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March 11, 2005

WWJD

What would Jerry (Falwell) do?

Over at Salon, Amy Sullivan deconstructs the religious left in America and finds some lost souls trying to find their way:

The parting gift the religious left gave Christian conservatives was an uncontested public square. Years before the religious right had the membership numbers to match its boasts of political influence, it was winning debates simply by controlling the agenda and cornering the market on religious authority. Richard Parker, who teaches religion and politics at the Kennedy School of Government, believes that the religious left simply forgot about a crucial part of its mission. "The Catholic Church believed it needed to learn how to articulate for its members faith-based reasons for action, and to frame arguments for the public square in ways that did not directly derive from church teaching," he says. "Mainline Protestants [who form the bulk of the religious left] lost the first habit, and only carried out the second." Those members of the religious left that did remain politically active often seemed like caricatures of left-wing activists, agitating to save baby seals, Arctic wildlife, third-world orphans with only the faintest of biblical appeals marshaled on their behalf. While religious groups were some of the most vocal opponents of the recent war in Iraq, their unique voices got lost within a sea of peace slogans. More damningly, to the extent that the religious left continued to exist, it became tied in the public's mind with secularists. "The positions of the religious left and secularists on crucial questions seem indistinguishable," says Joseph Loconte of the Heritage Foundation. "And that hurts them politically."

What I find most interesting about the above passage is the move by some churches away from their biblical teaching and into a faith based agenda. In other words...they're really just making stuff up as they go along. It has little to do with actual scripture and everything to do with PR.

This brings me to the notion of the Doctrine of Prosperity or Gnosticism. This theology pushes forth the idea that God wants his people to prosper..with health and money. If a believer has enough faith...God will make him rich.

Given the many Biblical references to wealth vs poverty, it would seem to be a no brainer that Gnosticism is antithetical to basic Christian beliefs. Not so anymore. For some, wealth is part of the package. And that package tends to find itself most often in the bank accounts of the religious right.

This is the achilles heel of religious conservatives. The abandoning of the roots of their own scripture is easily exposed. Will the Christian left get off their collective backsides and come together against this philosphy? It's hard to say. Ever since the Civil Rights movement...their focus has been lost.

The longer the religious right exercises it's political muscle in Washington..the more the prosperity doctrine manifests itself. The bankruptcy bill and the deconstructing of Social Security are just two current examples.

Perhaps the savior of this nation is Jesus after all. In the form of the religious left. If they've got the courage to do it.

Posted by Carla at March 11, 2005 09:38 AM