Religion, religion, religion

The great religious divide continues to widen.

James Dobson criticized Obama yesterday saying he distorted scripture in a 2006 speech. If you haven't already, you can read the article here - Dobson accuses Obama of distorting Bible. I linked to the CNN article because that's the website I read daily. Naturally, all of the comments after the article are pro-Obama and anti-evangelical. I checked out Fox News, and as you would expect, the comments are completely reverse.

I love that religion continues to perpetuate this extreme political partisanship. And I say religion purposely because it's not Christianity, it's religion. In the one corner we have the crazy conservative (typically) evangelicals who believe the only way to vote is on the moral issues of homosexuality and abortion. And in the other corner, we have the crazy liberals who believe all Christians are nut jobs. And that's how it's stacked up - Christians v. non-Christians in a fight to the death. But wait a minute, didn't I just say religion is what is perpetuating this rift? I sure did, but unfortunately nobody seems to realize this.

People have become blind to the Gospel message. Let me let you in on what that message is in one simple word...Jesus. Here's the Old Testament in a nutshell - man sinned, God promised to restore us to him, keeping of covenant, keeping of covenant, keeping of covenant, then bam!, Jesus arrives and the promise is fulfilled. Does that mean we can no longer learn anything from the Old Testament? Absolutely not! The message of the Bible is the Gospel. The Gospel is Jesus. The Old Testament points to Jesus and that, ladies and gentlemen, is its purpose.

Who did Jesus spend his time with? The rich? The healthy? Nope, it was the poor, the destitute, and even some prostitutes (yikes!). Are evangelicals furthering the Gospel by living in their little Christian bubble? Let's go to church on Sunday and hang out with our Christian friends during the week. Let's always vote Republican because they're anti-homosexuality and pro-life. You're sure not a true Christian if you don't. But is this Christianity or man-made religious thought? My vote is for the latter. It's time for us to paddle away from the safety of the far right towards the left and hang out with those left-leaning liberals who haven't yet accepted the Gospel. To coin an overused cliche from the nineties...it's what Jesus woud do.

This has been a long post, so if you're still reading, bless you! I'll leave you with a passage from a book I've been reading called God's Politics by Jim Wallis. It scolds the right for getting it wrong and the left for just not getting it. I don't agree with absolutely everything Wallis says as he's a bit more of a passivist than I am, but for the most part I feel he is dead on. Oh, and by the way, Obama made those statements in a speech to Wallis' organization, Call to Renewal.

"I believe there is a[nother] option for American politics...It is traditional or conservative on issues of family values, sexual integrity and personal responsibility, while being very progressive, populist, or even radical on issues like poverty and racial justice. It affirms good stewardship of the earth and its resources, supports gender equality, and is more internationally minded than nationalist - looking first to peacemaking and conflict resolution when it comes to foreign policy questions. The people it appeals to (many religious, but others not) are very strong on issues like marriage, raising kids, and individual ethics, but without being right-wing, reactionary, or mean-spirited or scapegoating against any group of people, such as homosexuals. They can be pro-life, pro-family, and pro-feminist, all at the same time. They think issues of 'moral character' are very important, both in politician's personal life and in his or her policy choices. Yet they are decidedly pro-poor, for racial reconciliation, critical of purely military solutions, and defenders of the environment. At the heart of th[is] option is the integral link between personal ethics and social justice. And it appeals to people who refuse to make the choice between the two."