'Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era - Reuters

[TomSea]

'Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era
 [Reuters]  By Scott Malone  Reuters March 27, 2017

By Scott Malone

(Reuters) - Since President Donald Trump's election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York's Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw.

In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London's Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds.

"The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action," she said.

Continued: https://www.yahoo.com/news/religious-left-emerging-u-political-force-trump-era-105901165.html

I just hope they aren't all backed with Soros or other leftist money. Some of this is that.

[txradioguy]

The "religious left" IMHO is an oxymoron.

[LMAO]

Progressives are in the mindset that people will do what the progressives think they will and should do simply because they tell them. They mistrust the individual. Progressives tend to see people not as individuals with their own interests and abilities but as a mass that will follow progressive dictates and ideas.

It's why their ideas eventually fail

[the_doc]

The "religious left" IMHO is an oxymoron.

I would say that the religious left is the religiously irreligious faction in America--or maybe the irreligiously religious faction if we acknowledge their New Age nonsense and overt Satanism and pro-Muslim nonsense as religion.

[mountaineer]

The "religious left" IMHO is an oxymoron.

They're "religious," all right, but it's probably fair to say they worship an "ism" that doesn't resemble the God of orthodox (small "o") Christianity or Judaism.

[Doug Loss]

They're "religious," all right, but it's probably fair to say they worship an "ism" that doesn't resemble the God of orthodox (small "o") Christianity or Judaism.

Big "O" Orthodox Christianity too.

[Chosen Daughter]

The "religious left" IMHO is an oxymoron.

 

Some kind of religion but not based on God or His Word.

[mountaineer]

Big "O" Orthodox Christianity too.

Big "O" Orthodox Christianity too.

I figured the Big O church was a subset of small o orthodoxy, if that makes any sense.  In any event, I find it hard to believe that leftwing so-called Christians truly acknowledge the core tenets of Christianity.

And then there's this, in Canada:

Can an atheist lead a Protestant church? A battle over religion in Canada.
By Alan Freeman September 29, 2016
Washington Post


OTTAWA — The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a dynamic, activist minister with a loyal following at her Protestant congregation in suburban Toronto. She is also an outspoken atheist.

“We don’t talk about God,” Vosper said in an interview, describing services at her West Hill United Church, adding that it’s time the church gave up on “the idolatry of a theistic god.”

Vosper’s decision to reject God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and to turn her church into a haven for nonbelievers “looking for a community that will help them create meaningful lives without God” has become too much even for the liberal-minded United Church of Canada.  ...

Her liberal denomination still hasn't kicked her out.

[Emjay]

The "religious left" IMHO is an oxymoron.

Yep.  Except that it's not.  You do not find liberals in many mainstream protestant churches in America but there are certain denominations that are primarily leftist.  I belonged to the Episcopal Church for most of my adult life.  Most of their leaders are far lefties.  In the years I belonged, we had a gay priest; then another gay priest; then a family man who was so liberal I walked out of one of his sermons; then a woman; then a woman and now a woman.  And the presiding Bishop was a horrible woman and now it's a Black dude that I don't know much about.

And they are activists.  They are killing me on my Facebook page.  I've had to block at least one priest because he makes me so mad, I cannot stop myself from replying to him.  I've just alienated two former friends over Betsy DeVos.  OMG.

The priest I had to block alternated outrageous political rants with sweet little biblical quotes.  OMG again.

[Doug Loss]

Yep.  Except that it's not.  You do not find liberals in many mainstream protestant churches in America but there are certain denominations that are primarily leftist.  I belonged to the Episcopal Church for most of my adult life.  Most of their leaders are far lefties.  In the years I belonged, we had a gay priest; then another gay priest; then a family man who was so liberal I walked out of one of his sermons; then a woman; then a woman and now a woman.  And the presiding Bishop was a horrible woman and now it's a Black dude that I don't know much about.

And they are activists.  They are killing me on my Facebook page.  I've had to block at least one priest because he makes me so mad, I cannot stop myself from replying to him.  I've just alienated two former friends over Betsy DeVos.  OMG.

The priest I had to block alternated outrageous political rants with sweet little biblical quotes.  OMG again.

Yes, those churches are primarily leftist.  What they are not is primarily Christian.  Which is why they are hemorrhaging members.

[Emjay]

Yes, those churches are primarily leftist.  What they are not is primarily Christian.  Which is why they are hemorrhaging members.

Well, the odd thing is that they are Christian.  You could go to services for years and hear Bible readings, beautiful sermons and good people. 

You had to go deeper in to hear political stuff.  I always went to Bible classes and that's where you heard it.  And the dearest people... so earnest and...there was an old retired priest who came to our classes and his wife was asking if there was any way we could refuse communion to the Koch Brothers ... she was totally serious.

[mountaineer]

Yes, those churches are primarily leftist.  What they are not is primarily Christian.  Which is why they are hemorrhaging members.

As I've described before here at TBR, Mr. M and I were longtime members of a PCUSA church. Members of the small congregation are very conservative, but the presbytery leaders and the denomination are very liberal. When our whackjob pastor quit in 2013, the presbytery did all it could to make sure we didn't find a conservative to replace him. They sent us a very liberal female interim, who was there for nearly three years. When the pastoral search committee found a good conservative to whom we wanted to extend a "call," the presbytery threw a procedural monkey wrench in the works, halting the process. Mr. M and I finally had enough and left the church because we couldn't continue in that denomination, but the good folks of our former congregation soldier on.

Oh yeah, and the PCUSA is hemorrhaging members like crazy. No wonder.

[Doug Loss]

Well, the odd thing is that they are Christian.  You could go to services for years and hear Bible readings, beautiful sermons and good people. 

You had to go deeper in to hear political stuff.  I always went to Bible classes and that's where you heard it.  And the dearest people... so earnest and...there was an old retired priest who came to our classes and his wife was asking if there was any way we could refuse communion to the Koch Brothers ... she was totally serious.

You're just affirming my contention that they're not primarily Christian.  They mouth Christian teachings, but when it comes down to actions they reject Christianity in favor of leftism.

[Emjay]

You're just affirming my contention that they're not primarily Christian.  They mouth Christian teachings, but when it comes down to actions they reject Christianity in favor of leftism.

I think it is dangerous for anyone to declare that anyone else is not Christian.  That is something between individuals and God, who works in mysterious ways.

I know my own church was Christian and you could definitely support some of their beliefs by going to the New Testament and seeing what Jesus had to say about various social issues.

[Doug Loss]

I think it is dangerous for anyone to declare that anyone else is not Christian.  That is something between individuals and God, who works in mysterious ways.

I know my own church was Christian and you could definitely support some of their beliefs by going to the New Testament and seeing what Jesus had to say about various social issues.

I'm only going by what they openly proclaim.  If in their hearts they don't really believe what they say in public, then they're hypocrites as well.  Whether others consider them to be Christian just because they shout, "Am too!" when anyone challenges them is up to those others.  And please note, I'm not talking about every member of these apostate churches--I'm sure there are some who are troubled and confused at how their leadership is openly contravening the teachings of the Bible.

[Emjay]

I'm only going by what they openly proclaim.  If in their hearts they don't really believe what they say in public, then they're hypocrites as well.  Whether others consider them to be Christian just because they shout, "Am too!" when anyone challenges them is up to those others.  And please note, I'm not talking about every member of these apostate churches--I'm sure there are some who are troubled and confused at how their leadership is openly contravening the teachings of the Bible.

As I previously stated, you might consider not going there.  There is much more support for liberalism in the New Testament than you think.  Episcopalians are Bible scholars and most of them understand that Jesus spoke in entirely different circumstances and his remarks cannot be transferred to today without much study.

I don't think liberalism and Christianity are mutually exclusive.  I do think liberals are wrong about much of what they think but I cannot say they are not Christian.