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Jim Wallis is on a mission to make voting rights the religious issue of our time

RedFishBlueFish

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In the collapse of voting rights legislation a few weeks ago, Jim Wallis thought he saw an opening for a Christian message of faith and hope.

After sweeping efforts by Democrats to protect voting failed, a small number of centrist lawmakers suggested a peace offering: What about tackling a smaller issue related to Jan. 6? What about reforming the 140-year-old law that allowed Congress to be involved in certifying presidential winners?

….. to Wallis, one of modern American Christianity’s most influential progressives…… voting rights is the moral cause of the American present.

“For me it’s the first book of the Bible. We were all made in God’s image and likeness. Voter suppression on the basis of skin color is a throwing away of Imago Dei,” he said in an interview. “This is a Bonhoeffer moment,” citing the famed German pastor and anti-Nazi activist whom Hitler executed. “We have to take this battle to a moral level. These are theological issues, not political ones.”

“Everything is at stake here,” Wallis said. “Democracy itself, not just voting rights.” He thinks if he can frame the topic of protecting elections in moral and religious terms, it could bring even a few lawmakers back to the table on voting rights.

I thought this article was interesting. I am an atheist but have strong religious roots having grown up in a very religious family in the deep south. Perhaps because of this I’ve watched with interest as southern white Evangelicals became attached to the Republican Party, because of the abortion issue, and then strongly supported the most morally corrupt president of our times. (And this movement is not limited to Southern Evangelicals, as it is basically a white Evangelical movement now.)

Jim Wallis is not an evangelical Christian but rather a progressive Christian. The full article can be found on the Washington Post here - https://www.washingtonpost.com/reli...ners-jim-wallis-voting-rights-religious-left/

But an almost full copy of the article can be found here at a non-paywall site - https://www.chron.com/news/article/Jim-Wallis-is-on-a-mission-to-make-voting-rights-16931740.php

A Sojourners (organization Wallis was with for decades) article on voting rights can be found here - WE HAVE A CHANCE TO REDEEM VOTING RIGHTS
 
I wonder if the Dems have thought of taking this and many other issues to the public?
 
I wonder if the Dems have thought of taking this and many other issues to the public?
I would like to see this gain some traction. Currently, the Evangelical Christians far outweigh the "normal" Christians and other religious groups in terms of political power. In part this is because Evangelical Christian pastors preach politics from the pulpit while most other religious leaders do not. (Black pastors have preached the politics of equality and anti-discrimination from the pulpit for many decades, but their constituent population is a good bit less than the Evangelical Christians.) A lot of Christians have looked skeptically on the Evangelicals support of Trump. But, the Republicans in that group aren't organized politically and just remain silent.
 
There are many voters who don’t feel comfortable personally having strong positions on many issues, but are easily persuaded when there is a religious dimension to it. They want to know what their opinion and position is OK with God. Couching such issues in religious terms may appeal to such voters and perhaps increase the strength of their conviction that they’re doing the right thing.
 
I would like to see this gain some traction. Currently, the Evangelical Christians far outweigh the "normal" Christians and other religious groups in terms of political power. In part this is because Evangelical Christian pastors preach politics from the pulpit while most other religious leaders do not. (Black pastors have preached the politics of equality and anti-discrimination from the pulpit for many decades, but their constituent population is a good bit less than the Evangelical Christians.) A lot of Christians have looked skeptically on the Evangelicals support of Trump. But, the Republicans in that group aren't organized politically and just remain silent.


The Dems should have been trying to gain traction long ago. My snarcastic post is pointing out that failure. It actually seems that the Dems haven't even had the thought pass through their head, which is where they live most of the time whereas the Rep/cons act while the Dems are sitting on their hands.
 
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