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Weekly Update 12/01/2018 -- This is our first post using our new, updated layout and design! Isn't it great!? The news this week has further illustrated that the Donald J. Trump administration is an embarrassing cabal of liars and criminals. Trump ran his business like a mob organization for decades and he just moved the operation to the White House after the Russians helped him steal the election. The worst part of it all is the “Christians” support him and put forth the deluded lie that they’re the guardians of a “Christian Nation.” “Christian Nation?” Really? Let’s take a look at the fruits of their “Christian” ideology. 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 oppressed and vulnerable (the easiest targets for them), 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’re doing ‘God’s work.’ They are ‘God’s party.’ The people believe them. They watch Fox “News” and their beliefs are validated and reinforced further. Their preachers feed them the same lines every week as well. God has turned over all who participate in this ugly mess to being of reprobate minds. Something has gone wrong. Something has gone very wrong. It’s a cult.  It’s always funny to us when Christians say we should have nothing to do with government. God spent most of the Old Testament either telling us how to set up our governments, or warning unruly, disobedient kings via the prophets that they were messing up and abusing the people. In the Old Testament, God commands Moses to “bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you” (Numbers 11:16). In Deuteronomy 16:18 we read, “You shall appoint for yourselves judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” In Deuteronomy 14 and 15 God says, “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied. There should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you. If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.” In Leviticus 25 God says, “If any of your fellow citizens become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. Don’t lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. If they become poor do not make them work as slaves. They are to be treated as hired workers. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.” In Isaiah 58 God says, “Is it not you I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not you I have chosen to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? Is it not you I have chosen when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Is it not you I have chosen to end exploitation of workers? Have I not chosen you to raise up the age-old foundations and be the repairer and restorer of streets and dwellings?” Over and over again God says, “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud, Proverbs 16:19. He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker, Proverbs 17:5. He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done, Proverbs 19:17. If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered, Proverbs 21:13. The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern, Proverbs 29:7. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy, Proverbs 31:9.” It’s fair to say that most of God’s communication with us has been how we should treat one another, in all aspects of life including government. In Matthew 25 Jesus explains his final judgment, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” How many times does God need to say it? How many ways does God have to explain it? How many prophets does God need to send with the same message? Was it not enough that God became flesh and explained it to us eye to eye? Yet here we are again. We’ve built the golden calf again. We’ve disregarded God’s instructions again. We’ve invented our own system of morality again. Now the two things God is allegedly most concerned about are fetuses and homosexuals. Now the poor are ‘lazy freeloaders’ and ‘why should we have to help them with a gun to our head?’ According to our president most resident aliens are ‘rapists, gangsters and drug dealers, and we need to get rid of them.’ People who say we should actually help the poor using the methods God outlined are labeled 'Socialists' and ‘Communists.’ We’re right back at square one, where we always seem to end up no matter how obvious God makes it for us. That's why it's so important for each new generation to carry the message of Jesus forward. We intend to do our part, and we do. We show up here every day, 7 days a week, and provide a continuous flow of news stories illustrating the truth of everything we just stated. Who else does that? Where else would you find that in real time every day? Where else can Christian progressives and their allies can gather 24/7/365 and discuss the issues of the day, support one another, offer comfort, share hopes and dreams, ask for advice, share struggles, talk about God anytime we want without being harassed, and learn from the content and from each other how to apply the teachings of Jesus to our daily lives? That’s a pretty valuable thing when hearing the truth is so rare, and we’ve been doing it for almost 10 years. Some people think this has all been an easy thing to throw together. They have no idea the human effort involved to carry it off. Human effort comes at a cost. The only way we’ve been able to cover those costs has been through your contributions. This is your ministry. This is your community. This is your escape from the insanity of a world too often deceptive and confusing. We’re more than happy to keep showing up. If it’s important to you to have a place like this around help us keep it alive by making a donation. We generally make this request on week-ends only. Here's How To Donate (Click Here)  If you make bigger contributions at the end of the year now is the season and we'd love for you to consider The Christian Left in your year-end giving. If our sponsored posts are the only posts you see Google “How to receive all updates from my favorite Facebook pages.” To read more about our history, our mission and our activities click here. If you prefer mail our address is: The Christian Left 2001 NW Aloclek Dr. Box #108 Hillsboro, OR 97124  David LaChapelle, "Last Supper," 2003 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” - Mark 2: 15-16  Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. -- Matthew 19:13-15  Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” -- Luke 14:12-14   You can hang out with 370,000 Christian progressives and their allies any time you want, wherever you live, in real time. Our community is available 24/7/365 right here on social media. That’s worth your support.
We’re stable. We’ve been here a long time. We were one of the first Facebook pages ever created. We discuss daily news, elections, cultural events, politics and religion from a Christian progressive perspective. The next two years are going to be interesting to say the least. If our sponsored posts are the only posts you see Google “How to receive all updates from my favorite Facebook pages.” We post articles every hour, every day. Every article has a discussion thread you can participate in. We continuously search the internet for articles that will likely be of interest to you. We moderate all discussions and keep the conservative trolls and Russian bots away. The only way we keep all this going is through your support. There’s nothing out there like this community and ministry. Make a contribution to our 2018 Fall Fundraiser if you have any extra. Here’s how to make a donation (Click Here). If you prefer US Mail our address is: The Christian Left 2001 NW Aloclek Dr. Box #108 Hillsboro, OR 97124 Most people don't really know the extent to which The "Christian" Right's power and influence has grown exponentially over the past 40 years. It is truly frightening.  We've been monitoring them for 10 years. Here is one small example of a "ministry" with immense power:
Ralph Drollinger and Capitol Ministries has way, way too much power in DC and around the world. Read their list of viewpoints. Among them is that "Liberal Christians aren’t really Christians, they’re simpletons," "Catholicism is one of the primary false religions in the world,” "People with government positions should not 'compromise Biblical absolutes' and should hire only other 'righteous' people," and "Christian public servants are required to support the death penalty and oppose marriage equality." Also, "entitlement programs (like Social Security) have no biblical authority," and "God is a capitalist." After you read the below article please come back to this blog article and help us combat this insanity. Group That Runs Fundamentalist Bible Studies For Cabinet & Congress Growing ‘Beyond Our Wildest Imaginings’ Globally We try to think of a creative way to put it each week-end but The Christian Left is a user sustained internet ministry and community. Contributions have been down lately. We are one of the few counternarratives to The "Christian" Right in existence. Without user support we would have to fold in less than a month. If having TCL around matters to you, make a contribution and be a frequent supporter. We understand some don't have extra. If you do, please chip in to keep TCL alive. This is the kind of feedback we see every day: “I thank God for this page & all the members who promote the love & acceptance of Jesus Christ. I live in a rural area of the South where Christian bigotry runs rampant. It does my heart good to come here and read encouraging & uplifting words.” -- Rebecca P., member of The Christian Left Frankly, that’s why we started this ministry and also why we’ve kept coming back every day for close to 10 years. We knew we were not alone. We knew the voice of Christian progressives was being suppressed. Christianity Inc. had become a powerful force. They had become the religion of wealth and empire. They had forgotten about the teachings of Jesus. It has taken thousands of person-hours to build and maintain this ministry. Our effort continues daily. We set up and maintain a website, a blog, a Twitter page, a store, an Instagram page, a Facebook page and a broadcast mailing list. During the 2012 election season we formed a super-PAC (which is now dismantled due to lack of support). Here’s how to make a donation: click here. If you prefer mail our address is: The Christian Left 2001 NW Aloclek Dr., Box #108 Hillsboro, OR 97124 Taking Back Christianity From The Religious Right "Very little in the actual teaching put forward by Jesus here would support the political philosophy of the Christian right, with its worship of military might or its obsession with capital punishment. But it’s probably too much to ask them to consider what Jesus actually said."  The death of Christianity in the U.S. "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 Evangelicals’ Jesus is satanic, and those who hustle this demon are “false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve." (2 Cor. 11:13-15, NIV)  The Last Temptation "The moral convictions of many evangelical leaders have become a function of their partisan identification. This is not mere gullibility; it is utter corruption. Blinded by political tribalism and hatred for their political opponents, these leaders can’t see how they are undermining the causes to which they once dedicated their lives. Little remains of a distinctly Christian public witness."  The Real Origins of the Religious Right (Four Page Must Read On How It All Went Down) "Today, evangelicals make up the backbone of the pro-life movement, but it hasn’t always been so. Both before and for several years after Roe, evangelicals were overwhelmingly indifferent to the subject, which they considered a 'Catholic issue.' it wasn’t until 1979—a full six years after Roe—that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but as a rallying-cry to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term. Why? Because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools. So much for the new abolitionism."  How Corporate America Invented Christian America At a gathering in 1940 Reverend James W. Fifield Jr. told industrialists that clergymen would be crucial in regaining the upper hand in their war with Roosevelt. As men of God, ministers could voice the same conservative complaints as business leaders, but without any suspicion that they were motivated solely by self-interest. They could push back against claims, made often by Roosevelt and his allies, that business had somehow sinned and the welfare state was doing God’s work. The assembled industrialists gave a rousing amen. “When he had finished,” a journalist noted, “rumors report that the N.A.M. applause could be heard in Hoboken.” It was a watershed moment—the beginning of a movement that would advance over the 1940s and early 1950s a new blend of conservative religion, economics and politics that one observer aptly anointed “Christian libertarianism.” Fifield and like-minded ministers saw Christianity and capitalism as inextricably intertwined, and argued that spreading the gospel of one required spreading the gospel of the other.  By Charles Toy “Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever and wherever the person says it does.” -- Margo McCaffery, RN, MS, FAAN, leader and pioneer in pain management for nursing.  Over the last 3 years I have been forced to become a student of chronic pain and a pain activist. The pain I've endured in my left shoulder has been brutal, unrelenting, and at times unbearable. I'm finally emerging on the other side after having my shoulder replaced last May. They told me it takes about a year to completely recover and that's about what it has taken. In a month and a half it will have been a year since my surgery. I feel about 10/12ths in to my recovery. My odyssey has been long. My story is long too. I'm going to add to it over the course of time. I've been treated like a junkie and fed falsehoods from the medical community that I knew weren't true. The medical community on the whole knows the least about this issue unless they're chronic severe pain sufferers themselves. They are being fed propaganda by the CDC which lumped street opiates in with prescribed opiates to come up with their bogus numbers. The medical community is operating out of fear and a very bad case of group think. The full truth will come out eventually. It's beginning to emerge right now. Some of the things I've been told I know to be false because I've experienced it myself. They include: "It's really the Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in opioid pain medication that provides relief from the pain. The opiates only provide euphoria." This is patently false. No, it isn't the Acetaminophen that provides all the relief. Acetaminophen alone didn't even touch my pain, neither did Ibuprofen, and they were both tearing my stomach to shreds. Percocet (Oxycodone and Acetaminophen) did provide relief, and it had nothing to do with euphoria. It had to do with what works at relieving the pain and what doesn't. Opiates are by far the most effective pain reliever there is. Every one of the hundreds of accounts I've read of people suffering from chronic severe pain say the same thing. In the course of being put through the wringer I was forced to try Lyrica, Cymbalta, Gabapentin, Amitriptyline, Nortriptyline, and Tramadol. I was taken to the highest recommended doses on all of them. None of them even came remotely close to the pain relief of narcotics (opiates). It didn't matter to the doctors I went to, two "pain doctors," one orthopedic surgeon, my primary doctor, all of them said, "I'm not giving you narcotics and that's that." I literally could not sleep at night in any position without enduring brutal pain, and I mean brutal. None of them cared. They all fear the CDC and the DEA that much. They started telling themselves lies. As it turns out the vast majority of pain patients don't abuse their medication and they don't die from it. It's worth repeating ... the CDC lumped deaths from street opiates like heroin and illicit pills in with deaths from prescribed opiates taken by pain patients, came up with one number, and called it "The Opioid Crisis." At one point I was desperate so I called a medical malpractice group of attorneys to get their take on all of it. I was told, "You can't do anything to a doctor unless they actually harm you. We get calls every day from people literally crying, telling us their doctor took them off their opiate medication for chronic pain after 20 years. Most of them are in unspeakable agony. Their doctors don't care." I didn't give up. I couldn't give up. The pain wasn't something you could "live with." A Naturopathic Doctor pain managed me with opiates for a few months before and after my shoulder replacement. The point came where she felt like she had reached the limits of her expertise. I finally went to the pain clinic at Oregon Health and Science University. I found a bastion of sanity there. They deal with many of the tough pain cases in the region. They acknowledged the craziness taking place around this issue and told me mine wasn't a difficult case compared to most they see. They listened to my history and put me on the low-dose opiate regimen I needed. That was that. I've been tapering down per my own decreased need for pain relief as I reach full recovery. The truth is starting to come out. I just ran across the best, most comprehensive article I've seen thus far on this topic. It begins to expose what is really going on. It's from Reason Magazine, the April 2018 issue. I highly recommend it. The title of the article is, "America’s War on Pain Pills Is Killing Addicts and Leaving Patients in Agony," by Jacob Sullum. Here's an excerpt: ________________ PUNISHING PATIENTS In contrast with these harm reduction tactics, continuing attempts to discourage the use of prescription pain medication promise to cause a lot of needless suffering without making a noticeable dent in opioid-related deaths. Prescription guidelines that the CDC issued in March 2016, which minimize the benefits of opioids, exaggerate their risks, and encourage doctors to be stingy with them, exemplify this misguided strategy. A 2016 critique published by the journal Pain Practice challenges several key aspects of the CDC document, including its recommended dose ceilings, its general declaration that nonopioid treatment is “preferred for chronic pain,” its suggestion that opioid prescriptions for acute pain last no longer than seven days, and its statement that doctors who decide to prescribe opioids should begin with immediate-release products rather than extended-release or long-acting (ER/LA) analgesics. The criticism of that last recommendation sums up what is wrong with the guidelines in general ... ________________ I'll end it here for today. This is only the beginning of my writing on this topic. This blog post will expand over time. I haven't even begun to tell you about the nightmare of the two "pain clinics" I went to before the university. Talk about humiliation. Again, I recommend reading the articles linked in this post. It's a lot of information to process. Those who suffer from chronic pain will feel validated after being treated like junkies and criminals by a medical community overcome by hysteria. Pro-Born: A Former Evangelical on the Single-Issue Politics of White Christians By Bradley Onishi  [Excerpt]
"First, you get to deny the messy stakes of loving the born and bodied—those with melanin in their skin, different kinds of hair, gender-queer expressions, immigrant parents, and non-Christian faiths. Second, you get to deny the messiness of the social contract—of the political realm and all its irreducible details and multiple voices. You are absolved of responsibility for the brown skin of Dreamers, the unwashed hair of refugees, the cry of bullied trans teenagers, the mourning songs from families of black men and women killed by police. Myopic and unwavering focus on abortion is the way to avoid the carnality of living, breathing beings. The way to get away from bodies." Link To Full Article  Every now and then an article comes along that speaks the truth in no uncertain terms. When we spot such an article we like to preserve it on our blog. This article doesn't candy-coat the truth.
We were saying what the author says back in 2009. It was too much for most people to process. They weren't ready to hear it. Many accused us of hyperbole. Below are a couple of excerpts from the article and then a link to the entire piece. Please don't just read the excerpts. Read the whole article as well. It's important to understand what has happened. The author is Miguel De La Torre, professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO. "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 Evangelicals’ Jesus is satanic, and those who hustle this demon are “false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve." (2 Cor. 11:13-15, NIV) When he speaks of "the Faustian bargain for the sake of political influence" he is referring to the takeover of Christianity in the US by far-right extremists. They used the fake issue of abortion to hoodwink Christians into believing they had to be Republicans. Politico did a very well-researched, 4-page article meticulously documenting the history of how this was pulled off and by who. Click here to go to that article: "The Real Origins of the Religious Right" This blog post will make the most sense if you read the whole blog and then go to the links contained within. Here's the link to Mr. De La Torre's piece: The death of Christianity in the U.S Trolls will descend on our Facebook page and inevitably quote this scripture and others like it: "Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you'..." (Jeremiah 1:4-5) As author Joyce Arthur points out: "This passage is specific to one, very special person—Jeremiah the prophet, whom God has called to provide miraculous powers and authority to the world. Since we are not all destined to be divine prophets, this verse cannot be construed as applying to any fetus except the unborn Jeremiah." The same is true for Psalm 139:13-16. "All this passage states is that God is directly involved in the creation of a fetus and knows its future. This is useless for the anti-choice position, since God creates all living things, including trees and bugs. Plus, just because God is supposedly omniscient doesn't give fetuses any special status—it simply means God already knows whether they will live or die. It is dishonest to conclude from this verse that a fetus is a human being deserving of more protection than women. The passage is poetic prose that anti-choicers have twisted and trivialized by giving it a literal, objective meaning where there is none." When they run out of arguments people usually resort to: "What about 'Thou shall not kill?'" A fetus is not a 'baby.' A fetus becomes a person when it draws its first breath. One last fact that most people are unaware of: Before the far right's takeover of Christianity in the US it was the clergy who advocated for universal access to safe, legal abortions. We know most followers of the right-wing, political cult will scoff at all of this. Their brainwashing is complete. We're going to speak the truth anyway. “Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell We get trolled by conservative "Christians" all day, every day. Sometimes we're not quite sure if someone is a troll so we go look at their Facebook page. This is the kind of garbage we usually find. Our commentary continues after the graphic.  We pulled this graphic from the Facebook page of one gentleman who came to our page to lecture us. His personal Facebook page was full of Tucker Carlson videos, NRA videos, and Duck Dynasty videos mixed with assorted "Christian" admonishments.
After doing what we do here every day for close to ten years we can say unequivocally that the biggest purveyors of "Fake News" are conservative "Christians" who watch, read and listen to nothing else but conservative media. We don't "hate" these people. On the contrary, we feel sorry for them. They have been brainwashed by a conservative propaganda machine. We speak against an ideology here and the opinion leaders who spew it out 24/7. Unfortunately that group now includes all the leaders, preachers and politicians who make up The "Christian" Right. There is nothing Christian about modern right-wing ideology. It's the biggest lie foisted on our culture over the last 40 years. It is an ideology that uses the two red herring issues of abortion and gay marriage to hoodwink Christians into being Republicans. Modern right-wing ideology is more akin to Satanism than the teachings of Jesus Christ. All you have to do is look at the fruit of their policies and the impact it has on the Least of These. Modern right-wing ideology and policy passes all of society's resources upwards and crushes the Least of These underfoot labeling them as 'lazy freeloaders.' Right now, given the majority of evangelicals subscribe to these lies it looks as though Satan has won. We know better. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” -- Jesus, John 16:33 Read more about The Least of These here. Return To Related Facebook Post 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. — The Christian Left is a user supported ministry and community. We've been able to carry out the ministry and maintain the community for almost a decade only through your generous support. Thousands of man hours support the services provided here as well as on or blog, our website, our Twitter page, our broadcast mailing list, our store, our unique apparel designs, our formation of a Super PAC during the 2012 election cycle, ads we've taken out in newspapers and on social media. The list of our activities over the years is lengthy.
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Charles 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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