A Call to Action

Recently, on the 700 Club, Rev. Pat Robertson told thousands of his followers:“You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.”  

And again from the same preacher, “(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” Or how about Christian activist Randall Terry: “Our goal [for America] is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism. We want theocracy. Theocracy means God rules.I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good.

When I, or people like me, are running the country, you’d better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we will execute you.”

This same man will no longer welcome his own son into his home or family because he has come out as gay.People like these are why I have for years been embarrassed to call my self a Christian. It is the undisguised, out in the open, pure unadulterated hate that these people are spewing forth in the name of My God that has given Christianity a bad name. People no longer think of Christians as good people, or generous people, or even as moral people.  They now think of Christians as narrow minded bigots and fear mongers. These rabid fundamentalists say they are building an army for God to fight against the ‘liberal agenda’, and for the most part the more passive and compassionate liberals sit on the sidelines and shake their heads, but do nothing to stop the spread of organized hate in the name of our Christ. I have come to the point that I will no longer let people like these steal my religion and hijack the name of My Jesus and use it to spread their hateful agenda to the ends of the earth. I personally can not and will not sit idly by while others spread hate and deceit in the name of My Christ. 

I will go to the ends of the earth if I must to show people that my Christ did not teach hate or discrimination, that my Christ taught about God’s love for mankind and the love that God wants his children to have for one another. I will teach that we are ALL children of God. Regardless of what religious name we call ourselves by. Whether we be Baptist, Methodist, Muslim or Buddhist and yes… even fundamentalist Christians; we are all children of the same God.  And to that end, I am enlisting you as members of the “left leaning liberal agenda”, you will now be proud members of the religious left.  And now we will begin your indoctrination into the Army of the Lord in order to spread the news of his love and grace to all who can hear.   Beginning with the 8 points of Progressive Christianity:

1)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.

2)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the pathway to God’s realm.

3)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who understand our sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’s name to be a representation of God’s feast for all peoples.

4)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who invite all sorts and conditions of people to join in our worship and in our common life as full partners without imposing on them the necessity of becoming like us.

5)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who think that the way we treat one another and other people is more important than the way we express our beliefs. 

6)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in the questions than in the answers.

7)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who see ourselves as a spiritual community in which we discover the resources required for our work in the world:striving for justice and peace among all people,bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers.

8)          By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who recognize that our faith entails costly discipleship, renunciation of privilege, and conscientious resistance to evil - as has always been the tradition of the church. 

 

These are the things that we will be touching for the next few weeks, taking the time to go over each one in a little more detail trying to understand what they mean to each of us as individuals and what they mean to us as the congregation of Prince of Peace. Take them with you, think about them, pray about them, write down your thoughts.  All opinions and questions will be considered and respected.  

 May the peace and grace of God be always with you ….