Remember when our basic civil rights were fought for and won by spiritual leaders like Martin Luther King? You look at bastards like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and you wonder what the hell happened to the true spirit of Christian charity, humility and acceptance in this country.
Well it seems that there's hope.
NYTimes already covered them, and now Salon runs a cover story on the Christian Leadership Network, a progressive religious organization hellbent (pardon the expression) on taking back Washington from the right-wingers, and that includes the religious right. The group's leader, Rev. Albert Pennybacker, has this to say:
Well, I'm not part of the evangelical right. I believe that God's spirit is inclusive, not exclusive. I believe that the public marketplace -- the place where ideas are exchanged and decisions are made -- is not to be monopolized by one religious point of view.
I believe that we are an open country with religious and even non-religious diversity, and that's a good thing, a democratic thing and very American.
And then I believe part of the appeal of the evangelical religion is for offering certainty, not faith. Certainty about what's doctrinally correct. I think one of the dangers of religion is to believe we've got God all buttoned down. And I believe just the opposite. I believe in the freedom and mystery of God that doesn't allow us to be certain but allows us to be loving.
To put it in street talk, I look more to how people live than what they say they believe.
Alas, they don't have an email address but I would encourage anyone - as I am - to call them or snail mail them some words of gratitude for "getting it" and for setting a new paradigm for spiritual leadership in this country.
499 South Capitol Street SW
Washington, DC 2003
(202) 554.2121
I am grateful that not all Christians in America are sleepwalking through the valley of death that is George Bush's presidency. But I also think CLN could diversify its influence by drawing ordinary faithful to their flock, a la the Dean campaign. Start a blog or bulletin board. Have services and town hall meetings in cities across the nation. Before you know it, you'd have a Republican party stripped away of its false love of Christ.