United Methodists run on both sides of presidential race

The church’s role in the election points to a shift in American politics, as a denomination that is seen as more progressive than the evangelical right assumes a key spot in Washington, says Mike McCurry, a Kerry campaign senior adviser and former press secretary in the Clinton administration. McCurry also served as a delegate last spring to General Conference, the United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly.

“For some time, the Democratic Party has sort of ceded the question of faith and politics to the evangelical right,” he says, in an interview with United Methodist News Service. “What’s happening in this campaign is the progressive faith community has found its voice again.”

I like the word Progressive. It should be an assumed stance, but the Religous Right seems to have taken on the role of the Status Quo (with a few “choice” issues to trumpet so they can “stand” for rigteousness, but fall pitifully short on the “advocacy for the less fortunate” and in the area of being prophetic as opposed to accomodating in issues such as materialism (they’ve baptized the “success gospel”)

Clayton Childers of the denomination’s Board of Church and Society, its social justice arm, believes Bush’s faith should be part of his leadership.

“I’m proud he’s not ashamed of his faith,” he says. “For me, faith also applies to how we live our lives, and the choices we make about hunger and poverty and homelessness, inadequate health care, how we try to be peacemakers in the world. … I wish the government would step up to those challenges.”

So do I.

Bush has talked easily of his faith ever since naming Jesus as his favorite political philosopher during the 2000 presidential race.

I would disagree with the qualifier “easily”. He refuses to go into it, actually, when pressed for any specifics. He mouths the platitudes, and then, as Kerry points out, “passes by on the other side” when it comes to actually putting his faith where his mouth is.

… Bush declined to speak last spring at General Conference, the United Methodist legislative assembly held every four years. Before then, efforts to arrange a meeting with the president and United Methodist bishops broke down after some bishops spoke out against the president on the war in Iraq.

This is typical. The UM Church expects dialogue, and has some serious concerns that Bush cannot face, or will not. It all seeems to be a part of his “strength”, which seems to turn each day into stubborn insistence to “stay the course”, and when that approach goes badly, lie about what’s happenign and deny that the wrong course has been chosen.