The really interesting thing about this, besides Barkely's pledge to run for the Governor of Alabama in 2014, is that there is a rising effort in America to actually bring the critical Christian vision of social justice and authentic compassion into political discourse. The Red Letter Christian movement that's rising from the Sojourners is an exceptionally well organized example, but by no means the only one.
Indeed, one of the astonishing results of the Huckabee campaign is that evangelicals are increasingly citing social justice as the driving force of their political action, not "Guns and Gays". Because Barack Obama is so comfortable expressing his own faith, he may be the primary beneficiary of the rising movement of "Evangelical Populism". Developing...
Consider this:
After the 2004 election, when exit polls showed "moral values" as the response chosen most often when voters were asked what decided their votes, commentators rushed to declare that social conservatives had won the election for Bush. But it turns out that voters mean many different things when they say "moral values." When a Zogby poll taken after the election asked voters what was "the most urgent moral problem in American culture," 33 percent picked "greed and materialism," 31 percent chose "poverty and economic justice," 16 percent said abortion and 12 percent said same-sex marriage.27 As one pair of researchers put it, "[T]he moral values item on the issues list cannot properly be viewed as a discrete issue or set of closely related issues; that its importance to voters has not grown over time; and that when controlled for other variables, it ranks low on the issues list in predicting 2004 vote choices."
Maybe Republicans didn't win the "values voters", maybe Democrats lost them by failing to address the issues which they held so dear, such as Materialism and Social Justice!
I'm glad to see progressives are standing their ground and not allowing the GOP to "own" the faith issue.
And speaking of faith, this is one of my favorite passages in Proverbs:
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8-9
If the Democratic ticket in November is able to capture a greater share of religious voters than in previous elections, it will be because both Obama and Clinton have rejected their party's traditional fight- or-flight reaction to religion. For decades, the men and women who ran the Democratic Party and its campaigns bought into the conservative spin that the faithful were pro-life, right-wing and most certainly not Democratic voters. Armed with this mind-set, political professionals gave themselves permission to ignore religion and the religious. And in 2004, John Kerry paid the price for that decision.
Falwell and others like him were able to get attention on hot button issues when they came on the scene in the 80s, because they were a response to the people who were pushing the hot button issues. Without Larry Flynt, there would be no Jerry Falwell.
But Falwell has long been an embarrassment for social conservatives who were against gay marriage and abortion, because he sounded like an idiot when talking about it. A lot of social conservatives believed this was an example of media bias, because whenever the issue was brought up on CNN, they would set up a debate between a well-spoken liberal, and Jerry Falwell, who sounded like an idiot. Why was that unfair representation after all, if the people who followed Falwell were all idiots?
The fact is Falwell just brought ratings, transforming TV news into a Jerry Springer exercise.
But there will continue to be political disagreement on gay marriage and abortion, no matter if the Falwells of the world become marginalized. People simply do not agree on it. Not because the Bible tells them what to believe, but people have differing opinions the role of sex in society.
While some might hope that Christianity will see the light and embrace gay marriage and abortion, the issue will not go away just because some people earnestly argue that Jesus would have supported gay marriage.
Instead, you'll get people like Huckabee, who change their style of addressing the issue.
In the end, most Americans will remain moderate on the issues, not progressive.
The good news is that more Democratic ballots were cast in the city than Republican by about 1,000 votes and Obama won. AND there was even an LU students for Obama meet-up here last Saturday. Shocking. The kids who showed up probably got demerits.
What I find amusing is that the Boomer evangelical leaders raised a whole generation of well educated, earnest evangelicals. The idea was that they were going to continue their work of political power through hatred issues such as gay marriage and abortion.
As it often happens, they did their job too well. the well educated earnest group of young evangelicals are rejecting their older leaders' emphasis on political power and hatred and trying to focus on the message of love and peace that Jesus preached.
I often get flamed when I say this in liberal blogs, but being pro-life is progressive as long as you start caring for the breathing life form as much as they care for the unbreathing ones.
In fact, there is so much suffering on account of the living breathing children in the world that obsessing on the ones on the womb seems a bit disgraceful.
Iraq has done a lot of the work for that. You cannot see images of children with destroyed limbs and think that being pro-war is consistent with being pro-life.
I love the fact that so many on the right call themselves Christians, yet fail to act in such a way. I'm glad the tide is turning and the Red Letter movement has become more widespead.
I'm a Liberal and a Christian.
-Maria
"Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."- the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MI)
All that is just an intro to say, the New Testament, and specifically the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the single most radical and progressive societal message we could ever aspire to. Feed the hungry, clothe and shelter the poor, visit the jailed, take care of the widow, treat the lame, etc. I am my brother's keeper. What you do to the least among us, you do to me. Cast the pharisees out of the temple. A camel is sooner to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man is to get into heaven.
Yet, most of the conservative evangelicals and Christians that purport to follow these teachings preach only hate, division, being judgmental, etc. They countenance torture, war, and extreme policies that devastate those among us that have the least.
These people may call themselves Christian, but what they actually believe in is a grotesque hybrid of 0ld Testament
fire and brimstone fused with bizarre apocalyptic stories from Revelation. The title "Christian" just allows them to spread their hatred and insecurity with the modern world in good company and under nicer auspices.
These "Political Christians", such as the followers of such fools as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and James Dobson, in no way believe in the message of Jesus Christ. They may say they do, but actions speak much louder than words.
Barkley approaches this in a very straight forward and refreshing way. It would be nice if more politicians would learn how to confront these b.s. fear tactics this way. I have no idea if Sir Charles can gain traction in Alabama, but there is something very refreshing about an athlete making it look so easy.