Posted on 01/31/2010 5:04:17 PM PST by Steelfish
Lisa Miller Heaven Help Him Religious centrists bail on Obama. Jan 28, 2010 From the magazine issue dated Feb 8, 2010
When Barack Obama was running for president, an outfit called Matthew 25 helped him get elected. Through ads and outreach, this group convinced legions of moderate evangelicals that Obama represented them. He was a family man, a Christian who sought to perfect the world even as he knew that earthly perfection was unattainable. Drawing on Niebuhr, Lincoln, and King, Obama created a vision of America as a place where people took care of one another because it was the right thing to do.
In Matthew 25, Jesus promises his disciples that they will be rewarded in the next world for feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these," he says, "you did for me."
Count the moderate faithful, then, among those palpably disappointed in the president. Part of this is inevitable, the bruising differential between courtship and marriage. But part of it is a legitimate frustration that the thing Obama once did so well—articulate American values as a matter of conscience and community—he seems today not to be able to do at all. His State of the Union address last week was not corrective: more pedantic than inspirational. Health care, centrist clerics say, would have been better if framed strongly from the outset as an issue of social justice. The economy, they continue, is also a values crisis, a failure on the part of the banks and government to respect our collective inter-dependence. "Not my problem" is exactly the mindset that Matthew 25 warns against. "I am my brother's keeper, my sister's keeper," Obama would say on the campaign trail.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
"We need a leader," Wallis told me, "to call not for incremental change but transformational politics. The president could do that. I think he still has it in him, but the American people don't perceive it."
Jim Wallis is a Progressive — but he’s not an Evangelical, not in my book. Neither is Tony Campolo — and Rick Warren is working on being excluded for the ranks of Evangelicalism as well.
There are SOME applications of values Evangelicals hold that are simply non-negotiable. Wallis’ understanding of economics is more akin to Marxism than it is of the teachings of Jesus. His teachings on “peace” are more akin to the Eastern religious precept of Ahimsha (not-harming/pacifism) than they are to the principles and actions taught by Jesus.
No sale Mr. Wallis. I’m not buying.
“. . . the American people don’t perceive it.”
No we don’t. It’s not that we’re dumb or incapable of great vision, either, Jim.
Laws will never replace self-sacrifice as the true source of community organization, much less self-interest as the true source of wealth creation. The more you try to force us into your utopian vision, the more we will exercise our unalienable rights.
Electing politicians who will use federal laws and agents to force people into becoming their “brother’s keeper”. Yeah, that’s the ticket, right preach?
Which of the 7 churches does he belong to? Same for Rick Warren, look at his church, where is it on the list?
Sad, sad, sad.
Learn a lesson Mr. Wallis. I don't need a ‘leader’, especially not a politician. Most of these people can't lead themselves let alone others. Obama has flat out lied publicly on multiple occasions. I don't judge or condemn him as a person for his failings. I have so many of my own. However, I certainly do not see him as qualified to ‘lead’ us spiritually to a transformation of society. If you believe this you need to take some serious time off to think a bit more about what you are saying.
Which of the 7 churches does he see himself as being a part of? Tolerance?
The Obamessiah has already brought transformational change: he’s making all of us poor. Perhaps Wallis believes this is what Jesus wanted, for everybody to live in poverty, and for government to be the transformative vehicle to make this happen.
If he has a seat at the table it's because he's as leftist as Bronco Bomber is, not because he has a fresh viewpoint.
These guys don’t get it, especially JIm Wallis and Frank Schaeffer. Neither does the nihilistic Newsweek reporter/columnist Lisa Miller.
These “progressive evangelicals” are leftists, not moderates.
The proper focus of the Church is God’s kingdom, not obama’s stated campaign goal of “perfecting the world”.
obama is a muslim, not a Christian. his REAL goal has not been to “perfect the world”, but to tear down America!! He is a false god and a false messiah.
Christians have a true Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ (”Christ” means “Messiah”). All who have followed the false god obama should repent and return to Christ!!!!
What is Jim Wallis doing at Davos anyway? Has he become a New World Order plant?
I’ve never heard of these “progressive” Evangelicals before who apparently did lend major support for 0. Who are they? Who is Jim Wallis? How come he’s attracting folks from the Bible Belt? Are they from Huckabee country?
Jim went to seminary or college because of the draft and the Vietnam war. He takes one virtue and blows it up to gigantic proportions and diminishes all the rest.
“Whatever you do...”
I have no problem with Jim doing this with his money, but he wants to do it with my money by affecting government policy to use its power to extract that money from me. Cheapest thing in the world to be charitable with someone elses money.
The Social Gospel. Heavy on social(ism) and light on the Gospel.
"Thru the Bible" teacher J. Vernon McGee believed that Christ was speaking of the mainline churches who would join in the murder of true believers who would not accept the coming one world religion. I believe Wallis, McLaren et al. will be in that group as well.
I’ve heard Jim Wallis on the radio. He’s a lying socialist. If I understand Jesus’ teachings right, Wallis isn’t going to be happy when he meets his Savior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Wallis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/davos-a-better-question-t_b_161614.html
Wallis has NOTHING to do with Huckabee. He is a Yankee through and through.
From the wikipedia article and the second post above, he seems to have more to do with Davos than I knew. And he is associated with the ueber-leftist Huffington Post, just like Frank Schaeffer. (As an Orthodox Christian, Schaeffer irks me no end)!!!
mega dittoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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