We want the convention delegates to know in no uncertain terms that Christianity is not a sub-department of the party. In the past week, I have received a few letters asking why we did not proclaim the same message to the Democratic Convention. There is no comparable movement within the Democratic Party to ordain by God a candidate or party. In a recent issue of Sojourners magazine, I wrote an investigative story on that segment of the Christian church that identifies itself almost wholly with the Republican Party. Its aims are the Republican Party aims, and this Religious Right movement exercises a terrifying influence on public policy. Click here to read that piece.
Our editor-in-chief, Jim Wallis, was invited to speak to a “People of Faith Luncheon” during the Democratic Convention, and he made clear to delegates our position that God is not a Democrat. “Just because a Religious Right has fashioned itself for political power in one predictable ideological guise does not mean those who question this political seduction must be their opposite political counterpart. The Republican Party has misstepped in co-opting religious leaders. The Democratic Party should not make the same mistake. The best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan, but to always raise the moral issues that will challenge both