When the Rev. Robert Maddox went to work as Jimmy Carter\u2019s White House faith liaison, one of his main jobs was helping Beltway politicos lose their fear of born-again Christians.<\/p>\n\n
The landscape has changed radically in the past three decades. What infuriates Maddox now is that Americans now automatically assume that religious believers are right-wing Republicans.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cPeople on the progressive side of things have not been doing a good job getting our message out,\u201d he said, during a break in a Washington, D.C., conference for the religious left. \u201cWe rolled over and let the Ronald Reagans and the fundamentalists grab hold of the media and define what faith means \u2014 down at the level of bumper stickers and real life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The gathering was called \u201cFaith and Progressive Policy: Proud Past, Promising Future\u201d and drew nearly 400 activists. Staffers for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops huddled with mainstream Jewish leaders and Muslim progressives. \u201cModerate\u201d evangelicals talked shop with officials from the National Council of Churches. It was both reunion and pep rally.<\/p>\n\n
Speaker after speaker said the key was finding unity in their creeds \u2014 not strife. This worked in the civil rights era, the labor campaigns of Cesar Chavez and campaigns against apartheid in South Africa. They prayed that it could happen again.<\/p>\n\n
The leader of the Center for American Progress, which sponsored the event, said exploring his Catholic faith has only made him more committed to liberal politics, said John D. Podesta, White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. His faith has also helped him identify the forces that he believes must be defeated.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIn the past 20 years we\u2019ve seen the emergence of religious leaders who tried to dictate legislation and public policy from their particular set of religious beliefs,\u201d he said. \u201cThe religious leaders who attracted the widest attention were often those with the narrowest minds. Rather than use their faith in God to bring Americans together, they chose to use it to drive us apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Truth is, faith has become the boldest dividing line in American politics.<\/p>\n\n
A wave of surveys indicate that the best way to predict what voters will do on Election Day is to study what they do on the Lord\u2019s Day. Voters who worship more than once a week vote Republican by a ratio of 2-1 or more. A Time poll says the \u201cvery religious\u201d support Bush over Sen. John Kerry, 59 percent to 35 percent. Those who call themselves \u201cnot religious\u201d back Kerry, 69 percent to 22 percent.<\/p>\n\n
The problem, said Maddox, is that conservatives used U.S. Supreme Court decisions on hot-button moral issues to drive a wedge between Democrats and voters in many Catholic and evangelical pews. The Baptist pastor gets red in the face when describing the founding fathers of the religious right, using vivid, rodent-related vocabulary that can\u2019t be printed in a family newspaper.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cTake Reagan,\u201d said Maddox. \u201cHe started talking about abortion and, all of a sudden, he was this great Christian candidate. \u2026 Now we\u2019re in another election year and the right is still obsessed with sex. We have to tell the American people that this isn\u2019t about abortion and it\u2019s not about gay marriage. It\u2019s about the budget, health care and the war. At least, that\u2019s what we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But the moral divisions are real, said Maddox. He estimated that 90 percent of those attending this conference are pro-abortion rights and the same percentage backs gay rights. Almost all of the Christians present would clash with traditional believers on other biblical issues.<\/p>\n\n
Take, for example, the familiar verse in the Gospel of John in which Jesus says: \u201cI am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cSooner or later,\u201d said Maddox, \u201d the church crowd is going to wake up and realize that there are going to be a lot of people in heaven other than us Christians. I still believe Jesus is the way and the truth \u2014 for me. But it\u2019s that last part that troubles me, the part that says \u2018no man comes to the father, except by me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we can get away with saying that anymore. That might have worked in the \u201950s, but it\u2019s not going to work in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the Rev. Robert Maddox went to work as Jimmy Carter\u2019s White House faith liaison, one of his main jobs was helping Beltway politicos lose their fear of born-again Christians. The landscape has changed radically in the past three decades. What infuriates Maddox now is that Americans now automatically assume that religious believers are right-wing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[294,340,476,1544],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-democrats","tag-evangelical","tag-jimmy-carter","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n