White House to Announce Rest of Faith Council. Any Predictions?

Jim Winkler has worked very hard for the United Methodist Church's stance against the Iraq war and torture. Even though Bush was a member of a UMC, he wrote letters to Bush and spoke out against the war.

The UMC is an inclusive church, although specific church go from left to right, most are moderate. As a result, individuals on the right have formed a group called IRD to attack moderate to liberal churches. A terrible example of for reaching the unchurched.

"They ask that because when they think of Christians, they tend to think of people who are narrow-minded, judgmental, arrogant, and angry."

The above quote is very important. It turns people away from ever wanting to attend a Christian church.

Rick Warren said mainline churches were "Marxist in Christian clothing"

I hope the choices are people that believe the Brian McClaren quotes.

Our church has many outreach programs outside of church hours to make a less threatening environment. For example, divorce recovery and opening the gym to the public for basketball. We try to be a good example rather than proselytizing.

The word of God is included in the divorce recovery in a suttle non-threatening way. Never any divorce makes you are a forever evil sinner. As a result, many started attending the singles Sunday school class. Some attended mostly from being lonely. Many eventually joined the church. A woman in her early 50s that had never attended church became a pastor.

The last I heard, Obama was reconsidering the rule on hiring decisions. I think it would be too difficult to enforce.

I am against heavy had proselytizing. For example, getting to stay free at a time share, but having to listen to a sales pitch.

I read a good example of a Catholic man and his son being at an Boy Scout event at a Baptist church. At the end, the pastor said a few words and asked who wanted to be saved. The Catholic boy raised his hand.

I pray that people calling themselves Christians will learn to act according to the teachings of Christ.

Julie of CO 3:30PM March 29, 2009

I read Donald Miller's blog today, and I was surprised at how many of the comments on his blog (from Christians) actually discussed whether or not they wanted to receive government funds for their outreach programs.

http://donmilleris.com/2009/03/26/the-center-for-faith-based-and-community-initiatives/

The Christians who seemed to be enthusiastic about federal funding also seemed to be confused in thinking that federal funding would be available for programs that included proselytizing.

I think it's going to be important for religious organizations receiving federal grants to understand that they cannot use federal grant money to proselytize the people they help nor can they discriminate against the people they help in any way. Given the negative opinion an increasing number of Americans have of organized religion in our country, I would guess that there will be increased reporting of organizations that use federal funds illegally to proselytize and/or discriminate against non-believers. When this happens, it seems like there could be some serious issues with some (many?) religious organizations having hard feelings when federal funds have to be withdrawn/returned because of evidence that the organizations are proselytizing/discriminating against the people that they're helping.

Darcy Grant of NY 4:22PM March 27, 2009

Looks like Donald Miller is actually on one of the council's "task forces," not on the council itself, actually.

Kristin of DC 3:34PM March 27, 2009