{"id":4811,"date":"2011-11-12T11:23:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T16:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=4811"},"modified":"2011-11-12T11:23:32","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T16:23:32","slug":"other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Other voices: Evangelicals outside the right wing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cRegent University president, evangelical church leaders denounce Alabama\u2019s immigration law<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regent University President Carlos Campo and several people identifying themselves as national evangelical Christian leaders held a press conference in Kelly Ingram Park today to denounce Alabama\u2019s new immigration law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe Alabama is a better place if they rescind this law,\u201d said Campo. Regent University, a Christian school in Virginia Beach, Va., was founded by TV Evangelist Pat Robertson. Campo said he\u2019s not aware of Robertson\u2019s stance on the Alabama law, described by many as the harshest state immigration law in the nation. \u201cI have not heard him take a stance on this issue,\u201d Campo said.<\/p>\n

Campo, whose father came to the United States from Cuba in 1940 and was welcomed into the country, said evangelical churches have been slow to oppose the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to the shame of many evangelical congregations,\u201d he said. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dave Gushee: \u201cChristian politics, unholy alliances<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once again, a presidential race is becoming a piety contest.<\/p>\n

As an American and also as an evangelical Christian, I can hardly bear to watch this nightmare unfolding all over again. It\u2019s bad for America. It\u2019s bad for Christianity. \u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the politicians\u2019 fault. If church leaders and rank-and-file Christians were not susceptible to these appeals, they would not work. Head fakes in the direction of Christian symbols still make many Christians swoon. Religious tribalism gets out the votes. It helps that the promise of access to power still intoxicates. When every Republican presidential candidate can be counted on to turn out for the Values Voter Summit, perhaps our current best symbol of everything that\u2019s wrong with evangelical politics, the old formula of support in exchange for access appears alive and well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rich Cizik: \u201cThe values debate we\u2019re not having<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an evangelical Christian who believes the Republican Party does not have a monopoly on moral values, I believe this discussion is long overdue. The \u201ccompassionate conservatism\u201d espoused by President George W. Bush and many prominent evangelical leaders has been supplanted by a Tea Party ideology that bears more resemblance to the anti-Christian philosophy of Ayn Rand than it does to the Gospel.<\/p>\n

Whether the Christian duty to love our neighbors is compatible with a political movement that embraces radical individualism and rejects the ethic of collective responsibility is a central question as the GOP attempts to cement the Tea Party and the religious right into a cohesive base. Tea Party activists and Republican leaders have consistently targeted for cutbacks vital government programs that protect the poor, the elderly, children and other vulnerable Americans. Yet calls for shared sacrifice and proposals to modestly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to fund investments and protections that promote the common good are derided as \u201cclass warfare.\u201d This is what passes for family values?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joni Eareckson Tada: \u201cElections 2012: Who is Really \u2018Pro-Life?\u2019<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.<\/p>\n

In these days of economic turmoil, it\u2019s easy to look at programs for the elderly, disabled and others with special needs as line items in a budget. But the effects of cutting them can be far-reaching and sometimes just shift the expense from one column on a spreadsheet to another.<\/p>\n

Virtually every state is cutting services for special-needs families and with regulations currently being written for the new health care law, the federal government is headed in the same direction. The Super Committee Senators and Congressmen also are looking at cutting funds for Medicaid as a way of reducing the federal debt.<\/p>\n

Unless society holds accountable those who are defining \u201cwaste-reduction measures,\u201d the disabled and elderly will lose services and in-home support that are critical to their basic needs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drew Smith: \u201cSelf-Appointed God-Protectors Hinder God\u2019s Work<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

While well-meaning and thoughtful people have zealously protected the traditions, the church and God by continually excluding gays and lesbians from full participation in the church, they have declared them unclean.<\/p>\n

In doing so, they look and act very much like the self-appointed God-protectors of Jesus\u2019 day.<\/p>\n

I am not God\u2019s protector on this issue, or on any issue, and I cannot and will not hinder what God is doing.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s evidence for the inclusion of the Gentiles was that he witnessed the spirit of God in them, and thus he could not reject the people he once rejected.<\/p>\n

People with sexual orientations other than my own are living out the power of the spirit in their own lives through caring for justice and goodness in the world.<\/p>\n

How can I hinder what God is doing by pretending I am a self-appointed God-protector?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cRegent University president, evangelical church leaders denounce Alabama\u2019s immigration law\u201c Regent University President Carlos Campo and several people identifying themselves as national evangelical Christian leaders held a press conference in Kelly Ingram Park today to denounce Alabama\u2019s new immigration law. \u201cWe believe Alabama is a better place if they rescind this law,\u201d said Campo. Regent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[237,21,27],"class_list":["post-4811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-evangelicals","tag-immigration","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nOther voices: Evangelicals outside the right wing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Regent University president, evangelical church leaders denounce Alabama's immigration law" Regent University President Carlos Campo and several people\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Other voices: Evangelicals outside the right wing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Regent University president, evangelical church leaders denounce Alabama's immigration law" Regent University President Carlos Campo and several people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-12T16:23:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/\",\"name\":\"Other voices: Evangelicals outside the right wing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-12T16:23:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-12T16:23:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Regent University president, evangelical church leaders denounce Alabama's immigration law\\\" Regent University President Carlos Campo and several people\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/12\/other-voices-evangelicals-outside-the-right-wing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Other voices: Evangelicals outside the right wing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}