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A Principled Evangelical

I never thought I'd say this, but this article renews my faith (pardon the pun) in organized Christian religion.

The biggest beef I have with organized religion is that a lot of followers are sheep who twist the teachings of their religion that go against the tenets of their faith. A case in point are the "Christians" who protested a painting depicting Jesus washing the feet of Osama bin Laden. (If you missed that controversy, this blog serves as a good introduction-- suffice it to say I am a big fan of the "foot-washing Jesus fans", not the "nunchuck wielding Jesus fans"-- read the article if that strikes you as an odd quote)

Anyway, too often you hear about the evangelical demagogues who are blinded by their ideology and who can't bring themselves to admit that the policies they endorse go contrary to the teachings of Jesus himself.

I'd go so far as to say that I only hear about the demagogues, and not enough of the evangelical progressives.

The other day, though, I read about this new evangelical called Richard Cizik, so when I came across the article above, I had to read on.

He leads the "National Association of Evangelicals". Words that would ordinarily chill me to the bone, but get this-- he's Pro-Environment (it's all God's creation, after all), and has a social conscience for example, regarding poverty (isn't there some quote about the rich and the eye of a needle?) and overpopulation.

A remarkable man, to be sure. If we were stuck next to each other on a trans-Atlantic flight, I'm sure we'd find a lot to disagree on, but this is the kind of guy that gives evangelicals a good name, and I suspect I'd walk away with a healthy respect for the guy.

How bad can a Republican be if he says stuff like "It’s not illogical for someone to conclude that John McCain is going to be more like George Bush than John McCain is going to be like John McCain in 2000"?

"I am a Republican, but I’m not comfortable with giving the Republicans four more years. I don’t see John McCain differing enough from the incumbent, and yet Obama is a work in progress, pretty much, so we’d be taking some risk with him. It’s a conundrum."

Like I said, I don't agree with everything he has to say, but I respect where he's coming from.