"Hillary Clinton As The Most Religious Democrat Since Jimmy Carter": (Abandonning Bipartisanism, Pan Cogito Gets Down, Civic, And Religious)

"[Hillary] Clinton is neither secular nor awkward about her faith. She cites her Methodist upbringing as a formative experience, with its emphasis on "preaching and practicing the social gospel." As a teenager in 1962, she heard and met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago -- what would have been a profound experience for a spiritually alert youth -- and was later politically radicalized by his assassination. The likely Democratic nominee participates regularly in small-group Bible studies and is familiar with the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- the theological heroes of mainline Protestantism ...

In a nation obsessed by the influence of religious conservatives, it is easy to forget that liberal Protestants were once the dominant cultural influence in America. Beginning in the early 20th century, the social gospel advanced swiftly through most American denominations. Progressive presidents such as Woodrow Wilson spoke in the cadences of this movement: "Christianity was just as much intended to save society as to save the individual, and there is a sense in which it is more important that it should save society."

This high-minded theological liberalism had many successes. It opposed the harsh excesses of industrialization, embraced the civil rights movement, resisted the Vietnam War and led opposition to apartheid in South Africa. It also had debilitating weaknesses -- a preference for democratic socialism, a soft spot for Marxist strongmen, a flitting fascination with trendy causes and a theological shallowness that caused millions to flee the pews.

As an heir to this religious tradition, Hillary Clinton combines two traits that seem contradictory but really aren't -- moralism and social liberalism." ...

Michael Gerson "Can She Reach Religious Voters?" Washington Post September 26, 2007



















en: Paul Tillich’s gravestone in the Paul Tillich Park, New Harmony, Indiana, USA; de: Grabstein von Paul Tillich in dem Paul Tillich Park in New Harmony, Indiana, USA.

Photo credit: Michael Gaebler via Wikipedia. With thanks.

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Public radio WETA-FM, in Nation's Capital, spends another day completely stiffing American classical music in favor of classical music industry obscurantism. Shame on Sharon Percy Rockefeller and other Washington limousine liberals who support the current public radio WETA-FM (possibly including Hillary Rodham Clinton?)