Posted on 05/19/2012 7:02:52 PM PDT by Steelfish
Obama Could Have An In Among White Evangelicals A recent gathering of religious leaders in Ohio indicates that churches don't necessarily march in lock step with the Republican Party. But certain social issues could still make it a tough sell for the president.
By Mitchell Landsberg May 19, 2012 CINCINNATI — The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong.
Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.
"Conservative biblical interpretation requires embracing the text," Beard said during a break in a daylong symposium on racial equity, a special concern of his. That, he said, "might push us to what society calls progressive engagement."
White evangelical voters are widely presumed to march in lock step with the right wing of the Republican Party. The reality is more nuanced. Some, like Beard, say their faith has led them to question conservative orthodoxy on issues such as immigration, the environment and racial and economic equity.
"Evangelicals," he said, "are quickly discovering the whole Gospel. And that has implications for how we engage the public sphere."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Why in the world would Christians vote for those who promote baby-killing, taxpayer-funded promiscuity, and the theft of private property and income?
Anyone who would vote for Obama does not recognize the authority of God’s Word.
My parents are two that do. Church flies the gay pride flag and everything..
I went once with them to stay on their good side once. I’m not one to claim I am dialed in with the spirit but something about that church felt wrong.. dead even..
When I spoke with the pastor at my church about my visit and the feeling I had at their church he said “must be a dead church” when I asked what that meant he said “a church where the spirit no longer visits because it has strayed to far from the word or twisted it beyond it’s meaning” once I filled him in on the support of the gay movement and other liberal leanings of the church he was certain what I felt was the lack of the spirit in that church.
To bad, it’s a beautiful building built back in the 20’s with a 200 foot steeple.
While I have not told my parents how I feel (sadly, they have gone over to the dark side and they are not coming back) I am always busy when they inivte me to church. Oddly, they have never been to my church and are oddly busy when I ask them to attend mine.
Holiday dinners... don’t get me started.. 3 libs against me. I try to keep them off politics.
/johnny
Don’t worry, Evangelicals are THE anti-Democrat vote.
Homosexuals who have wives and kids to hid that they are homosexual or bi-sexuals... i.e. frauds... example (Obama and Moochelle?)
Preachers who pretend to be conservative and follow the bible, but support politicians who do the things the left does; support abortions... early, late, and post birth (denying healthcare to abortion survivors, i.e. Obama)
oh please. right. and the sharpton lynch mob is gonna vote for romney.
This is a very inner city Cincinnati church struggling to find members. Half its staff are minority and they are squishy about many doctrinal areas and very lib politically. also their pastor, the Rev beard, would seem to have a cloud over him as this lib site attests:
Pastor Ted’s gay lover to kiss and tell
It’s not just Haggard...
December 21, 2006 |
Advertisement
Fallen evangelical power broker Ted Haggard’s ex-prostitute, Mike Jones, has signed a deal to write a “sexually explicit” book about their relationship. Jones is likely tantalizing James Dobson with his comment that the kiss and tell memoir will also describe encounters with “other people who are similar.”
Meanwhile, Haggard’s former church, New Life, has fired another pastor, Christopher Beard, for unspecified sexual misconduct. The press accounts are fuzzy, but the gist seems to be that nine years ago, before he was married, Beard — are you sitting down? — slept with another unmarried person. The vagueness of the charge leaves open the possibility Beard’s being punished for having violated the youth ministry’s abstinence pledge (he was a youth ministry leader) or that he slept with another man. Only in the repressed world of Colorado Springs would either innocent occurrence be grounds for firing. Expect the purging to continue until there are enough sinners in rehab to start a new church of their own.
http://www.alternet.org/story/45817/pastor_ted’s_gay_lover_to_kiss_and_tell/
[[Have these reporters ever met and talked with any evangelicals?]]
Yes, ‘Rev’ Wright- Wo is about as close an ‘evan gelical’ as they’ll ever get to to discuss anythign with
Unfortunately, there are many, many, many evangelical pastors and Christians who just plain do not know Christian theology. They do not see the importance of knowing orthodox Christian doctrine.
This makes them susceptable to false teaching. Now, it is true the Jesus and the early church had compassion on the poor and destitute. The church was to take care of it’s widows and orphans - but, there was certain stipulations that had to be met before the church took care of “true widows”.
The Apostle Paul said that anyone who is not willing to work should not be fed (not taken care of financially):
“2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
As to illegal immigration, there are passages in the Old Testament that Israel was to treat the alien and the foreigner with justice and equity and not take advantage of them - and, no one is advocating treating even illegal aliens unjustly - only that they come here legally.
The scriptural passages regarding aliens in the country probably are not dealing with people who came illegally, so I don’t really see the connection.
Again, much of this “progressive” Christianity is possibly well-meaning, but misguided and from ignorance of the scriptures.
Yep, here is the Rev. Beard weighing in with this fragrant little theological turd:
Religious leaders seek racial healing
May 2, 2012 | Cincinnati Enquirer
When the Rev. Troy Jackson looks ahead at the next six months leading to the presidential election, he sees a littered landscape with toxic partisan politics and vicious tactics and one real loser – the democratic process.
That’s why Jackson, pastor of University Christian Church, University Heights, has worked for two years to help build a coalition of religious leaders and ministers pull the political discussion back toward the poor and society’s responsibility to its most vulnerable members.
Friday, more than 300 religious leaders will participate in the summit “United by Faith.” Scheduled from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the event will feature speakers and culminate with congregations signing onto the “Racial Justice Covenant.”
The featured speaker is Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colored Blindness,” (New Press, 2010).
The covenant will call for all of Greater Cincinnati to be a place that “treats all people as sacred, justly stewards public resources (and) is dedicated to including and elevating the least among us.”
“When we call our clergy to pursue civic engagement, we do so out of our faith community and refuse to get co-opted by political parties and labels,” Jackson said.
A two-day event started Thursday when 100 religious community leaders met at a Forest Park church, Word of Deliverance, to officially institute an organization called Ohio Prophetic Voices. Clergy are organized into committees that will confront human trafficking, jobs for ex-offenders returning to society, food access and neighborhood safety. The concept is based on Hebrew prophets who relentlessly called for society to care for its most vulnerable.
“It is time to chart a new faith-rooted course as we unite unusual suspects – Evangelicals, Catholics and Protestants, Caucasians, Latinos and African-Americans – to work together courageously for racial equality and Biblical justice,” said the Rev. Chris Beard, pastor of First Christian Assembly of God, Corryville.
The Amos Project, a federation of congregations from various religious denominations, is promoting the covenant and a racial justice agenda that includes passage of Ohio’s proposed Collateral Sanctions Reform bill, which would open up access to employment for many of Ohio’s 1.9 million people with felony or misdemeanor convictions.
“We needed to start identifying and naming racial injustice and inequality and build a racial justice agenda to close the gaps,” said Paul Graham, Amos Project executive director.
What you said! It's simply not possible for a genuine believer to support abortion and homo marriage.
Anyone who uses the word “text,” a word closely associated with Critical Literary Theory in this way is not and cannot be a conservative christian. This guy is simply lying when he says he is.
Look at post 24, do you really think that Evangelicals are the weak link in Christian voting? Compared to what?
I would not trust the LA Times as my source for news within the Evangelical world, although I have not been as in touch with things as I used to be.
There has always been a left-wing fringe in the Evangelical movement, as characterized by the “Sojourners” folks and/or Goshen College (in Indiana).
Still, the LAT is probably a good source for outing the lefties who try to claim the “evangelical” label.
However, I do have to admit that the Evangelical “vatican,” or the NAE, is far more liberal than I wish they were.
I am jaded enough by the liberalizing trends within Evangelicalism/Pentacostalism to no longer be terribly inclined to identify myself as an “evangelical.”
I am still a Bible-believing Christian, and I am not soft on the enforcement of immigration law or other “social” hot-button issues.
I guess I am just an old fart.
Just because they aren’t necessarily in lock step with some conservative policies ~doesn’t mean~ that they will embrace anti-biblical positions such as fake-marriage or abortion.
Obama is clearly out of step with Christians on this-and unless they really aren’t saved (with questionable theology), they won’t be voting Obama.
Now, THAT chart will preach.
Thanks. Informative chart that belies the LATimes story. MSM at it again, except more insidious this time around.
What he means is that Marxists have finally succeeded in taking over the Evangelicals.
re: “Look at post 24, do you really think that Evangelicals are the weak link in Christian voting? Compared to what?”
No, I do not consider evangelicals as necessarily a “weak link” in voting conservative - I wasn’t even addressing that. Further, I don’t think overall that evangelicals are going to vote en masse for Obama.
But, I do see problems for conservatism in the evangelical movement. And, I was giving an explanation about why this pastor Beard, and some other evangelicals I’ve met and talked with, could confuse Christian ethics with some aspects of “progressivism” (or what used to be called the “social” gospel) because a general lack of interest in knowing Christian doctrine (the What we believe and Why).
I’ve seen this attitude on the part of many evangelical churches in the “contemporary” movement (such as Saddleback Church, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, etc.). Learning doctrine isn’t “exciting”. It’s not “fun”. You have to work at it, and, let’s face it, some segments of evangelical Christianity are plain lazy in regard to knowing what they believe and why. In the same way, many of these don’t know political ideology very well either or how Christianity relates to the beliefs of the two major political partys.
The greater concern I have regarding evangelicals is that a large percentage won’t vote at all because they consider politics as “of the world” or “God’s-in-control-and He’s-gonna-work-it-all-out-as-He-see’s-fit-anyway” so why should I vote? Others think politics is too “divisive” and too “judgmental” and try to ignore the political debates and controversys - they see it all as “evil”, even both partys as equally bad.
That’s the thing I fear the most. But, with Obama supporting same-sex marriage (along with all the other left wing stuff), that might be enough to rejuvinate the evangelical voting bloc to be more motivated to get out and vote.
Maybe Yankee evangelicals if there are any.....union type
Down here my southern baptist homeboy parson has declared war on the magic half negro kenyan whatever
That homo stuff dont sell well here
Seth Meyers even hit on it tonight....candid
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