Monday, February 25, 2008

Pastor makes front page news without fornication or being murdered

statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/02/24/0224faithful.html

Well, a group that I'm marginally a part of made the front page of the Sunday Statesman. The "church members", with whom Kester and Andrew are talking, are in fact called the Austin Inklings group. I'd love to know what anyone else thinks about this article.

Evangelicals divided on presidential candidates

Formidable voting group is expanding its political priorities.


AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, February 24, 2008

They gathered late on a Tuesday night, as they usually do, in a quiet upstairs room at Opal Divine's Freehouse on West Sixth Street. The group of mostly 20- and 30-something Christians drank iced tea, red wine and Belgian ale and traded thoughts about the war in Iraq, abortion and immigration reform....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting on several levels. Personally I grow tired of the stereotype that Republicans are religious and Democrats are not. (My Republican fiancee is among the worst accusers.)

I am also interested in the statement that Huckabee was considered "the only candidate that could save the country from a drift towards socialism and secularism".[paraphrase] Why is socialism a religious issue? In particular, why is it an issue considered NOT in line with Christianity (according to that person anyway)? Socialism is about supporitng, sharing, looking out for everyone - why is that not a Christian sentiment? (I"m not here to champion socialism per se, but the philosophy behind it is positive. I think Europe has gone overboard with it, but the US could use with a little bit of it.) ALl things in moderation, right?

craig said...

First, YEAH for the comment! Thank you sarah! Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever reads "our" blog. (I don't want to be the only one contributing, but it seems to turn out that way most of the time.)

You are correct. Socialism is not anti-Christian. You can be a good Socialist and a good Christian. I'm afraid the United Socialist Soviet Republic (and other present "communist" regimes) did/do a bit of damage to that particular term. I think most proclaiming Christians would ultimately admit it.

Also, I think "Social Security" could be classified part of that moderation you speak of. It is a very socialistic program established by the FDR administration whom many today consider a fairly die hard socialist. And there are other features of our current gov't that I'd include like Welfare and Medicare.

I do agree with you though. The form gov't takes is not inherently even a religious subject. But don't get me wrong, it can and does have major impacts on the way one practices their faith.

I notice you didn't advocate for "moderation in secularism". ;-)