[lit-ideas] Re: faith and politics
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:39:44 -0700
Veronica. You quote me as saying “they voice their opinions” and then respond
by saying “they DO voice their opinions” as though I said “they do NOT voice
their opinions.” I didn’t say that.
Islamism intrudes religion into the state. There is no separation.
Christianity does not do that. There is separation. Yes Christians have
opinions. Everyone does. That is not an intrusion. That is the norm of
Liberal Democracy.
If there are Christians campaigning about something I wasn’t aware of it, but
there isn’t anything wrong with that either. That’s also the way we do things
in a Liberal Democracy. We campaign, opinionate, protest and vote. But we
don’t “intrude” in the way the church did before the Peace of Westphalia.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
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Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 5:58 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] faith and politics
Hi, Phil,
This was the part of Lawrence's post that I was referring to:
From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Religion and politics
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:02:04 -0700
Nonsense Veronica. Christian Fundamentalists do not intrude themselves
into
public policy decisions. They voice their opinions. No one is even
campaigning
for a Christian position since Falwell died. Most of them believe
fervently in
the separation of church and state like the rest of us. Most of them,
if they
are hard-core Fundamentalists, won’t run for office because “the
time is
near.�
My point was that they DO voice their opinions--and do very much have
an agenda. I actually did not mean to say that it was 'good' or 'bad'
that they did so. I was just trying to point out that they are doing
so--and who some of the major players still are
You are correct--that is not all of them nor is it the ones who have
been trying to rise up and create an opposite "Christian" point of
view--like the 86 Christian evangelicals who signed a global initiative
dealing with global warmingpeople like Rick Warren come to mind-but it
was argued against bof the more Far Right Christian
Fundamentalists--see the NY Times article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/national/08warm.html?_r=1&ex=1155787200&en=19d0c89eb3b4f5c6&ei=5070&oref=slogin
Peope like Brian McCla
ren have gone through alot of criticism for not
holding fast to the fundamentalist agenda but still focusing very
strongly on doctrine [the emerging church world-- Not to mention
people like Jim Wallis who has always been active in trying to turn the
focus of the Christian agenda towards the caretaking of the living--in
very different ways than the fundamentalists
You are absolutely right--we do tend to bring our belief system to the
table--as people like Former Sen Jack Danforth have stated in his book
Faith and Politics.
But, Jerry Falwell, while raising the bar and pushing forward the
agenda of the Far Right, is by no means the only leader in that world.
(Nor is Pat Robertson)
Best,
Marlena
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