Where are the Evangelicals?

[Coltrane]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/01/03.html#a1231
President Bush enlisted two former presidents for an ambitious private fund-raising drive for victims of the deadly tsunami on Monday, asking Americans to open their wallets to help the millions left homeless, hungry and injured.

He spoke about the generosity of the American people that have pledeged millions to help the cause. He singled out:

A coffee roaster, a tax preparer, a Buddhist Temple, people selling items on the internet, and corporate donations as some examples of American generosity. What I find interesting is not a word mentioned about his fellow Evangelical Christians who espouse the moral majority on the land. Where are they hiding? Americablog surveyed their websites and found them barren from almost any mention of this tragedy. Are they too busy collecting money to intimidate Democrats in the Senate? Are they too busy working on voter drives that they haven't the time to be involved in the relief effort? With not a peep about them out of their biggest supporter's mouth today, will they finally be embarrassed enough to join in?

[Jacobin]

1. They think muslims are devils

They are in a holy war (in their own minds, at least) and wouldn't dream of helping brown people who aren't (for the most part) christians.

I've heard their blather on RW fundie radio, which is all over the fucking dial where I am.

[Lenore]

4. meanwhile, over in my part of the world...

I won't disagree with most of what you wrote, indeed it was partly due to my evangelic Church's open warmongering that brought me here to DU.. you know, a grasp for sanity in this ever increasingly crazy world.. but that was then and this is now (since then I have pressed the issue with the Elders and Pastor(s) of my church and they have made amazing concessions that to me indicate that the boat is changing course)... But that is another story for another time!

Anyways, what I started out to share is that not all evangelic (of which I am one) donating will be done in a nationally public sort of manner. Let me give you an example.

My church, we support a Christian organization in India that serves not only their own kind (christian) but also any others receptive. We have been planning a "Missions Trip" to India, a group of "craftsmen" from within our church, who are traveling over to do construction and plumbing sorts of stuff. The first group left last week with an additional 4 people to follow tomorrow.

Literally *thousands* of dollars were raised/donated yesterday, in a special offering taken specifically for the Tsunami victims. It will be hand taken to India where it will then be distributed to workers of this Christian organization who already have practicing members (missionaries) living, and offering aid, in the affected communities.

You won't be reading about this on CNN or seeing sentimental "from the evangelic christian" snippets on Nightline.. it is happening none the less and certainly more than we know...

[u4ic]

5. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[nascarblue]

7. I agree with you...

I'm sure not all Evangelicals will fall in that radical zealot category. All the more reason that more Evangelical organizations should be making much more noise to distance themselves from the likes of Falwell and other 700 Club coalitionists.

Something to consider, the only religions that invoke war, violence, bigotry, and racism are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Hindu's, Buddhists, Jingoists, and Taoists have been around for thousands of years and have always been peaceful. Read more about that here...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/love-of-war.htm

[CrispyQ]

2. They are too busy shopping & telling others how to live.

[rodeodance]

3. glad they are silent--they would only lecture anyway!!

[jdj]

6. they are too busy threatening pro-choice dem senators

in between frothing at the mouth and raping cattle.

[nascarblue]

8. Evangelicals got 1 BILLION from the Bushies in 2003!

It's just outrageous. These Evangelical front groups that claim to be about helping the poor got a big chunk of the 1 BILLION dollars from the government under Bush's direction. These are the same groups that tell kids they "can get pregnant using comdoms 83% of the time" and "you can contract AIDS from sweat and tears." What a joke.

President Bush has succeeded in opening the checkbooks of five federal departments to religious organizations. Now he's setting his sights on money doled out by the states.

<snip>

Partly as a result, in 2003, groups dubbed "faith-based" received $1.17 billion in grants from federal agencies, according to documents provided by the White House to The Associated Press. That was about 8 percent of the $14.5 billion spent on social programs that qualify for faith-based grants in five federal departments.


"That's not enough", said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives...


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/ap/20050103/ap_on_go_ot/federal_faith

[saltpoint]

9. They're afraid of lending much-needed assistance --

-- to "unclean" people.

That is, non-Christians.

They take as the "Other" nations and cultures with large numbers of Islamics or Buddhists, etc.

Evangelicals tend to worship a very race-specific Messiah.

[OutsourceBush]

10. they are only concerned about white people

[montieg]

11. I'm pleading here...

Please don't interchange (as they want us to) the terms evangelical with fundamentalist. This is another example of their reframing to obfuscate the truth. Yes, there is the ,"Not all fundamentalists are evangelicals..." But the radical right knows that 'fundamentalist' connotes to shi'ite while evangelical has a much 'softer' connotation. So don't play into their game--call 'em what they are: 'fundamentalists'!