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For Immediate Release August 30, 2004
202.328.8842 x 214 202.628.7772 God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.
Christian Leaders Refute Religious Right’s Claim that Bush is God’s
Candidate The petition, found at www.takebackourfaith.org, further declares that Christians acting on personal conviction can choose to vote for any candidate, and that they should consider a range of moral issues in this election, rejecting single-issue voting. It notes that: “We believe all candidates should be examined by measuring their policies against the complete range of Christian ethics and values.” Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, explained: “When poverty has risen each of the past three years – that’s a religious issue. The war in Iraq – that’s a religious issue. Taking care of the environment – that’s a religious issue.” Rev. Wallis added , “This behavior by the Religious Right -- ordaining George W. Bush as ‘God’s candidate’ – is theologically outrageous. How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich and pro-war? They’ve tried to hijack our faith – it’s time to take it back.” In the two weeks since the campaign’s launch, more than 40,000 people have signed the online petition. The ad includes 45 prominent signers, including heads of denominations, presidents and professors of Christian seminaries and colleges, pastors, and authors. The diverse signatories include prominent Christians from across the theological spectrum, including best-selling evangelical author Philip Yancey, Yale theologian Miroslav Volf, Fuller Theological Seminary ethicist Glen Stassen, Evangelical Covenant Church president Rev. Glen Palmberg, Candler School of Theology professor of social ethics Dr. Robert M. Franklin Jr., Baptist minister and evangelical speaker Tony Campolo, Reformed Church in America general secretary Rev. Wes Granberg- Michaelson, Benedictine author Joan Chittister, Duke theological ethics professor Stanley Hauerwas, and Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM.
Due to an outpouring of responses from people across the nation, the petition is also appearing as a full-page ad this morning in The News & Advance (Rev. Falwell’s local newspaper in Lynchburg , VA ) and The Virginian-Pilot (Mr. Robertson’s local newspaper in Hampton Roads, VA). In response to thousands of individual donations, Sojourners is also establishing a fund to help people of faith place the ad in their hometown newspapers.
Rev. Brian McLaren, popular Christian author and pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland , described the petition’s purpose this way: “The Religious Right has a powerful hold on many individuals and churches in our country. Many of them have never even heard a responsible counterpoint expressed by thoughtful, biblically rooted Christian thinkers and leaders.”
Placement of full-page ads on the first day of the Republican National Convention follows the delivery of a similar message by Rev. Wallis to the Democratic National Convention in an address to a luncheon on faith and politics in Boston that week and in a Boston Globe op-ed in which Rev. Wallis declared that “the best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan.” About Sojourners – www.sojo.net |
