Religious Left Struggles to Find Unifying Message
Rod Dreher, citing a story in the New York Slimes, notes how "pitiful" the so-called "Religious Left" looks in their attempt to formulate a message to take on religious conservatives and traditionalists:
See, this is why the Religious Left is not about to amount to anything. These folks are so sold out to pluralism that they cannot affirm anything as true, except the dogma that "the Religious Right is wrong." Good luck building a movement around that, y'all. This excerpt from that NYTimes story is so very, very telling:Mr. Campolo, the Baptist minister, explained to the participants in a seminar that many people on Capitol Hill were religious, and that to reach them and to establish authority, liberals should rely on the Bible."Pure sentimental mush. It has no power to bind anybody, which means it has no power to inspire. Can you imagine Martin Luther King Jr. saying, "I don't want to play the game of 'the Bible says this or that.'?" Can you imagine facing Bull Connor and the police dogs, much less Diocletian, with that bucket-of-warm-spit stuff? Come on!
You have no right to be a spiritual leader if you haven't read Scripture," he told the group. "People in Congress respect the Book, even if they don't know what it says. If we don't recognize this, we don't know squat."
A young man with long hair and a tunic challenged Mr. Campolo.
"I thought this was a spiritual progressives' conference," he said. "I don't want to play the game of 'the Bible says this or that,' or that we get validation from something other than ourselves. We should be speaking from our hearts."
Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Saint Hugo - the Religious Left Begins its Embrace of [Castro-Loving Commie Bastard] Hugo Chávez
Religious Conservatives Push for "Values Voters' Contract with Congress"
Has Tim Kaine Shown Democrats How To Reach The Promised Land?
For Democrats, a Troubling Culture Gap
Left-Leaning Preacher to Howard Dean: You Can't Fake It, So Shut Up About Religion
Wary Democrats Discover a Severe "Parents Gap"
posted by Pro Ecclesia 1:03 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think this is pretty funny; I can picture the horror of poor, Tony Campolo, thinking he'd come up with something definite he could say in that context, when he realized he'd actually been guilty of excluding someone -- OH THE HORROR!
I found the New York Times article, and saw a fact that explained everything: they met at All Souls UNITARIAN Church.
The effort to congeal a 'Religious Left' is like herding cats. Nobody of that bent is inclined to follow any definitive doctrine, they can only express themselves in terms of opposition to various ideas. Like the use of negative space in Art, the ideas are never more substantial than a collection of antis.
Post a Comment
<< Home