Saturday, May 03, 2008

EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO CRITIZES POLITICS AND FAITH

Technorati Tag: Evangelical Manifesto, Evangelicals, Christianity, CUFI, Faith Based Initiative

This is what you get when the religious right leaves the true Gospel message of Jesus Christ behind and unites with the government. The new government sponsored religion of Caesar, we are now reaping the bad fruit given to us by political organizations such as Christians United For Israel who operate under the front of "Christian" evangelicals, known as CUFI and your Faith Based Initiative government sponsored religious programs that the religious right and now left have bought into. And why now do we need a "Manifesto" when we already have the Bible to go by?
From CNN:AN EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO CRITIZES POLITICS AND FAITH

(AP) -- Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word "evangelical" has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.

The declaration encourages Christians to uphold traditional marriage, as in this Massachusetts protest.

The statement, called "An Evangelical Manifesto," condemns Christians on the right and left for using faith to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
"That way faith loses its independence, Christians become 'useful idiots' for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology," according to the draft.
The declaration, scheduled to be released Wednesday in Washington, encourages Christians to be politically engaged and uphold teachings such as traditional marriage. But the drafters say evangelicals have often expressed "truth without love," helping create a backlash against religion during a "generation of culture warring." CONTINUED

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:33 AM

    "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities'" Revelation 18:4,5.

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  2. i'm enjoying reading the various opinions here and there around the web. i had some hesitations and misgivings before reading the document, but i'm actually quite impressed and invigorated after taking in the whole of what it addresses.

    one of the things i like is that the authors have chosen not to list creationism and inerrancy as non-negotiables. for the first, there's very little biblical justification anymore behind whatever the latest flavor of anti-natural-selection dessert is being served up; for the latter, somehow we can admit that we can't prove the existence of God, but goshdarnit we have a golden egg this unprovable God laid right here. still, some people hold to these positions; so be it. there's simply too much of a tendency to add items to the ever-increasing laundry list of ideas and doctrines to which we have to pledge allegiance before we're allowed into the room marked "Christian."

    nothing's going to please everybody, and there are a few things i object to. for instance, i don't agree with this statement: We Evangelicals should be defined theologically, and not politically, socially, or culturally. Jesus' message uses "action" verbs: teach them to DO as I have commanded you, LOVE God and LOVE your neighbor, by this will all men know ... if you LOVE one another. any theology that defines us must have feet.

    i did, however, like these words: We are also troubled by the fact that the advance of globalization and the emergence of a global public square finds no matching vision of how we are to live freely, justly, and peacefully with our deepest differences on the global stage. somehow, we've got to figure out how we're going to peacefully share the same bathroom over the next few decades in our ever-shrinking world.

    more than anything, i find myself motivated and energized by the very positive nature of the piece - that it isn't yet another "here's everything we're against" rant but an effort to make the gospel again a message of good news. imagine that - the gospel being good news. American Christianity has lost this defining characteristic that once served it well.

    post more of your thoughts when you've digested the document; i'll stop back by and read them.

    mike rucker
    fairburn, georgia, usa
    mikerucker.wordpress.com

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  3. Hi Mike:

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Another thought that I neglected to mention was why in the world do these evangelical Christians even think we need a Manifesto when we already have the written Word, the Bible? That's enough for me.

    Toni

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