The Moral Minority

Does Liberty University accept any federal aid?

Happy to hear there's someone who gives a monkey's about anything you say, AS, 'cause it ain't me. If I ever develop a compelling interest in those whose belief systems are Beyond the Fringe I'll look you up.

Amy,
Thank you for the piece. While I would not describe myself as an "evangelical", I am a committed Christian and definately a liberal. (Though my wife has accused me of being a closet Republican. I am socially liberal and economically conservative, my wife is socially conservative, economically liberal). It is time for the Democratic party to reach out to people of faith. I think it is so ironic that Liberty has kicked off the College Democrats. Where are the cries of "Political Correctness!!" from the right wing?

Oddly enough, to be a Christian and active in Republican politics requires a severe problem with reading comprehension. Every word in the Gospel centers around tending to your own garden, forgiving others, responding to hatred with kindness and forgoing possessions.
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Where did it all go so wrong?

Funny, AS, conservatives have been getting the short end of the stick in academia forever, and only now does this issue make Swampland or Time Magazine. Surprise surprise.
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I wonder if the President, who told us he wants to lead a national conversation about race, will say anything about this: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98AUEK01&show_article=1"
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Funny, black thugs from Louisiana will get his attention, innocent black people, victimized by gang-bangers, not so much.

It is time for the Democratic party to reach out to people of faith.
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Why?

spob - Here's a new project for you: find me a university in America that has a policy in place banning the College Republicans from campus. Your "conservatives get the short end of the stick" is a little different from "officially banned by the school."
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Besides, conservatives don't like college anyways . . . eduma-cation is unpatriotic.

FT: Because of the first word in the phrase "people of faith." They are people to and don't be so narrow minded to think that having faith makes you a bigot/unworthy of inclusion in the Democratic party.

Don't you love it when people link to news articles about things accompanied by the claim that those things aren't getting any attention?

I grew up in Lynchburg and still live here. I can't say I'm surprised at all by this. Jerry Falwell was a shameful hatemonger in life, and his son obviously wants to pick up where his father left off. They've contributed nothing productive to Lynchburg, or the rest of the world, and I could never wrap my mind around how he managed to make himself and his school relevant in the first place.

Entropy. It's a law of physics.
You can create order (i.e., rigid social conservatism) in a limited space (i.e., an unliberal university) for a limited time (i.e., 'til the Republican party implodes), but doing so ultimately results in greater disorder (i.e., freedom of thought and speech) in the universe as a whole (i.e., the reality-based community).

From spob's link:
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HAWAIIAN GARDENS, Calif. (AP) - A Latino street gang waged a racist campaign to eliminate the city's black residents through attempted murders and other crimes, according to federal racketeering indictments unsealed Thursday.
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So that's relevant, I guess.

deathby -
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I'm a life-long Democrat. I belong to the Lutheran Church. These two facts ought not to have anything to do with one another, IMO.
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The Rethugs and the Falwell/Dobson crowd have so perverted the notion of Christianity in America and the world at large that I personally would like to see no linkage of any kind between any church body and any political party.

On being an evangelical and a liberal--I've never understood how Republicans became the party of God in this country. Where exactly in Scripture does Jesus advocate almost drowning a man 83 or 183 times, even if he is your enemy? Where in the Gospels does he preach about neglecting the plight of the poor? What exorbitant fee does He charge when he heals the sick and raises Lazarus from the dead? What insurance plan does He accept? Where is His closet full of swords and spears that he will in no way part from? I know these are obvious points but I am just amazed that people don't have enough common sense to see that if any political party is Christian like, it's the Democrats.

spob.
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You have posted this story before.
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The the case of Jena the concern was that African-Americans and Caucasians were being treated differently by the local judicial system. It was different levels of charges that led to the demonstrations.
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In the heavily Latino community of Hawaiian Gardens, the local authorities, including the Latino mayor, appear to have things in order.
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A Latino street gang waged a racist campaign to eliminate the city's black residents through attempted murders and other crimes, according to federal racketeering indictments unsealed Thursday.

Five indictments charged a total of 147 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang, and federal and local agencies arrested 63 of them by early Thursday, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said at a news conference.

Another 35 defendants were already in custody on unrelated charges. Weapons and drugs worth more than $1 million also were seized in what O'Brien called "the largest gang takedown in United States history."

The indictments detail attempted murder, kidnapping, firearms, narcotics and other charges related to attacks by the gang, which is predominantly Latino and mainly operates in Hawaiian Gardens, a city of about 15,000 in southeastern Los Angeles County.

"(Varrio Hawaiian Gardens) gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the `Hate Gang,'" the main indictment said. "VHG gang members have expressed a desire to rid the city of Hawaiian Gardens of all African-Americans and have engaged in a systematic effort to achieve that result by perpetrating crimes against African-Americans."

Shots fired into home
The indictment alleges a string of attacks on black residents, including a shooting into a home with eight people inside. The indictment does not say if anyone was hit.

In another instance, two gang members allegedly chased a black man, yelled a racist epithet at him and then beat him with a garden rake. The same man was later repeatedly stabbed by two gang members, according to the indictment, which charged them with his attempted murder.

According to 2000 census data, the latest available, Hawaiian Gardens was roughly 73 percent Hispanic and 4 percent black.

Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Michael Gomez welcomed the crackdown, saying: "Honest residents should not have to live in fear of lawless thugs who act like it's high noon at the OK Corral."

The indictments mark at least the second time in less than two years that federal authorities have accused Latino gang members of attacking black residents because of their race. Local officials have tried to downplay racial tensions.
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http://globalgrind.com/content/661087/Blacks-Vs-Latinos-Stop-the-Sht/
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To both Flown Over and Friar Tuck I would reply that it is precisely the recognition that "people of faith" (or, if you will ,folks whose beliefs are "beyond the fringe") can co-exist comfortably in the Democratic coalition that helped lead to the Democratic landslide last year and will help greatly to lock a deep structual advantage in the years to come. So chill out and root for the Amy Sullivans of the world who are trying to interpret the Bible in a more open minded way. Unfortunately, the Bible is a damn big book, written (or translated) by a lot of differeent people, most of whom were fairly conservative themselves, so there is a lot there that contradicts itelf. But sneering at the religeous drives people away from the left just as surely Rush Limbaugh's James Dobson's bizarre religiousity drives people away from the right.

FT:
That may be true for most of late 80's, 90's and early 2000's Christianity, but I've gone to some churches (I guess you could call them evangelical... but not in the Dobson/Fallwell sense, more in the traditional sense of "we have the best answer of life and we'd like to share it with you, but not demonize you if you don't take it), and for many of the people in those churches being a person of faith is the most important part of their identity. Why not demonstrate the ways that Democratic values are in line with their values? That is surely reaching out, but it doesn't necessarily mean compromising your values. I think engaging in a dialogue is important for both sides. It just really peeves me when I see Democrats/progressives (gawd I hate that word), dismissing any reaching out to people of faith out of hand.

Wow. When you need campus political correctness codes to enforce conservatism, even among kids who have been told all their lives that "religion = morality = Jesus = America = tax cuts = war in the Middle East = eagles = torture," you're really a dying movement.

I've got this Scott Horton piece filed away in my "Bush Years Greatest Hits" bookmarks:

The process of building party cadres and selecting the elite of the inner party was a fundamental challenge for the totalitarian or wannabe totalitarian state...
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It has been a point of cocktail party humor in liberal circles for some years to speak of the one-party state the Bush-Cheney Administration has been fashioning in Washington and to build in an allusion to foreign models. As with much humor, it is successful because there is a grain of truth to it. But one of the surprises of the U.S. attorney scandal is to see just how extensive this truth is. The Rovian structures of the last six years cannot really be compared with the powerful examples of totalitarianism that existed in the closing days of World War II. On the other hand, they probably represent the closest approximation to those structures to appear in two hundred and thirty years of American political culture...
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A premium is given for being educated at private, religious institutions, particularly those associated with the Religious Right—such as Regent University or Liberty University... Having a degree from an elite academic institution is not necessarily a show-stopper, but in such cases there will be far tighter scrutiny to show ideological fidelity.

FT,
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Agree with you 100%. I've always thought that, somewhere, God is holding his nose as we attempt to drag him into our politics, muttering, "Keep me out of that!"
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rosseau,
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I have had similar discussions in my Sunday school class with the "dyed in the wool" Republicans that are there. The gist of what I say is that, if they are as against these "sins" as they say they are, then they will have to be outraged when the offender is not a Dem but one from their own party. I don't yell at them, but a few have stopped coming simply because I don't accept their arguments on their face. I also point out that Jesus was rather socialist in some of his actions and took a whip to the moneychangers (bankers?).
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All in all, it can get rather "interesting" at times. Fortunately, the teacher is rather open to the discussions and friendly. We talk a lot after the "hard-core" have left the room and I get a lot of private nodding in agreement.
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I just simply don't see why we can't have a country with NO official governmental attachment to a religion. Worked OK for 250 yrs+ or so. What's the problem now?
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Did we finally have a national character test (like the rest of the world has been through numerous times in various wars and, instead of stepping up, are we just pissing our pants in response?

deathby -
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Being a person of faith is certainly the most important part of my identity, but I don't expect it to be the most important part of everybody's identity. I don't want a political party to reach out to me as a "person of faith," I want it to reach out at me as a "person who wants sane government."
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pelham -
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I'm chilled out. Am I right in assuming that you haven't read Amy's book? There's precious little open-minded interpretation of the Bible in it, IMO.

I heard they replaced it with a waterboarding for Jesus club.

FT: I don't think reaching out only to people who want "sane government" is a very viable strategy for mass electoral success, as sad as that is. In addition, the "sane government" for many people will be a government that, in some small way, resonates with their faith.

One of the greatest political cons was the GOP bringing the evangelicals into the GOP party as a voting block. Convincing the evangelicals that only the GOP was the party of true Christians. One of the greatest ironies has been watching the evangelicals slowly take the GOP party over and tearing it apart. I have no sympathy for either group. They have both used each other for decades.

JNS, you are a hack nonpareil.
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Conservative radio hosts gets waterboarded, and lasts six seconds before saying its torture
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Mancow-Takes-on-Waterboarding-and-Loses.html