McChurched in D.C. - Taking a Stand for Jesus

Christian men called back to fill 'Gap'

By Julia Duin - Washington Times
Friday, May 18, 2007 - Web Link

The way I figure it, Jesus made a classic error in assembling His team…Just imagine how successful He would have been had He had a marketing specialist on His board of directors…Now, 2,000 years later, we have to make up for lost ground by “Standing in the Gap.”

I stood in the Gap one day, but the prices were too high…But I digress…

“We want to encourage men to take a stand.” This may be one of the first attempts to encourage stand-taking through group-think…If a Peter or a Judas were in the celebration, would there be room for them, or would they get lost in the shuffle? The way to take a stand, it seems to me, is to fight McChurch in its cookie-cutter Christian indoctrination…

“Oh, McChurch, you’ve done it again!”

Stan Moody is the author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry

Christian men are being called back to the Mall this fall for a 10th-anniversary celebration of the 1997 Promise Keepers "Stand in the Gap" event that attracted about 1 million followers for prayer and worship.

The original event was the largest men's gathering ever in the United States. It was praised for its breakthroughs in racial reconciliation and vilified by some women's groups as misogynistic.

"Stand in the Gap 2007" will be less ambitious. Organizers have secured the grounds of the Washington Monument and the Ellipse for the Oct. 6 event with room for about 250,000 men.

"We're calling on men of all ages to come together with full regard and respect for racial, ethnic, denominational, economic and political diversity to declare the purposes of God for this generation," said Marty Granger, executive director for the event.

Basing their mission on Psalm 145:4, which says, "One generation will commend Your works to another," organizers said they want to make a spiritual gathering of men a regular event on the seventh year of each decade.

"We realize that events do not change lifestyles or make good habits," said the Rev. Rick Kingham, president of the National Coalition of Men's Ministries and the event's organizer. "Events can, however, be catalysts to lift the fog of complacency."

Promise Keepers remains based in Denver, but since 1997 has gone through major changes, including significant financial losses, layoffs and the resignation of its president, Bill McCartney, in 2003. It now is concentrating on smaller-scale events.

A Promise Keepers spokes- man could not be reached for comment. The organization is a member of the men's ministries coalition behind this year's event. Several of the 2007 planners helped organize the 1997 gathering.

When it became plain four years ago that Promise Keepers would not plan an anniversary gathering, Mr. Granger said, he and a few evangelical Protestant men in Northern Virginia formed a local organizing committee. They were from Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Burke Community Church in Burke and McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va.

What was needed, he said, was a "fresh spiritual marker" in the lives of American men. They have created a Web site, www.standinthegap2007.org, and are seeking to raise $2.5 million to cover the cost of the rally.

No Catholic or Orthodox men have been appointed to the steering committee, but organizers said the event is open to all Christians.

"There are several interactive elements where the men will be involved experientially," Mr. Granger said. No speakers have been named.

Organizers said the idea behind the gathering is not simply to listen to inspiring speeches or worship, but to mobilize men for good deeds after the event.

"We believe men are called to be a credible witness to Jesus Christ in their lives," Mr. Kingham said. "We're calling on men to make a difference that will last far beyond congressional and political terms of office."

The group is seeking chairmen for the event to garner support in various cities, especially those within 250 miles of the District. About 60 percent of the men who attended the 1997 Promise Keepers rally came from within a five-hour drive.

"We believe men are created by God to do the right thing," Mr. Kingham said. "We want to encourage men to take a stand."

McChurch and the Falwell Legacy

The Rev. Falwell's legacy:
He strengthened democracy

Joseph R. Reisert Friday, May 18, 2007

Dr. Reisert...

For starters, we are a Republic, not a Democracy...A Republic bends to and gives voice to the rights of the minority; a Democracy is, essentially, majority rule...

You are correct, me thinks, that Falwell improved Democracy, which is not to say that he did not damage the Republic by attempting over the years to institute a theocratic regime through the "Moral Majority" redux.

Falwell, through a decided ignorance of the great American experiment in equality and justice for all, promoted apartheid not only among people of faith but among Americans of all stripes...His was the successful moblization of Spiro Agnew's "Silent Majority" with a biblical twist...

Yes, the evangelical public awakened to the process of government and the need to engage...Did they, however, distinguish themselves by seeking the strength of party politics? Me thinks not... Where the Christian Right made a great contribution was in raising debate over the social and moral slump into which America had drifted through the elevation of the individual over community...For the first time in our history, we now know, for example, that we cannot divorce a fetus from its mother, or vice versa...We can surgically separate them, but they are inextricably bound together if only in the context of a vague social contract...

That is, in my opinion, where Falwell made his greatest contribution...He called us to an acute awareness that our choices, if you will, are not made in a vacuum...If the Christian Right had applied that principle to such social contracts as marriage and citizenship, they might not have suffered so under the charge of hypocrisy...

Stan Moody is the author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, died this week.

Few individuals have done as much as Falwell to change the shape and direction of American politics in the 20th century. Whether you regard those changes as fundamentally positive or negative should depend not so much on whether you agree or disagree with the conservative policy positions Falwell championed, but on your understanding of democracy.

Before Falwell, fundamentalist Christians tended to stay away from politics, even to regard it as sinful. They tended not to vote, at least not in the same numbers as mainline Protestants, and they remained deliberately apart from the wider, public culture.

Falwell, however, concluded that this apolitical stance left traditional social and moral ideals vulnerable to legal and political assault. By all accounts, his decision to enter politics was precipitated by the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. That 1973 ruling created a new, constitutional right to abortion and in one stroke invalidated the laws of 46 states which, until that time, either prohibited or restrictively regulated abortion.

Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 to resist and, if possible, turn back the tide of activist liberalism that had so dramatically altered the social landscape of America in the 1960s and '70s.

Falwell's organization accomplished two remarkable political achievements: first, it persuaded millions of formerly apolitical fundamentalist Protestants to become active participants in the political life of the nation. Second, by embracing social conservatives from a variety of religious backgrounds, it enabled conservative Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to overcome their past suspicions and to discover their common political interests.

The overall effect was to mobilize a new, large constituency -- the "religious right" -- and to bring it over to the Republican party. As a consequence, the party enjoyed far more political success since the creation of the Moral Majority than it had at any time since the election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.

An evaluation of Falwell's life work must come down, then, to the question whether the rise of the religious right, which Falwell engineered, was a good thing or a bad thing for American democracy.

One view is that what is really valuable about democracy is that it is the only form of government that treats all citizens as morally equal to one another. Every citizen has the right to vote, and so, in principle, each of us has an equal influence on public policy. If more of us want, say, stricter environmental laws than oppose them, that's what we'll get; if not, not.

But according to this view, the ideal of moral equality also imposes limits to the kinds of policies any majority should be allowed to implement. In particular, it holds that the laws must leave individuals equally free to make their own moral decisions, whatever the political majority may favor at the moment. Hence the courts must stand ready to intervene, in order to guarantee "choice" on abortion, to eliminate the old prohibitions on indecency and obscenity, to eliminate from our laws the hint of any public support for religion and, in general, to prohibit the public endorsement of any one way of life as better than any other.

Defenders of this idea of democracy regard Falwell's influence on America politics as wholly malign. When, in 1981 the president of Yale, A. Bartlett Giamatti, sent a letter to the incoming freshmen class denouncing the "self-proclaimed Moral Majority," he focused his opposition on the organization's aim of enacting its own moral views into law and denounced it for being "absolutist in morality."

According to a less sophisticated but more profound understanding, however, democracy means majority rule. The laws should reflect what a majority of the people happen to want; the courts should intervene only to protect the people's traditional liberties from being infringed by legislative innovations.

The essence of democracy, on this view, is procedural, not substantive. It doesn't demand that we all accept the same philosophy of "moral equality" -- which is, in any case, just as absolutist in morality as any traditional, religious doctrine. Instead, it demands only that we all play the political game by the same rules.

At bottom, Falwell's achievement comes to this: he brought millions of previously alienated Americans to play the game of politics by the same rules as everyone else and thus strengthened our democracy. Which is why Democrats and Republicans alike will be honoring him in the same way this week: by seeking the votes of his former followers.

Joseph R. Reisert is associate professor of American Constitutional Law and chairman of the Department of Government at Colby College in Waterville.

Christian "Scumbags" for a Better America!

Religious attacks late in Philly mayor's race

By Marcia Gelbart and Thomas Fitzgerald - Philadelphia Inquirer
Monday, May 14, 2007 - Web Link

Can you imagine anyone wanting so badly to be elected to public office that he or she would play the God-card? “I am closer to God than he is because I am a lifelong Catholic, or Baptist, or whatever…”

On the other hand, it is one thing to be a Catholic and quite another to be a “scumbag,” all of which encourages us to run out and connect ourselves to McChurch, the temple of cheap grace…

Stan Moody is the author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and "McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry

A mayor's race that began with high-minded debates and polite candidate forums has degenerated in its last hours to harsh personal attacks between the two perceived front-runners.

While Tom Knox depicted Michael Nutter as a compromised political insider, Nutter railed against Knox as "a scumbag." Nutter made the comment after flyers were distributed outside at least two Catholic churches early yesterday accusing Nutter of changing his religious beliefs for political reasons.

It was a sharp departure from a day in which all but one of the five candidates vying for the nomination in tomorrow's Democratic primary acted in typical candidate fashion: scouring the city, especially its voter-rich African American churches, for votes.

"Remember that Democrat Tom Knox is a practicing Catholic," the flyer reads. "Michael Nutter? He was Catholic when it was convenient for him, so he could get a quality Catholic education. Now? He quietly left the Catholic Church to become a Baptist, probably because his polls told him it would be a smart move."

The flyer had a red headline and Knox's name at the bottom in red, but there was nothing on it to indicate who was responsible for the literature. It was placed on car windshields outside at least two Catholic parishes in opposite ends of the city.

Asked about it as he left Waters AME Church in Bella Vista, Knox said he was unfamiliar with the flyer. "Believe me, it's not me doing that - there are some things you just don't do," he said, adding that it was wrong to attack somebody's religious practices.

Nutter, 49, was raised Catholic but started attending Baptist churches in the mid-1980s.

"It's clear to me, based on the other filthy literature Tom Knox has been mailing out, that this is clearly more of his nasty tactics," Nutter said, brushing off Knox's denial.

Then, standing in front of the Philadelphia Zoo, where he had gone to meet voters, Nutter put both hands in his pants pockets and calmly disparaged Knox in the most brutal language of the campaign.

"Tom Knox is a low life and a scumbag for being associated with this kind of vile, vicious kind of literature," he said. "It is an absolute insult to all churchgoers and Christians that this kind of literature is handed out in front of churches. All we are left to ask is this question: Tom Knox, have you no dignity?"

Bob Brady was also attacked in the flyer. In interviews, Brady has described himself as a regular churchgoer.

"Bob Brady? He admitted that he never attends Mass," the flyer said.

Yesterday, holding up his hands and shaking his head, Brady would not address the issue. "I'm not going to respond to Tom Knox," he said.

Knox has stuffed mailboxes citywide with literature terming Nutter a "failed politician" and insider who was on the payroll of a company with a city contract, although Nutter had by then resigned his Council seat.

"He's part of the problem," is the tagline on one flyer. Another piece is bordered by yellow crime-scene tape and shows increasing crime statistics from Nutter's former fourth councilmanic district.

Asked about his attacks, Knox said he was defending himself. Nutter has launched a television ad quoting newspaper editorials that say Knox is unprepared to be mayor, accompanied by unflattering black-and-white video of the candidate looking downcast. "He's doing the same thing to me," Knox said.

His campaign believes Knox has been criticized often in the media while Nutter has had much less scrutiny.

Knox also said that Nutter was not a true reformer because of his "alliance with Vince Fumo and Bob Brady." He was referring to indicted State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a South Philadelphia powerbroker who helped persuade Brady to run.

Knox has said in recent days that Brady, who has stalled in the polls, was planning to throw his support to Nutter to save his Democratic chairmanship and stop Knox. Brady has denied such a deal exists, and yesterday Nutter did too.

"There is absolutely no deal," Nutter told reporters outside La Mott AME Church on Cheltenham Avenue. "There is nothing."

The Catholic flyer was not the only anonymous hit piece directed at Nutter. A flyer printed on plain white paper has been circulating since Saturday in parts of West Philadelphia, attacking Nutter's proposal to direct police to stop and frisk people suspected of carrying illegal guns in high-crime areas.

The piece features a famous 1970 news picture of police lining underwear-clad men suspected of being Black Panthers against a wall. "A vote for Nutter is a vote for racial profiling," the piece says.

Otherwise yesterday, all but Dwight Evans spent some of the day attending religious services. "This may be my last church stop in my campaign for mayor - and let me tell you, I had a lot of church," Brady said to about 75 congregants at Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church in North Philadelphia. Brady also visited some parading Mummers yesterday and met residents at a Center City apartment.

"Bobby's going to win, there's no doubt about it," said Cyprian P. Anyanwu, a member of Christian Tabernacle who also runs a local campaign office for Brady. "The fact of the matter is this is a man who is neither black nor white. This man is an open, simple individual."

Evans remained out of sight for much of the day, after an all-night tour that included a 2 a.m. stop for cheesesteaks at Pat's and Geno's; a 4 a.m. stop at the Oregon Diner; a 5 a.m. stop at the Melrose Diner; and the candidate's annual get-together breakfast at the Oak Lane Diner at 9 a.m.

Fattah hit three churches, had a Mother's Day celebration with his family at an Old Country Buffet restaurant, and attended a ceremony honoring his mother, community activist Falaka Fattah.

"If this city is going to rise to the potential that God has created for our city, our citizens are going to have to be lifted up," Fattah said from the pulpit of Greater Exodus Baptist in North Philadelphia, standing up for his plan to fund antipoverty programs by leasing Philadelphia International Airport to private enterprise.

He said his campaign was benefiting from the crossfire between Nutter and Knox, quietly deploying his organization.

"We're moving on a different path and hope to be in the front of this line on election day," Fattah said in an interview. "We feel extremely confident.

Ben Hayllar said the flyers were distributed at his parish, St. Katherine's of Siena in Torresdale, after the 10 a.m. Mass. He called it a "slimy" tactic.

He is a Nutter supporter but that is not why he was offended, Hayllar said. "It suggests Catholics are bigots, for one thing, and doing it at the last minute makes it very hard to respond," said Hayllar, who was finance director in the Rendell administration.

Judy Hartl discovered the flyers on cars parked near St. Mary's Catholic Church in Society Hill as she walked along Locust Street toward Washington Square. "The campaign has been not so nasty until recently, and I felt good about that," Hartl said. "We have a number of good candidates. This annoyed me." She said it was particularly offensive for someone to impugn the reasons Nutter changed churches.