Thanks for this posting; it’s nice to see all of these passages presented like this. I once heard that if you take away all the passages in the Bible that talk about helping the poor, you would be left with something closer to the size of a magazine than a book. I’m not a religious person myself, but I am always amazed at how the right wing neo-cons of the world seem to have a monopoly on religion and ‘values’. These are some of the same people who have used the Bible in the past to justify slavery, racism, restricting the rights of women and now, rationalizing prejudice against gays and lesbians.

A progressive Baptist minister on Air America Radio once pointed out that yes, there is a passage in the Bible which says that being gay is blasphemous, but there is also one that says that touching pig skin is blasphemous (there goes football) and so is touching a woman while she is menstruating (I guess most of us are going to hell). Bush and his ilk use certain passages that serve their agenda and ignore others that don’t, and obviously the ones posted here are among those ignored.

I think it’s time that religious, progressive minded people (I don’t believe that’s an oxymoron) take back religion from the right wing and bring back the notion of ‘social gospel’ like the one Tommy Douglas preached in his days as a minister. The left should no longer shy away from the religious discussion; in fact, they should be the ones leading it.

Thanks Pierre and Dave!

I agree that certain folks truly do have a way of reading the Bible and missing the point. How can one study the Bible, and particularly the New Testament and not see a Roman Empire wide social, economic and political revolution taking place within its pages? How can one miss the commonwealth that Paul preaches and contrasts with Caesar's empire?

Here's how. The 'Jesus and we' gospel has been put down for another gospel, the 'me and Jesus' gospel, despite the Apostle Paul's best efforts to demonstrate that 'salvation' is a social event demanding a personal response. The Me and Jesus philosophy allows one to have a relationship with Jesus while maintainining ones individualism and atomistic state over against society, and even the Church, at large. Their 'relationship' with Jesus allows them to justify their unresponsiveness to the full range of injustice experienced by humanity as if they were related only to Jesus, not to the rest of humanity. I guess these folks simply haven't read Ephesians chapters 2-3 and been filled in on what God and the Church are trying to demonstrate to the 'thrones, principalities and powers.'

What is 'reconciliation'? Simple. Re-counciling. Re-counciling who? Humans beings to one another. What is 'justification'? Setting things right, setting things in order. What is 'breaking down the wall', 'making and peace' and so forth? Re-counciling a divided humanity and setting things right, thus 'saving' humanity. The long set of synonyms to 'being saved' are all words loaded with revolutionary social, economic and political import. Unfortunately we have a lot preachers who just can't get themselves to preach what the Bible actually says.

I really appreciate David Cool's reminding us of the social gospel roots of the NDP. Members of my particular tradition (Community of Christ) participated in the founding CCF convention, and one of them defeated McKenzie King in his Porcupine Plain Sasketchewan riding. The social gospel had a profound effect on our tradition. Anne McPhail was born in this tradition. John Lewis, founder of the CIO was born in this tradition. And when people in this tradition were called by their leadership to 'gather' to the Kansas City area to build a cooperative commonwealth thousands responded.

It is, as Dave says, time to take our churches back from the right-wing apostates that would have us violate the memories of our Christian forebears and would have us invalidate their deep faithing ('faith' is an action verb) in Christ. The testimony of a great cloud of witnesses is inadmissable in the courts of the Christian Reich-wing.

What is to be done about this state of affairs? I don't know for sure, but the solution would have to involve evangelism that truly introduces God's children to the real Jesus and enjoins God's children in joining in the kind of work that Jesus himself does. And Jesus is all about building a domination-free social and economic order.