. Barack Obama even throwing a star-studded Gospel concert in South Carolina.
But with all the religious talk, there has also been judgment of candidates’ faith in both parties.
In response, the Christian leaders denounced “exclusionary religious rhetoric” by candidates as well as “constant scrutiny” of the contenders’ faiths for undermining religion’s role in public life.
Signers of the statement include Brian McLaren, author and founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church; the Rev. Dr. Paul de Vries, president of New York Divinity School and board member of the National Association of Evangelicals; and Dr. Glen Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Religious voters will play a key factor in the South Carolina primary in both the Republican, Jan. 19, and the Democratic, Jan. 26, Parties.
Nah man, it’s all serves a purpose.
Huckster is sinking his own boat with his religious zeal.
Thank God. LOL
The "doctrinal" matters should be confined to the religion of conservatism.
Talk about the issues facing this nation and how you are going to solve them. Quit trying to out-holy each other.
So is this ‘their’ latest on WWJD????
The devil believes in God. But I'd probably vote for him before I voted for hillary.
Speaking of Barack Osama, very convenient this should come up just as everything is coming out about his anti-white, bigoted, Farakahn loving church, and his muslim background. Don't fall for it, Republican candidates, attack him on it.
I don’t know what this means. Certainly people should avoid bigoted remarks. Not only are they nasty, but they are counterproductive. They only put people’s backs up.
But you have to be able to discuss Romney’s Mormonism, if only to defend it. Romney himself has been the person who has raised the issue most often. It’s unavoidable, although what you make of it is another matter.
And you have to be able to discuss Huckabee’s brand of Christianity. There, too, Huckabee has been the one to put it right out front and make it unavoidable.
As I’ve said before, it’s not an attempt to judge who is going to be saved. It’s an attempt to judge what kind of men these are, and how they might conduct themselves as president. As a Catholic, I’d rather vote for a good, sensible Evangelical than a bad Catholic any day.
I’ll leave Romney aside for the moment and just say about Huckabee that it’s not relevant, for me, that he’s a Baptist. What’s relevant is that he gives every appearance of being a bad Baptist, a fake, a snakeoil salesman, who doesn’t really mean a thing he says when he starts spouting religious language. He just uses it to make political hay.
He has a long and proven record of corruption as a governor, of using religion as a smoke screen to rake in money, so there’s not much doubt about what the fruits are. And “by the fruits ye shall know them.”
We're in a war with Islamic Fascism, and BOTH of the leading Democrat candidates are tightly tied to our enemies. This has never happened before. This needs to be talked about.
As soon as I saw Brian McLaren's name I knew that this letter was not worth the paper upon which it was printed. McLaren is an apostate who has created what he calls "The Emergent Church" - a church that worships itself and uses Christ's name to do it. From such as these turn away.
Well, OK...but I kept reading...What examples of presidential candidate behavior are they talking about?
From the article: “In this year’s presidential campaign, we are troubled to see candidates pressed to pronounce the nature of their religious beliefs,” wrote leaders in the statement, “asked if they believe every word of the Bible, forced to fend off warnings by a few religious authorities about reception of sacraments, compelled to confront derogatory and false allegations of radical Muslim childhood education, and faced with prejudicial analyses of their denominational doctrines.”
Alright. What's wrong with this picture? (other than folks like McLaren being part of the Religious Left who doesn't have anything else to keep him occupied than to sign coalition statements left & right & write a blog with Jim Wallis?) I mean, first this group accuses candidates of misbehavior. But take a look at the words in bold faced used to describe the candidates' behavior--they were pressed, asked, forced, compelled & faced & as far as I can tell, it wasn't from other candidates. Since when can candidates control what they are "asked" about? The "forced" was apparently linked to a "few (unnamed) religious authorities." These words used to describe candidate behavior are mostly rather passive reactions to expositions of their faith. (For the life of me, I can't find what they are "guilty" of...so why did this group aim this document at candidates?)
If you're going to look at candidate rhetoric, I'd look at about a 2-week Romney period when in early December he was "over the top" with his Mormon speech and then in late November when he responded to a query about Cabinet posts...here's how Romney answered:
I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified.
Now if this group was taking aim at candidates' discourse, why was this left out as an example?
Religious zeal I'd agree. Christian zeal? Not so sure.
Hey does anyone have a complete list of the signers?
Just two words: Kenya & Odinga.
Stephen Schneck
Director, Life Cycle Institute
Catholic University of America
Lisa Sowell Cahill
J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology
Boston College
Rev. Les Schmidt
U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Liaison
Catholic Committee of the South
Dr. Randall Balmer
Professor of American Religious History
Barnard College, Columbia University
Brian McLaren
Author and Founding Pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church
Spencerville, MD
Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director
NETWORK, A Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Rev. Joseph Darby
Senior Pastor
Morris Brown AME Church
Charleston, SC
Rev. Don Flowers
Senior Pastor
Providence Baptist Church
Charleston, SC
Dr. Baxter M. Wynn
Minister of Pastoral Care
First Baptist Church
Greenville, SC
Rev. Jennifer Butler
Executive Director
Faith in Public Life
Richard Gaillardetz
Professor of Catholic Studies
The University of Toledo
Rev. Jennifer Kottler
Executive Director
Let Justice Roll
Alexia Kelley
Executive Director
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
Chris Korzen
Executive Director
Catholics United
Rev. Dr. Paul de Vries
President
NY Divinity School
Board Member, National Association of Evangelicals
Rev. Fred L. Thelen
Pastor
Christo Rey Church
Lansing, MI
Rev. Tim Ahrens
Senior Pastor
First Congregational Church
Columbus, OH
Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J.
Center for Human Rights and International Justice
Theology Department
Boston College
J. Brent Walker
Executive Director
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Sr. Sharon Dillon, SSJ-TOSF
Executive Director
Franciscan Mission Service of North American
Rev. Derrick Harkins
Senior Pastor, Nineteenth St. Baptist Church
Washington, DC
Board of Directors, World Relief
Dr. Glen Stassen
Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics
Fuller Theological Seminary
Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
President
Chicago Theological Seminary
Marie Dennis
Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Rev. Stephen Copley
Senior Pastor
First United Methodist Chuch
North Little Rock, Ark.
Sr. Mary Waskowiak, RSM
President
The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Dr. Ken Brooker Langston
Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
Coordinator, Disciples Center for Public Witness
Diana Butler Bass
Author, speaker on American Religion
Keeping Faith: Principles to Protect Religion on the Campaign Trail
Notice how many women, and why does Diana Butler Bass have any credibility? She's just an emergent talking head.
“Religious zeal I’d agree. Christian zeal? Not so sure.”
Agreed.
There is what most people consider appropriate and nobody really cares, but there is a line, and Huck crossed it.
He is now unelectable for President because that sound bite would wipe him out nationally.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.