RELIGION TODAY: Among influential American evangelicals, a sense of persecution persists
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Last Updated 10:19 am PDT Thursday, August 25, 2005
And if you want to see, "A new emphasis on personal freedoms was pushing organized religion to the sidelines of public life," click the next link:
Come, all ye faithful, join the giant and wise reawakening of faith
Mark Morford
Friday, August 26, 2005
Where do I start? How about numbering my thoughts:
1. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina, and a critic of the religious right
2. Well, I goofed up and tried posting without a title, and I lost an extensive amount of thought here in paragraph number two that was borderline babbling, so I'll just leave it at this with the edit: What's a Christian to do in the face of writing (and publishing) like this?
thanks,
Larry
[Edited on 8-27-2005 by LarryCook]
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Last Updated 10:19 am PDT Thursday, August 25, 2005
To outsiders, conservative Christians seem at the peak of their influence.
Yet, many evangelicals still consider themselves a persecuted majority"¦
Opponents are baffled by the idea of a persecuted evangelical movement. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina, and a critic of the religious right, says these evangelicals think they are oppressed only because some Americans disagree with them. "œThey want to be culture-dominant," Leonard said.
Starting around the 1960s, as mainline Protestant denominations started losing members, conservative churches were growing, yet evangelicals still felt shut out. A new emphasis on personal freedoms was pushing organized religion to the sidelines of public life.
And if you want to see, "A new emphasis on personal freedoms was pushing organized religion to the sidelines of public life," click the next link:
Come, all ye faithful, join the giant and wise reawakening of faith
Mark Morford
Friday, August 26, 2005
There is this upwelling. There is this delicious rebellion. It is not yet loud and it is not yet conventional and it is certainly not yet dominating the national political dialogue...
But it's happening. I have seen it. Maybe you have, too. I am, in fact, a part of it. Maybe you are, too. And lo, it is righteous and delicious and good.
It is this: Whole happy unfettered slews of people, young and old and in between, both genders and all genders and those who have yet to figure out just which gender they are, they are dancing to their own cosmic tune and blaspheming against the quo of status and taking divine matters into their own tingling and luminous hands because, [deleted], it's the right thing to do.
I have seen it at the radiant retreats of Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi), the world-famous Hindu guru and "hugging saint" who has literally touched the lives of tens of millions of followers. I have seen it at Burning Man (and I will see it there again, next week), where more than 30,000 glittered and cosmically dusted revelers gather every year to celebrate the rather obvious idea that "god" is nothing more than a raw hot energy that permeates all things at all times in all places and it is meant to be shared like a long slow tongue-kiss across all genders and locations and hairstyles.
I have seen it at yoga retreats and Wicca gatherings and in all related offshoots, Druidism and pantheism and animism, etc. I've heard it in the talks of modern gurus and nontraditional pastors and felt it in our deep cultural fascination with mystical powers and dream energies and supernatural phenomena...and very few having to do with how to kneel in abject guilt- addled faith to a solitary sullen disapproving deity and instead almost every single one having to do with how to take some sort of larger view -- or rather, a deeper, inner view, profoundly personal and free of typical religious dogma and churchy groupthink and send us your money now so the pastor can make his Lear payments.
Millions are doing it, especially the young. They are shucking "religion" and taking up "spirituality."
Look. Religion is not the answer, the law, the inflexible iron rod of pious justice. It is, rather, a hint, a nudge, a suggestion, a possibility for exploration meant to be sifted through for clues to the Mystery and maybe some great techniques for sitting quietly and shutting the hell up for a minute and listening to your breath so you can better touch the stars.
Where do I start? How about numbering my thoughts:
1. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina, and a critic of the religious right
2. Well, I goofed up and tried posting without a title, and I lost an extensive amount of thought here in paragraph number two that was borderline babbling, so I'll just leave it at this with the edit: What's a Christian to do in the face of writing (and publishing) like this?
thanks,
Larry
[Edited on 8-27-2005 by LarryCook]