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Topic: Religious Left says the Religious Right is wrong
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barrykind
Advanced Member
Member # 35
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posted
And some do not know thier left from their right.. lol
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The HEART of the issue is truly the issue of the HEART!
John 3:3;Mark 8:34-38;James 1:27
Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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helpforhomeschoolers
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Member # 15
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One thing is for sure, the religious left may be religious, but they are not RIGHT ![[Laugh]](graemlins/biglaugha.gif)
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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Kindgo
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Member # 2
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Religious Left says the Religious Right is wrong
Conference participants say fundamentalism threatens democracy
http://www.dallasnews.com/religion/...ence.8f331.html
08/24/2002
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
HOUSTON – They applauded calls for support of gay rights and laughed at jibes at the "radical Right." But they also nodded approvingly at readings of Bible verses and offered fervent "amens" to arguments that religion has a vital place in public life.
The Texas Freedom Network began its Fundamentalism Education Project with what often felt like a revival meeting for the Religious Left. More than 500 people came together Monday at South Main Baptist Church for a one-day conference titled "Fundamentalism's Threat to Democracy." About 800 attended a speech by Karen Armstrong, whose book The Battle For God sets out a historical explanation for the rise of fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The conference also brought together Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars to discuss how relatively recent, conservative movements that they group under the heading of "fundamentalist" have affected each faith. Organizers said they wanted to identify common elements in each faith and to offer answers to attacks from groups they characterized as the Religious Right.
The Texas Freedom Network is a nonprofit organization formed in 1995 to counter what members call a "growing social and political influence of religious political extremists."
Organizers said they were surprised by Monday's turnout. In fact, so many people wanted to attend that some were turned away. Most came from Texas, largely from the Houston area. They included clergy and lay members from a variety of denominations and religions. A few men wore yarmulkes, the skullcap denoting traditional Jewish observance. A few of the women wore hijab, the headscarf denoting traditional Muslim observance.
They said they were there to learn about each other's struggles.
"As a Muslim, I thought I was the only person having trouble with fundamentalism," said Aaminah Durrani, of Houston.
"I'm just taking it one step at a time," said Ginny Alsbrook of Richardson and a member of Preston Road United Methodist Church. "I'm just trying to understand the different faiths."
Planning for the event started almost immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. At least one of the organizers had a particularly personal stake. Andrew Rice, head of the education project, lost a brother in the World Trade Center.
Some of Monday's speakers described themselves as moderates. Some even called themselves liberal. Ms. Armstrong styled herself a "freelance monotheist."
She was careful to point out that both the right and the left identify themselves as victims of the other side.
"Every single fundamentalist movement is convinced that modern, secular, liberal society want to eliminate religion – even in the United States," Ms. Armstrong said.
But those on the other side of the spectrum also believe they need to defend themselves, she said.
"Our hearts are rather sort of hard, too, because we feel we're under attack – just as they do," she said.
The conference started with the most explicit preaching of the day. The Rev. James Forbes is senior minister of The Riverside Church in New York City. The church bills itself as "interdenominational, interracial and international." Dr. Forbes, the son of an African-American bishop of a small Pentecostal denomination, has led Riverside since 1989.
"I propose to show that, out of love of all God's children and in providential care for the world, God is gathering an interfaith company of believers to proclaim a theology of divine righteousness which demands justice, respect, tolerance, compassion, inclusiveness, trust in the ultimate efficacy of divine zeal, and the rigorous pursuit of peace in the midst of competing interests and faith claims through the power of God's enabling grace," he said.
The challenge is to come up with a way to do interfaith work without denying the particular claims of each faith, he said.
"I'm a Bible-believing Christian," he said. "This is calling me out of my cozy comfort zone."
Rabbi Judith Abrams, founder of a school for Talmudic studies in Houston, offered an example that she said illustrated the futility of biblical literalism – particularly in English.
The first sentence of the Bible is generally translated as starting with "In the beginning ..." But the Hebrew is more accurately translated as "in a beginning," she said. The difference between the definite and indefinite article is responsible for myriad interpretations offered by generations of Jewish sages.
"In Judaism, we say the Scripture speaks in 70 tongues," she said. "It's deep. It's God-given. Like, infinite mind versus finite mind."
Dr. Ali Asani, professor of the practice of Indo-Muslim languages and culture at Harvard University, said the Muslim movements called "fundamentalist" are actually the product of recent history.
"Tolerance and pluralism are central to the message of the Quran – when properly understood," he said.
Oil money has made a specific strain of Islam – one that asserts an absolute superiority of the Quran and a particular interpretation of the text – much more influential that it would otherwise be, he said.
Similar, smaller conferences are planned for other Texas cities, including Dallas, in the next six months, said Samantha Smoot, Texas Freedom Network executive director. The organization is preparing a Sunday school curriculum and resource guide explaining its perspective about Fundamentalism.
This week's conference and the plans for future action are a shift for the network, which has mostly reacted to what its members considered threats from the right.
"Our organization has been grappling for years with the fact that we respond to the Religious Right," Ms. Smoot said. "If we're going to move forward, we need to do something more than that."
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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