Reply #13: Is it pandering, or is it framing?

[gratuitous]

Concern for the poor, the down-trodden, the outcast, of being in the world (think rapacious capitalism) but not of the world (our economy doesn't have to depend on exploitation of the most vulnerable) has a very long history and there is a biblical basis for all of that, from the earliest writings in Genesis through the last epistles of Paul, John, and James. Is it "pandering" to explain these issues in those terms so that they can be understood? The right wing certainly hasn't caviled at its own selective reading of favorite biblical passages to support its misguided policies. The central message of the gospel (and this will come as a shock not just to the Ralph Reeds, but some of our very own DUers) is not "every man for himself," or "I got mine and screw you."