Posts tagged Politics
The officer repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain.
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From an interview this afternoon with my friend Dave Woessner, one of the founders of the Occupy movement’s Protest Chaplains:
“What do you think it looked like when Jesus was roaming the Judean countryside with a couple hundred people—a ragtag bunch? Who refused to identify himself, “Who do you say I am?” People are like, “What’s this occupy movement about?” This is exactly the same conversation they were having about Jesus of Nazareth. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for people to see, but I suppose it is.”
One very damning infographic on what’s protected—and what’s not—in the upcoming debt negotiations.
Religious leaders protesting budget cuts arrested in Capitol
That’s a photo of Christian and Jewish religious leaders—including my boss Jennifer Butler, Executive Director of Faith in Public Life—getting arrested today for praying in the Capitol Rotunda in protest of budget cuts that will harm the poor.
From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON — Eleven religious leaders protesting budget cuts affecting the poor were arrested in the Capitol Thursday as the House began debate on a bill to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling.
Before making the arrests, police cleared the Capitol Rotunda where the protesters, organized by the group Common Cause, were kneeling, praying and singing.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine said on the House floor that they were praying for those who will be “hurt the hardest” by the bill being considered.
While I’m not the world’s biggest fan of protests, I’m overjoyed to see religious leaders continuing to stand up for the “least of these.”
Now this I can get behind. While I don’t think we can know how Jesus would restructure Social Security and Medicare, I’m pretty sure he’d choose the poor.
What Sharia Is…And Isn’t
The Center for American Progress hosted a panel yesterday on Sharia law, featuring three people the far right would call Sharia apologists (or worse). But as panelist Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, pointed out, “I’m not a sharia apologist, I’m a religious freedom apologist.” Also on the panel were Professor Asifa Quraishi, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Faiz Shakir, Editor of Think Progress and Vice President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The panel focused on debunking the myth of some sort of Sharia usurping of the U.S. Constitution. Briefly put, that sort of takeover would require a Constitutional amendment, which itself requires the support of two-thirds of each chamber of Congress (or a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures), and then ratification by three-fourths of the states. So unless hundreds of Congressmen are secretly in favor of thrashing the first amendment, this scenario just ain’t that likely.
The civil tone of the event, and the presence of panelists who actually know real-life Muslims—or who are Muslim themselves—stood in stark contrast to a panel I went to at the Faith and Freedom Conference back in early June. At that event a woman asked if Obama could raise the Muslim flag over the White House. Despite the fact that there’s no such thing as a “Muslim flag,” making the whole thing technically impossible, one of the panelists answered, “Yes he can and that’s their plan!”
Concluding the CAP event, Shakir encouraged people who are genuinely interested in this issue to continue learning about it and not settle for the opinions of self-styled ‘experts’ with dangerous political aims. Events like yesterday’s that contribute informative, nuanced information to counter the junk analysis currently populating our political discourse are an important step.
(Cross-posted on Faith in Public Life’s blog, Bold Faith Type)
Study: The Bible Makes You Liberal
Want to get your conservative Christian friends to think more liberally about social justice, science, and conservation? Try getting them to read the Bible more often.
A study by Baylor University researcher Aaron Franzen found that increased frequency of reading the Bible correlated with greater support for a broad range of progressive issues—with the exception of gay marriage and abortion.
According to the Huffington Post’s breakdown of the study:
• The likelihood of Christians saying it is important to actively seek social and economic justice to be a good person increased 39 percent with each jump up the ladder of the frequency of reading Scripture, from reading the Bible less than once a year to no more than once a month to about weekly to several times a week or more.
• Reading the Bible more often also was linked to improved attitudes toward science. Respondents were 22 percent less likely to view religion and science as incompatible at each step toward more frequent Bible reading.
As interesting as these findings may be, the study only shows correlation and does not provide insight into whether or not frequently reading the Bible caused these views. (In Latin, cum hoc ergo propter hoc.)
It is also important to note that this study only looked at “Christian respondents” from within a broader survey on religion done in 2007. I suspect that adding responses from atheist/agnostic Americans who never read the Bible might skew these results.
But as a once-a-week to once-a-month kind of guy myself, I can certainly understand how more frequently reflecting on the central message of the Gospels could cause someone to become more progressive. The Bible exhorts care for the poor far more often than tax cuts for millionaires.
(Cross-posted—but with edits to take out the funny—on Faith in Public Life’s blog, Bold Faith Type)
“What Would Jesus Cut?” The Budget as a Moral Document
Yesterday morning I got an email from Sojourners, one of my favorite progressive Christian organizations, asking for a donation to help deliver “What Would Jesus Cut?” bracelets to every member of Congress. The message? “To challenge elected officials and the administration to remember their moral priorities when they vote on the budget.”
From a communications standpoint, I really like how Sojourners has taken advantage of the well-known WWJD campaign to remind our elected officials that budgets have an impact on more than just the nation’s fiscal health—they also reflect our national values.
But personally, I always felt uncomfortable with the WWJD movement. It seems to me that one thing Jesus wouldn’t do is slap on a bracelet asking, “What would I do?” The slogan seems to imply a sense of certitude about Jesus’ teachings that, frankly, I simply don’t share. If those closest to Jesus, his disciples, frequently did not understand him, how can we possibly think that 2,000 years later we can know exactly which programs he would support, and which he would cut? (more after the jump…)
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I'm a master's student at Harvard Divinity School, a former Democratic campaign consultant, and here to share my insights on religion and politics. I am not The Dude—though I am a huge fan.
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