The Christian Right Campaigns to Soften Its Image

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TO: TRUE AMERICAN OF NY
I would like to comment on what you wrote regarding abortion: "It's legal, it may not be yours or mine to agree with, but it's legal STUPID! AND it's a losing battle, especially today!!!!! If you want to win in 2010 and 2012 SHUT UP ON THIS ISSUE!!!!!"
As believers what is our focus to be? A political party? Or the Kingdom of God? I believe that the Messiah Himself stated "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousnes and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33. If your party affiliation is more important to you than the Kingdom of God perhaps you need to "examine yourself to see if you are in the faith." God does not want any believer to "SHUT UP" about babies being murdered. Have you ever seen an aborted fetus? Legs, arms, trunks, a head with a spine attached floating in blood in a petri dish? All 10 fingers and all 10 toes. Think about what that felt like for that child. Now, do you still want everyone to "SHUT UP" about abortion? Just for votes??? And in case you weren't aware of it babies' body parts are sold to physicians in the United States. These innocents cannot speak for themselves. We must speak for them.

Katya of FL 9:48PM July 18, 2009

Everyone wants to follow Jesus until they find out where He is going. He is going to a cross and he asks you to take up yours and follow Him.
What man deserves (and has earned by his own sin and offenses) is judgment. However, Christ supplies at His cost (His death for us) the free remedy of eternal life. "But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many…For the wages of sin is death, but the [free] gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 5:15; 6:23).

Dwoods of AZ 9:48AM July 17, 2009

Seems to me that you have been burned by religion. So tell us what happened to make you so bitter? As Stephen of WI points out you clearly either don't know history or your hatred of religion has gone so far as to cause you to side with the devil himself. come on, siding with USSR? So what happened to you? Did you make bad choices in life that are to painful to face up to if there is a God? Do you really favor chaos and anarchy because you would prefer others to feel the misery you feel everyday inside? Do you suppose that demolishing religion will change the guilt that is inside you? You may as well try and move Mt Everest as to destroy the believers faith. What is truly sad is that the refuge from the storm your soul seeks is that same refuge you seek to destroy.
Well, what ever you have done in your life God Bless you auradawnveirs and may you find peace...someday.

Marc Zimmerstien of ID 12:27PM July 16, 2009

Oh please, nobody forces anyone to have children. The mere fact that there are poor people with large families is because they don't know when to quit having sex. It's because of irresponsibility and in some cases outright stupidity. Pro life is against abortion, however they are not involved in some sort of conspiracy to keep the poor poor by forcing huge families on them. That sounds as realistic as the claim by Nazis and Neo-Nazis that there was a Jewish Conspiracy to destroy the powerful, prosperous Aryan nation which involved faking the Holocaust and that all the major Allied leaders being at least 'part Jewish'.
As for trying to keep families together, that helps everyone out, save the irresponsible fathers who seek to avoid paying child support and apparently cannot commit to anything. The above being a sign of cultural decay.
Not to mention, I am greatly surprised that an anti-religious person is posting this, most likely someone ignorant of the history of Christianity and unwilling to learn about it, especially it's early history, as virtually all anti-religious people are. I am always amazed at the amount of hatred that the anti-religious community has, it seems that they live off of it, much like Nazis and Communists do. I am also always amazed at the arrogance of their attitude that 'we are the rational ones so it is our job to destroy irrational religion'. Such attitudes fall within the realm of bigotry.
As for the USSR, atheism was made the religion of state under Lenin in 1917. Following the revolution, the Soviets propped their puppets up as leaders of the Orthodox Church and confiscated virtually all church property and deported Priests to Siberia and Central Asia or simply had them executed, sometimes through torture. Common people who were Christian and refused to renounce their beliefs were also deported to the Gulag system where over 2,000,000 died. Being anti-atheist became a crime and the priests were almost always appointed by the state, so the faithful couldn't fight back, not that it would have done any good to do so. From the 20s onwards the education system they put in place strongly denounced all forms of religion, thus causing the next generation to be brought up as atheists.
The government sponsored many anti-Christian propaganda campaigns and programs to 'enlighten' the population and spread as much doubt as possible. Due to the this, people who continued to practice their faith fled to the countryside to do so, as it was far easier to hide gatherings in forests as opposed to the policed cities. These tactics combined with the death of the older generations who were faithful ultimately lead to over 3/4 of the Russian population to be either atheist or agnostic. Apparently you know as little of recent history as you do of biblical history. And for praising the USSR, well they killed 45,000,000 people and shared equal guilt with Hitler for starting WWII so what's not to like about them?

Stephen of WI 10:10PM July 15, 2009

Stephen says Christian Charities charge less for their work. They take their pay from public treasuries, forcing all non-exempt citizens to pay more real estate taxes and income taxes. If they "charge less," HOW MUCH TAX REVENUE is sticking to their fingers? They supposedly "help" alcoholics and addicts. How many turned to these pain-killers because the burden of big families was too much to bear? "If I'm so drunk or drugged that I can't move, nobody can force me to go to work to feed all these kids we didn't really want but were forced to have." Was that a fair assessment of the mess caused by Pro-Life lawmakers? Pro-Life preachers create profitable tax-paid jobs for themselves, by making poor people have child after child. Mythical Christ told men to leave their jobs, be beggar bums and desert their families. The Million Man March in D.C. told men they should keep their families together. Religion was invented to create the institution of tithing. After the Russian Revolution, the new Constitution of the USSR said people could use existing church buildings but they no longer were supported by a national church tax. Too cheap to tithe, believers stopped going to church but claimed they were being persecuted. Cheap Skates.

auradawnveirs of CA 8:42PM July 15, 2009

Dorfy says dress em' in new clothes: Hope you didn't dress Obama in those Dorfy "mom jean's" he wore to the Allstar game, real cool dude. He really looked Dorfy like!

Does it matter, Honestly of FL 7:35PM July 15, 2009

Marketing a new "HIP" Christian Right is like asking Lawrence Welk to play Led Zeppelin - obviously pandering and sounds aweful.
The Christian Right would have to change what it stands for - not just its image. Do you think that will happen?
True Christianity is about who you include - not exclude. It's about what you forgive - not what you attack. It's about helping others no matter what their views - instead of shunning those who need help but disagree. It's about emptying your wallet for the poor - not trying to get rich off them. It's about honoring a vow to your spouse - not cheating on your spouse with people in restrooms, Congressional pages, campaign workers and in Argentina. It's about having a moral compass that helps a Congressperson vote for what is right - not just what will get them re-elected. It's about doing everything possible to avoid war - no look for excuses to start one. It's about leading by example on principles you believe in - not standing for nothing except personal power. It's about being able to say no when lobbyists hand you favors and money - and throwing the "money-changers" out of the temple. It's about the rich giving to the poor, telling the truth, humility, turning the other cheek, etc....
All these things Jesus taught. Christianity is about the things above - not bombing abortion clinics, harassing speakers at graduation ceremonies, excluding gay people from basic rights, and plots to undermine the civil structure of this country.
When the "Christian" Right gets this straight - then they can get a new suit of clothes and a new image that is credible.

Dorfy of SC 1:46PM July 15, 2009

The Third Great Awakening appears to be slackening off, thankfully. The Christian Right must follow the GOP in establishing a new line that doesn't demonize women seeking abortions or gay people if it hopes to thrive. Wedge politics was highly successful for them in the 1990s, but that strategy tanked along with the fortunes of the Bush Adminstration. Younger people in particular have voted their impatience with the culture wars while signaling interest in social justice activism. So-called "Christians" who've co-opted that word exclusively for themselves and then betrayed it through political Inquisitions would do well to reach out to gays and other people they have antagonized. This at present appears unlikely, given the support that Proposition 8 in California received from conservative churches. Now this:
The Advocate published a story today about a conservative Christian, Ruth Sterling, a councilwoman for the city of San Diego, who publicized a vicious letter she wrote rescinding a message of encouragement for the town's Pride Celebration. The rescission came after conservative Christians in San Diego pressured her to withdraw her previously outspoken support for the event. The mayor of San Diego hastened to state that Sterling was speaking for herself and not on behalf of the city of San Diego.

torqueflite of CO 1:04PM July 15, 2009

How can this be a losing battle? It won't change over night but it has always been a fairly evenly divided issue. In other words about half of the population is pro-choice and half is pro-life. The argument that it is legal so we should give up is one that is made by those who do not understand history. Lots of things used to be legal, slavery and child labor to name a few.
In fact look at the latest numbers on the issue:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/more-americans-pro-life-than-pro-choice-first-time.aspx
Goes to show that the abortion issue is not a losing battle at all. In fact those who are pro-choice are killing there own in a way. What is ironic is that pro-lifers are trying to save the children of the pro-choice crowd when to win this battle what pro-lifers should do is simply let the pro-choice crowd remove themselves from the gene pool like they have been doing and sooner or later there will be none left. Too funny.

Marc Zimmerstien of ID 12:59PM July 15, 2009

The best path for the core of the US seems in between this new, 'liberal Christianity' and the traditional Christian Conservatives. More attention needs to be paid to campaign for charitable aid, as well as for national aid to go via Christian Charities (which have been shown to charge the least for their work) for those less fortunate but not so much that it destroys the very core of the Christian teachings by becoming the 'social gospel' something which the Vatican and numerous Protestant leaders have always condemned as a 'mix of Christianity and Marxism, the two being incompatible'.
At the same time, the whole idea of anti-Homosexuality needs to be changed, as Homosexuality is caused by genetics and therefore is something beyond a person's control, much like mental 'illnesses' are (for the record, by definition, Einstein was 'mentally ill'). While it is a sin, so are stealing, being envious, adultery, lying and remaining abstinent until your married. The whole idea of 'love the sinner not the sin' being far more in touch with Christian teachings. Indeed the concept of Civil Unions should be endorsed as it is 'Man's Law' to provide the equality that we humans desire, however it does not seek to temper with 'God's Law' of marriage, which only the most arrogant would seek to challenge. Thus as a Conservative Christian (as opposed to a Republican), I am against any form of Gay Marriage but in favor of Civil Unions for the reasons listed above.
World poverty is another problem and I applaud the charities who go out and build houses for the truly poor in third-world countries, provide clean water to villages in Africa and feed the starving. These projects need to get much more press and support from the Christian community in general, and, indeed have the leaders lobby for government funding to aid these charities, as well as air adds on television, the radio an internet for people to give more, especially during the Holiday Season when we are reminded of how lucky we are.
However many stances of the Christan Community should not be changed. These include stances on abortion, fighting for morality, combating the ruthless anti-Christian campaigns of the post WWII period (including the War on Christmas and Easter, the slandering of Christianity in the media and so fourth), individual freedom vs government control, remembering that God is in control, individual responsibility, standing against World Government, standing against the phony 'man-made Global Warming scare,' being content and grateful with what you have and spreading the word, albeit not forcefully. The conservative Christians need to alter their message somewhat to better reflect the teachings of Jesus, but not nearly as radically as many propose, as they would no longer be Christian.

Stephen of WI 12:57PM July 15, 2009