After almost ten years of dealing with the brainwashed fanatics trolling our Facebook page every day about abortion and homosexuality we're going to throw some facts out there. We don't need to be wordy because they are simple truths. A fetus becomes a person when it draws its first breath. The Bible backs that up. Numbers 5 condones abortion via the ordeal of bitter water. Jesus excused 'eunuchs who were born that way' from his stated marriage laws saying, 'not everyone can follow these laws. Those who can, should.' Biblical scholars and historians have proved that 'eunuchs who are born that way' are LGBT. These two issues were a clever ploy from the Father of Lies to rope Christians into the Republican Party, a party whose policies are really the opposite of everything Christ taught. It's beyond time to start talking back to these liars. They won't bother to read these articles but you should. It's time to arm ourselves with the facts. As one of our members pointed out: "Every single argument the US religious conservatives have about social issues has two sides, one of which could be addressed from a progressive, rational perspective. Two sides … every single issue. Their pig-headed evangelical salesmanship is a threat to Democracy." "Homosexual eunuchs are a normal and natural part of God's wonderful creation. They are accepted and loved by God the way they are. During the time of Jesus Homosexual eunuchs were often physically intact gay men, lesbians and even transgendered people, and he knew it." Here's the article. When the Bible Commands Abortion - Here's the article. Meme Credit: Forward
By Charles Toy I started The Christian Left in 2009 as a Facebook group. In 2010 I converted it to a Facebook page and after numbers started to grow I slowly added an admin team from a few page users eager to participate. That same core admin team is still with me, Rev. Mark Sandlin and Roger Smith. We have many other long-time admin team members but Mark and Roger have assisted in planning and daily operations since I asked them to join me not long after I began. A ministry and a community began, for people who saw what was taking place and were persecuted for bringing it up. From the beginning we've proclaimed loud and clear that The "Christian" Right had lost its way. This has always been one of the main motivations of our mission. Long before Donald Trump we've been sounding the alarm that our faith had been infiltrated and taken over by impostors and false teachers. We no longer recognized our faith in our churches. That was profoundly saddening to us. We've been hammered relentlessly from the beginning about the two fake issues The "Christian" Right invented, marriage equality and women's reproductive justice. The fact is these issues were invented to coalesce a right-wing political movement within the church. The history of how this happened is detailed here. You couldn't find many people who would agree with us in public. Everyone was afraid to cause hardship for themselves and their families whether it was personal, professional, or both. We took a pounding in the beginning. We still do. That's starting to change. People are beginning to see the truth and speak up. Miguel De La Torre, Professor of social ethics and Latino/a studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colo. wrote a piece in late 2017 that perfectly echoes what we've been saying for almost a decade. "Christianity has died in the hands of Evangelicals. Evangelicalism ceased being a religious faith tradition following Jesus’ teachings concerning justice for the betterment of humanity when it made a Faustian bargain for the sake of political influence. The beauty of the gospel message — of love, of peace and of fraternity — has been murdered. Evangelicalism has ceased to be a faith perspective rooted on Jesus the Christ and has become a political movement whose beliefs repudiate all Jesus advocated. A message of hate permeates their pronouncements." We've probably made every one of those points 1,000 times. The point of this blog is that perceptions are slowly changing. People are beginning to notice that following the teachings of Jesus has all but vanished in the US for the majority of evangelicals. 82% of them voted for Trump and stay loyal to right-wing extremism every election. Yet they represent themselves as the 'party of God.' The Gospel has been replaced with a cruel right-wing ideology. You, the members of The Christian left, have been early pioneers in rejecting the false teaching of The "Christian" Right. Then this happened: That's pretty big coming from a former chair of the RNC. We'll take any allies we can get on this point. This is another thing we've been saying for almost a decade. They lost any authority to preach when they fell prey to reprobate minds precipitated by replacing Jesus with right-wing ideology. It's happened many times in history. The most recent turning away is well documented. Some have suggested that real Christianity has been forced underground in the US. It wouldn't be the first time. You member of The Christian Left. You are a pioneer.
We are all pioneers of social media for Christian Progressives and their allies at TCL. No bragging involved. We were the first by a long shot. We broke down the door of Christian Progressive isolation and we're still here after almost a decade! There were a few others back in the day tied to churches, magazines and books. There was nothing like The Christian left. We created a haven where Christian Progressives and their allies could discuss the issues of the day free from fighting or harassment. Anyone who wanted to be be here was welcome, and still is. We offer strength, encouragement, prayer, whatever. 350,000 strong! That took 9 years of us showing up every day and being here all day and most of the night. We hope you keep coming back. You are what keeps the place interesting and attracts more people who think in the sane manner, Godly and progressive, they are similar in many ways. The teachings of Jesus are simple. They require no Master of Divinity. Read his words often. He said he was here to teach us a new path and establish a new covenant. Why would we not give his words and actions supremacy? To the surprise of many they revolve around treating one another the way he treated us while on earth, with forgiveness, mercy, loyalty, long-suffering, kindness, service. These are the teachings that honor God. We honor God by at least working on it and practicing the ways Jesus taught. They take away food from people who don’t have enough as it is. They take away medical care from those who will suffer and die without it. They take away housing assistance and force people to live on the violent streets. They give gigantic tax cuts to people who don’t even need them and increase taxes on the poor and the middle class. They bully and pick on the vulnerable (the easiest targets in their minds), the LGBTQ, pregnant women in bad situations, undocumented people brought here as children who know no other country but America. They keep wages artificially flat for decades while the cost of living skyrockets. They go home and stand in front of their constituencies and congregations and tell them they are doing God’s work. They are ‘God’s party.’ They believe them. God has turned over all who participate in this to being of reprobate minds. It’s the only way you can swallow it Are we going to complain about this on the internet or take some actions?
We have a whole bunch of designs Christian Progressives might like in all kinds of apparel and gifts.
There are multiple pages of designs. Move forward to the next page at the bottom of each page. Click here to shop. The business of making health care a privilege for the well off in the United States is messy and confusing. One of our members just explained what Trump did (and didn't do) today, Friday, October 13, 2017. "This order doesn't even impact unsubsidized premiums directly at all. He is threatening to end subsidies paid to insurance companies to help them comply with their obligation to reduce your out-of-pocket costs. Insurance companies are required by law to reduce the deductibles and coinsurance payments for low income people (essentially anyone who is eligible for reduced premiums is also eligible for reduced cost sharing). They are still required to do so, even if they do not receive the subsidies Trump is threatening to cut off. You will still receive the individual ACA subsidy. You will still get the cost sharing reduction on deductibles and coinsurance. Just like you don't pay $1202 now, you won't pay the $1330 in 2018. Your premium subsidies are safe (for now). Your reduced out-of-pocket cap and reduced coinsurance and deductibles are safe (for now). The indirect impact, though, is that the insurance company can't create money out of thin air. Because it is obligated by law to give you a break, it has to find that money somewhere. The only option is to increase premiums (or leave the market). Many insurance companies increased their rates in anticipation that Trump would carry out his threat, so because of how late he issued the order, there is not likely to be much additional impact this year. Hope that helps. None of the articles I've run across are explaining it clearly." Having done this for almost 9 years now once in a while we come up with something worth preserving here on the blog. Today was one of those days. It's related to things we hear daily from conservative "Christian" trolls. Conservative "Christian" trolls frequently tell us "There is no such thing as The Christian Left." That's silly of course and truth be told we're not sure if there's any such thing as a right-wing "Christian." We have a really hard time reconciling right-wing ideology and the words spoken by Jesus.
Another thing they like to harass us about daily is that we discuss politics here. In fact this is a page where Christian progressives (and their allies) can freely discuss political and cultural issues of the day without being harassed. It's a haven and we protect it. Right-wing "Christians" have been blabbering about politics and culture in the public square forever. The second Christian progressives start doing the same they come here all day and say things like, "I don't see anything Christian about this page. You need to call it 'The Left' instead of 'The Christian Left'" That is of course ignorant. We post scriptures every single day and anyone can talk about Jesus on any thread we post. In fact we encourage that because right-wing politics is so obviously opposed to the words of Jesus that every post is an illustration of the contrast. by Charles Toy Let this sink in. Vladimir Putin “asked” Trump to take Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak on a private tour of the Oval Office. Trump complied and the “Russian press” was allowed in but the American press wasn’t. Russia just hacked our presidential election, breaking in to the DNC computer network and distributing their confidential information with precise tactical timing to cause the maximum political damage. They were sanctioned by President Obama because this kind of cyber-sabotage is an act of war. Every single US intelligence agency confirmed it was Russia behind these attacks. In recent public hearings James Comey stated that Russia continues to manipulate and sabotage the US political system on a large scale. Trump fired Comey the day before he granted the private tour of the Oval Office to Putin’s Russian officials. Then he made veiled threats to Comey via Twitter. A few questions come to mind. Are you KIDDING me? What the hell is going on?! Why are we giving private tours of the Oval Office to our enemies? How many Russian spies do you think were in that Russian press pool in the Oval Office? What does Putin have on Trump? What do you think Ronald Reagan would think of all this? What actions do you think he would recommend moving forward? Why is every member of the US congressional leadership utterly paralyzed to do anything about this? Even McCain is walking back his comments comparing all this to Watergate earlier today and is now trying to water down those statements. Watergate was 5 guys breaking in to DNC headquarters. This was an entire nation with vast resources breaking in to the DNC’s electronic data files and using them to sabotage one party in the presidential election. Several more developments have recently come to light. It turns out Trump invited Comey over to the White House for dinner the week after he was elected. After spending dinner talking about crowd size Trump told the other two guests, AG Sessions and VP Pence, to leave. He then demanded loyalty from Comey and dropped big hints that he wanted the Michael Flynn investigation terminated. Comey refused on both counts and went home and typed up a memo detailing the entire encounter. He sent the memo to contacts within the FBI and filed it. In an interview with Lester Holt last week Trump said that when he fired Comey he was thinking, “This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story; it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.” During the private Oval Office tour, in an attempt to brag, Trump blurted out information categorized as “Top Secret” and held in a secure “compartment” to which only a handful of intelligence officials have access. Several news agencies including ABC reported the life of a spy placed by Israel inside ISIS was at risk last night as a result of Trump’s carelessness. Today, in his commencement address to United States Coast Guard Academy graduates, Trump didn’t even try to take the high road. On one of the biggest days of their lives Trump made it all about him. Everyone is being mean to him. “Look at the way I have been treated lately, especially by the media,” he said. “No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.” There was one small silver lining in Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad two weeks. Vladimir Putin put the word out that he would be happy to provide a transcript of the private Oval Office tour. Let that sink in. Update On My Shoulder Surgery: So many of you were very generous to me with your prayers and emotional support around my shoulder replacement surgery. I'm two weeks out now and so far so good!
It's going to be a long recovery process but I'm feeling good about it. There is hope now that I'll be able to resume a life without severe pain, especially when trying to sleep. I'm sleeping in a recliner right now and I probably will be for several more weeks. Your prayers have been working! The day before my surgery my insurance company canceled authorization for the procedure. They tried to say it wasn't justified. Fortunately my surgeon is the best in town. He's the Chief Orthopedic Surgeon and professor for upper extremities at Oregon Health Science University. He's the guy all the other surgeons send their problem cases to. He spent two hours on the phone with my insurance company and got them to reverse their cancellation. On top of that he just took care of it without worrying me about it. I didn't even know until after the surgery. That was a God thing as far as I'm concerned. I gave thanks to my surgeon and God ... and you. I knew your prayers made a difference! 3 years of terrible pain and very little sleep was long enough. What a miserable ordeal. I'm easing back in to my daily TCL duties typing with one hand. I'll take it slow and keep you posted moving forward. Thanks again for your concern and prayers. Charles Available in men's and women's t-shirts; long-sleeve; hoodies; sweatshirts; and stickers (red and gold colors).
“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” – Romans 13:8-10 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." -- Matthew 7:1-2 We're Going To Do What? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by invading the privacy of women’s bodies and the sanctity of their most private medical decisions? Instead allowing the federal government to be in charge of making these decisions? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by rounding up people like animals? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by writing laws that allow bigots to discriminate against LGBTQ people in the name of ‘Religious Liberty?’ • We’re going to Make America Great Again by ripping away health care from 30,000,000 people and with the assured outcome of going back to discriminating against sick people who have ‘pre-existing conditions?’ We’re going to cause 24,000 Americans to needlessly die every year because Republicans have turned health care into a political game that they must win for the sake of their party? Can you imagine how the country would mobilize if terrorists killed 24,000 Americans per year? We would stop at nothing. We would spend trillions. What is the difference? A death is a death. • We’re going to Make America Great Again by profiling and tracking adherents of an entire religion thus putting all of them under a veil of suspicion? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by privatizing Social Security and Medicare which by its very nature turns these funds over to the volatile, for-profit Wall Street sector? We’re going to put the elderly, who are highly vulnerable in the hands of cut throat capitalists whose only objective is profit? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by ratifying the draconian, social Darwinist ‘Ryan Budget’ based on the daydreams of someone who worships Ayn Rand and has said he bases his entire economic philosophy on her philosophy? We’re going to ‘balance the budget’ on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans in every category? We’re going to take food off their dinner tables to pay for bogus wars based on lies and reckless Wall Street gambling? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by labeling black people as criminals and gangsters because they are tired of getting shot and killed by dirty cops over nothing? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by granting access to white supremacists like Steve Bannon to the Oval Office itself? A person who has made up crazy conspiracy theories about Democrats specifically for years? There’s just something God awful wrong about that. It’s sickening actually. • We’re going to Make America Great Again by turning over Medicaid to the states in the form of ‘block grants,’ which experts have shown will deprive the poorest of the poor of health care? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by demonizing the press and stepping all over the first amendment, thus making the only ‘news’ outlets people believe are those like Alex Jones, Fox ‘News,’ Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart ‘News,’ and other right-wing extremist propaganda outlets that spew lies and opinions based on fear and emotion but have nothing to do with reality? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by denying climate science as a matter of national policy and setting the planet on an even faster course towards widespread human suffering and death? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by giving those who need it the least more tax cuts and adding to the tax bills of those who can least afford it? We’re going to take away tax breaks like earned income credit from the poorest of the poor? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by allowing private prisons to exist and flourish thus putting a profit incentive behind locking people up? Not only that, everyone knows that the rich don’t get locked up. The poor do. The rich can afford lawyers. Court appointed attorneys will provide you with what you paid for ... nothing. • We’re going to Make America Great Again by installing people to cabinet positions who want to wipe out and destroy the departments they’re in charge of? • We’re going to Make America Great Again decimating public education and gradually privatizing all of it? You know what that means. The rich will get a quality education. The poor and middle class won’t. Oh and it’s easy to see how we could go back to ‘white only’ schools. Bigots have been furious about that for decades. Depriving them of their federally subsidized ‘white only’ schools is what caused them to rise up and establish the modern “Christian” Right. • We’re going to Make America Great Again trampling all over the rights and wishes of Native Americans by resuming the building of the North Dakota pipeline as soon as Trump is installed? • We’re going to Make America Great Again stacking the Supreme court with right-wing extremist, activist judges who will slant the court for decades? • We’re going to Make America Great Again taking the policy boilerplate of states like Sam Brownback’s Kansas and imposing it on the entire country, assuring the same outcome, the wholesale destruction of all civic institutions and services throughout the entire country, throwing just about everything into utter chaos? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by allowing nutcases like Mike Pence to have their hands on the levers of lawmaking and government? The man who says birth control is ‘too modern and newfangled’ for him to understand and who wanted to force women who had abortions or miscarriages to conduct funerals for the fetuses? This almost takes the cake on this whole disastrous mess if it wasn’t for all the other things literally causing the death of thousands of Americans. It’s just nuttier than sh-t, and this man is Vice President! • We’re going to Make America Great Again by continuing to erode decades worth of human effort and suffering to assure that all Americans have the right to vote and that right isn’t infringed upon by ridiculous actions like eliminating poll locations, demanding special voter ID’s and all the other petty methods Republicans use to suppress the vote? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by allowing people like Jeff Sessions, our new Attorney General and a well-known bigot, homophobe, and right-wing extremist, to take our Federal Law infrastructure back to the thirties? • We’re going to Make America Great Again by throwing out the Iran Deal, moving the Capital of Israel to Jerusalem, encouraging the continued building of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and abandoning the Two-State Solution? All of this will pretty much assure World War Three, the final war. This is craziness. It’s time to rise up by any and all (non-violent) means available. It’s time to take this to the streets with as many organized marches as possible as often as possible. It’s time to call all of the Democratic Senators and tell them we expect them to stand in the way of every one of these killer policies. Every single one. It’s time to get politically active in new and creative ways. If you write, write something. We can put it out there. If you’re an artist draw a piece of protest art. If you’re a musician write a protest song. On and on. Figure out a way to use your unique gifts and special talents for the cause. We’re going to need all hands on deck for this one. The fate of our nation hangs in the balance. |
About TCL BlogWe’re not about Dogma here. We’re just Christians who think the political and Christian right-wing have their priorities wrong. Featured BloggersCharles Toy is the founding member of The Christian Left. We're sure you will enjoy his passion as well as his wit. Guest bloggers featured often.
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