Politics and the Christian Left Fringe:

Straight AheadWhile it can be argued that Christian evangelicals are too closely identified with the Republican party and the politics of the right, it can hardly be denied that mainline Protestant denominations are playing the same dangerous game by identifying almost entirely with the politics of the left-wing fringe. This has been brought home to me numerous times. Several years ago, I attended the annual meeting of the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ while serving as a minister of that denomination in the state of Maine. The head of the UCC gave a keynote address at that conference in which he attacked our policy in Iraq and almost seemed to equate President George W. Bush with Hitler and the German Nazis of the 1930's. Well, now we have a fresh example of just how far the religious left will go to look ridiculous. The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, affiliated with the PC(USA), has published a book by David Ray Griffin which seriously puts forward the theory that our own government, under the direction of President George W. Bush, was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The head of the PPC, Davis Perkins, actually defends the decision, saying that Griffin's theory deserves serious reflection on the part of Christians. I wonder if Griffin and Perkins also believe that Bush and his minions deliberately flooded New Orleans in order to drive poor black people and other less fortunates from their homes, as some have also charged in the African-American community. Such irresponsibility by a seemingly respectable religious publisher is, of course, inexcusable, and brings discredit to a once-honorable denomination. But that's not the worst of it. At a time when membership losses are monumental and divisiveness is rampant, what does this say about the priorities of denominational leaders, who have yet to denounce the publication of this book by an affiliated arm of the denomination? The very people who have ridiculed the "Religious Right" for cozying up to the Republicans are now going to be equally ridiculed for making friends with terrorists and undermining the security of a nation.