Several important points Danforth makes in today's NYT:
[Moderate Christians] proceed in a spirit of humility lacking in our conservative colleagues.And:
For us, religion should be inclusive, and it should seek to bridge the differences that separate people. We do not exclude from worship those whose opinions differ from ours. Following a Lord who sat at the table with tax collectors and sinners, we welcome to the Lord's table all who would come. Following a Lord who cited love of God and love of neighbor as encompassing all the commandments, we reject a political agenda that displaces that love. Christians who hold these convictions ought to add their clear voice of moderation to the debate on religion in politics.So, the religious right is not inclusive, they're not like Jesus, and they displace love.
Now this gets particularly interesting:
When, on television, we see a person in a persistent vegetative state, one who will never recover, we believe that allowing the natural and merciful end to her ordeal is more loving than imposing government power to keep her hooked up to a feeding tube.Danforth is saying that his Christian views, his faith, tells him how to decide each of these issues. That means that lawmakers and religious right fanatics who disagree with him and push the other way are impinging on his faith. That's anti-Christian bigotry, to quote the religious right.
When we see an opportunity to save our neighbors' lives through stem cell research, we believe that it is our duty to pursue that research, and to oppose legislation that would impede us from doing so.
We think that efforts to haul references of God into the public square, into schools and courthouses, are far more apt to divide Americans than to advance faith.
Following a Lord who reached out in compassion to all human beings, we oppose amending the Constitution in a way that would humiliate homosexuals.
Why are the religious right, George Bush, Bill Frist, Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum anti-Christian bigots?
I'm quite serious about this. Their views are religious? Fine, then our views are religious too. And any attempt to disagree with us and support other political views is restricting our freedom of religion under the Constitution.
Let's pass a law protecting "religious freedom," just like the religious right hate groups want. Then let's use that law to prosecute them all.
