Better him than me
Via BoingBoing, Zack Exley is going deep into Jesusland, and finding hopeful signs. He is acting as a foreign correspondent covering the movement toward some progressive values among a small but growing number of Evangelicals. His new blog, Revolution in Jesusland, is fascinating reading.
I've read very little of the Bible (I got to MEGO early in the begats), but I went out of my way a while back to read the Sermon on the Mount. I remember thinking, "Wow, this is pretty good. Somebody ought to try building a religion around this." I don't want to overstate what Zack is reporting, but it certainly sounds encouraging.
I am frankly skeptical that American Christians will ever fully embrace the teachings of Jesus (you know, that "Eye of the Needle" stuff is Kryptonite to the Crystal Cathedral crowd), but I think we have to applaud movement in that direction. Alliteration to the contrary, "religious right" is not an indivisible construction. Remember the Berrigans?
I couldn't do it, but I'm glad Zack can.
Update: God's own progressives will have their work cut out for them.
I've read very little of the Bible (I got to MEGO early in the begats), but I went out of my way a while back to read the Sermon on the Mount. I remember thinking, "Wow, this is pretty good. Somebody ought to try building a religion around this." I don't want to overstate what Zack is reporting, but it certainly sounds encouraging.
I am frankly skeptical that American Christians will ever fully embrace the teachings of Jesus (you know, that "Eye of the Needle" stuff is Kryptonite to the Crystal Cathedral crowd), but I think we have to applaud movement in that direction. Alliteration to the contrary, "religious right" is not an indivisible construction. Remember the Berrigans?
I couldn't do it, but I'm glad Zack can.
Update: God's own progressives will have their work cut out for them.
posted by bluememe at 10/06/2007
1 Comments:
Remember when I was on my Noam Chomsky kick? Well, now I'm on my Joe Bageant kick. He also has encouraging things to report. I'm paraphrasing from memory, but he said something to the effect that once you get passed the first 4 or 5 rows in any church on any given Sunday, you can actually find people that aren't complete conservative freaks. And the back third of the Church usually hasn't even been "baptized and born again" yet.
You can talk sense to these people - but not if you talk down to them and not if you call them idiots. I kept trying to say this in comments here and on my blog back around the '04 Presidential Election.
Nice to have some hope once in a while, isn't it?
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