"With God on Their Side" -- Alternet.org

[IrateCitizen]

The following article is an excellent discussion of many of the challenges facing mainline Protestantism (what could best be described as the "religious left") in the country, and in electoral politics. And if you're just going to post a "religious people are fools" comment or something else openly hostile to people who are religious/spiritual, please just don't bother and move along....

God On Their Side

By Jeannette Batz Cooperman, AlterNet. Posted October 28, 2004.


“When people think of the relation of Christianity to the political scene, they think of the right rather than the left,” says one expert. Here is a look at the rise in evangelism that’s tipping the country Republican.


If God is indeed up there – on a throne, in the clouds – then what He's watching is a wildly unbalanced game of Red Rover. The exuberant kids have all run to one side. The quiet kids, who used to have a pretty good team, are drifting away one by one. And the cool kids stand in a knot, making fun of the players.

The cool kids, a small but increasing minority, profess no religion at all. They're mainly pro-Kerry Democrats.

The exuberant team, the evangelical Christians, is growing so fast, and in such determinedly political ways, that they've tipped the country Republican. They're also boosting traditionalist attitudes toward religion within the party.

And the big loser, the team whose members are walking off the field? Mainline Protestantism, the calm, reasoned faith that shaped this country from its colonial beginnings through the 1960s. Its liberal clergy pushed hard for social reforms, economic equality and civil rights. Its members, who used to be the northeastern sort of Republicans, are increasingly Democratic, more comfortable with John Kerry's style than George Bush's.

But the mainliners are quiet – and their numbers are diminishing so fast, they're not sure they'd be heard if they screamed.

READ THE REST HERE: http://www.alternet.org/election04/20328/

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1. great article

thanks for posting it.

I agree with the sentiment. people tend to think to negative extremes on all things, and here is where its very apparent.

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