Progressive Christians To Announce New Political Organization
i-newswire.com
<<...This new hard-hitting grassroots national Christian organization will be launched Wednesday morning, June 22 at 10:00 am at the National Press Club’s First Amendment Lounge in Washington, DC. This will be followed by a second launch event at 10:00 am on Thursday, June 23 in Jacksonville, Florida across from the auditorium of the First Baptist Church of downtown Jacksonville at Beaver and Hogan Streets.
The Christian Alliance for Progress will speak out when conservative Christians misrepresent the gospel to support their misguided political positions. The Christian Alliance for Progress, founded firmly on the teachings of the gospel, will stand for pursuing economic justice; responsible environmental stewardship; equality for gays and lesbians; honoring the sanctity of childbearing decisions through effective prevention, not criminalization of abortion; seeking peace, not war; and achieving health care for all Americans.
The success of the religious right in appropriating the language of Christianity has led many progressives to become wary of religion in the public sphere. Fundamental Christian values like compassion, justice and peace are largely absent from our political discussion, and progressive people of faith do not see their concerns addressed or their values espoused through the prism of faith.
“The Religious Right has been extremely successful at taking control of the language of our faith and using it to promote an extreme and divisive political agenda. This is fueling incredible polarization in our politics. We think that most Americans, especially people of faith, are ready to hear from Christians who are tolerant, and who understand the many ways that our faiths impact our views of public life,” said The Reverent Timothy F. Simpson, Director of Religious Affairs for the Christian Alliance for Progress, a Presbyterian Church USA pastor and Editor of the journal Political Theology.
There are millions of Christian Americans who share progressive views, or, at a minimum, are turned off by the extreme rhetoric and political agenda of the Religious Right. The voices of these Americans are simply drowned out by their well-funded, well-organized and well-executed strategies.
The highly contested and emotional election of 2004 has emboldened the Religious Right in their quest to dominate issues as broad as Senate procedure, in their campaign to end the filibuster as a tool used “against people of faith”; as personal as the right-to-die, with their heavy-handed and high profile intrusion in the Terri Schiavo tragedy; and as outrageous as a preacher in North Carolina, who told his congregants that if they voted for John Kerry, they must repent or resign from the church. Nine members were kicked out.
“These litmus tests for faith are outrageous, but unfortunately, not surprising given the inflammatory rhetoric we’ve seen for years by leaders like Reverend Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. As progressive Christians, we say enough. We are tired of a one-sided Christian perspective in our public policy debates. Just as important, we intend to hold politicians accountable,” said Simpson.
The Christian Alliance for Progress hopes to advance a renewed, progressive vision of gospel values and help Americans express this moral vision in how we think, work, and vote. “As a pastor, I have been horrified and saddened to watch opportunistic religious leaders meld Christianity with extreme conservatism,” Simpson said. “The agenda they promote does not reflect the values I learned from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. I believe that we have an obligation to reclaim the vocabulary of Christianity from extremists and to restore the values of Christianity, while honoring the diverse views about religion and Christian life.”...>>
For information please visit christianalliance.org |
