I thought the NYT article was excellent; I could really ‘hear’ the voices in many of those interview subjects, all of whom made enlightening comments.

I’ve been noting small, anecdotal shifts for the past two-plus years, mostly since Cindy Sheehan started to speak out; she was promptly treated like yesterday’s trash. Within two weeks of Ms Sheehan calling Bush to task, Hurricane Katrina hit (and that single event shifted consciousness and exposed Bush forevermore as Pathetically Not Up To The Job Of Preznit). Then one more piece of appalling news after another, and Bush insiders beginning to speak about the cynicism with which Bu$hCheney used the evangelicals.

I sense the NYT article has captured some of that soul-searching, and that’s where the transformational shifts among some evangelicals are coming. I’ve seen the same topics raised by people that I know:
1. ‘participatory theology’ shown by service to the needs of the local community,
2. ‘Throw out the Pharisees,’ along with reduced focus on the ‘celebrity’ aspect of politicized religion (as a dangerous distraction from the meaning of the Gospels),
3. Much more emphasis on, and concern around, the environment — since Katrina.

At least one person surprised me in the past year by commenting that she felt she’d been unfair to Al Gore. She feels that ‘it takes a spiritual man’ to avoid bitterness and accomplish his work on global warming; she described Bush as ‘a Pharisee’ and blames the media for not reporting more clearly so that his faults would have been more obvious. That comment greatly surprised me.

Bob in HI

What this has done, I think, and what some pastors like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels have seen, is that this branding is having a negative overall effect on the underlying mission of the church which is to make Christ and the good news known. As many have observed on this thread and in the blogosphere, Jesus message was, is, very far from the message of the Republican Party and the message of the evangelical right. There are not a few on the so-called Christian right, who advocate a gospel of wealth, basically the exact opposite of the Gospels.

Yet the stereotype has now begun to stuck to the point where the exodus from institutional religion is now reaching a critical stage. Membership in Christian churchs overall is declining. Younger people are not coming to church in droves. TBOGG had an interesting post a week or two ago commenting on the fact that regular attendance at church has reached historical low points of 20% (according to Christianity Today). For anyone, like me, who believes that their mission is to know Christ and to make Christ known, this is a disturbing trend. Bill Hybels and Rick Warren are trying to reverse that trend by getting Christians to share their faith with others and show people how faith has changed them. I imagine they realize not many people are going to be persuaded to become Christians if they think they will be changed into right-wing zombies.

My point here is that not all Christians are right wing or Republican and there is no “schism” as far as we are concerned. I think of what Hybels and Warren are doing is getting the church back on message and back on track away from the wild goose chase of the flirtation with right-wing Republican politics.

Part of this is letting people know about the positive things Christians are doing in the world. e.g. ever heard of UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief? http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/

BTW, UMCOR has come under attack by a Scaife-funded right-wing outfit called Institute for Democracy and Religion, for, get this, forming a partnership with Muslim Aid, a Muslim relief organization, to help with relief efforts in Muslim countries. Institute for Religion and Democracy is trying to subvert the Methodist and other mainline Protestant churches for not being sufficiently right-wing Republican. The attack on UMCOR was on the fact that UMCOR was insufficiently religious in its website as compared to the Muslim organization. They falsely accused UMCOR of supporting Muslim Aid to provide goats for Muslim korbani sacrifices. This attack is an attempt to undermine the good the church is doing in the world. Contrary to Ann Coulter’s message, the church is not about invading their countries, killing their leaders and converting them all to Christianity. Which is why organizations like UMCOR are being attacked.

It is my hope that church goers will continue to awaken to this fact. Many are. Many hear their leaders preach things that are plainly against what Christ told us to do, and they are very upset over this. They see that they are in a conflict between obeying the Words of Christ or obeying their church leaders, who cherry pick scriptures to suit their own causes. And the further out there the leaders get, the more true Christians leave the church.

Simply put, if you believe that the things Christ taught are true, then you will not kill, hate, steal, or refuse to help those less fortunate than you. “This you do to the least of these, you do unto Me”. and that about sums it up.

newtonusr @ 42

Probably because, unlike Reagan and 41, he’s given them some of what they want.

For most of Bush’s time in office, Republics had total power. Yet, abortion was not banned. Bush and the Republics should be loudly scorned by evo leaders for this. Yet, they are not.

Both Bush and the evos are frauds scamming their supporters.

I heartily agree.

I’ve never been able to find a word in either testament about abortion.

In fact the old testament refuses to give full legal status to new borns- they have to survive a certain number of days.

A book waiting for someone to write is to pick out all the parts of the OT & NT (e.g., slavery) that we now revile & asking why Christians don’t feel just as passionately about those.