'Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked':

[rodeodance]

This article is a good reminder not to lump all evangelicals into the "Right"
Like the Democratic Party--they come in all stripes and flavors.

Did anyone catch a CNN segment Friday nite? CNN had 2 evangelicals on talking--one was a minister (left to moderate): the other was a Right evangelical. As usual, the moderate person could hardly get a word in because the Right took over--interrupting, ect. But I only tuned in toward the segment so I can not say much.

"http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111304W.shtml"

'Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked': An Interview with Tony Campolo
Interview by Laura Sheahen
BeliefNet.com

Friday 12 November 2004

Speaking out on gays, women and more, a progressive evangelical says 'We ought to get out of the judging business.'
Evangelical leader, sociology professor, and Baptist minister Tony Campolo made headlines in the 1990s when he agreed to be a spiritual counselor to President Bill Clinton. A self-described Bible-believing Christian, he has drawn fire from his fellow evangelicals for his stance on contemporary issues like homosexuality. He talked with Beliefnet recently about his new book, Speaking My Mind.

It's a common perception that evangelical Christians are conservative on issues like gay marriage, Islam, and women’s roles. Is this the case?

Well, there's a difference between evangelical and being a part of the Religious Right. A significant proportion of the evangelical community is part of the Religious Right. My purpose in writing the book was to communicate loud and clear that I felt that evangelical Christianity had been hijacked. ....

[trotsky]

1. Too bad the group that hijacked it

is about a hundred times more vocal and more political than the moderates. The damage they are doing in the name of Xianity is remarkable.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. It's well past time...

For a broadbased and vocal Christian Moderate and Progressive movement to reveal itself. Loud, long and willing to engage the radical clerics.

[Branjor]

3. Why does everyone call them "radical"...

They are reactionaries - on the opposite end of the spectrum from radicals.

This "radical" nomenclature may actually be part of the problem. Radicals are traditionally on the far left wing of the spectrum, reactionaries on the far right wing. Radicals are people who want to get to the very roots of a social problem and go forward to eradicate those roots, creating change in social systems deeply rooted in injustice and inequality. Reactionaries are people who want to go even further into the past, when the injustices and inequalities were even worse than today. It is quite obvious which group of people it is that wants to take us back to the middle ages - the "radical" (that is, reactionary) clerics such as those at Bob Jones U and their followers. Radicals are often (wrongly) stereotyped as "nut cases", "violent", anarchists and the like but it is understood that they are tackling important social problems with the purpose of eliminating ancient miscarriages of justice and are therefore "good", even if their tactics may sometimes be misguided. On the other hand, there is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING, good about reactionaries.

We may win the perceptual war against the "radical" right if we start referring to these people as what they really are - REACTIONARIES.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I call them Rigid.

[Branjor]

7. Yes....

Their attitudes certainly are overly rigid, but I'm serious. If it is important how we "frame" the issues (and I think it is), framing them as "reactionary" rather than "radical" is not only more accurate, it is much more negative FOR THEM. Compare "radical right" to "reactionary right". They actually get a good number of votes as the "radical right", but I bet a lot fewer people would vote for a "REACTIONARY right".

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Tony Campolo and EAPE

http://www.tonycampolo.org/index.shtml

EAPE is an acronym for Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, a progressive Christian mission. The website also contains an order page for Dr. Campolo's books, and several talks on streaming audio (RAM/RealAudio format).

Well worth a visit!

--bkl

[montieg]

5. That's what I've been trying

to say! We got to quit letting them frame every issue. They want us to use the term evangelical because it's not negatively connoted. Call them what they are: FUNDAMENTALISTS! They don't want us using that because it connotes to "Shi'ite". And you're dead right rodeodance ( as a west Texan I gotta love that monniker) evangelical is not identical to fundamentalist...the very reason we should never let the wingers choose the words.