Christians for Kamala

[lilac05]

actionnetwork.org/events/love-for-the-win-christians-for-kamala-livestream

“This is a hopeful movement of followers of Jesus who believe that empathy matters, that character counts, and that kindness is the better path. We are human beings of deep faith from every disparate corner of this nation who are tired of being defined by cruelty, exclusion, and hatred.

We proudly support Vice President Kamala Harris as she champions true Christian values embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Now more than ever, we need to bring our personal spiritual convictions to bear and to speak with our voices, our time, our resources, and our votes.

Join us in giving, volunteering, and spreading the word about this beautiful revolution.”

Love seeing this. Christians are taught to have the “Fruits of the Spirit”…if God is in you, you will “bear the fruits” of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. One of our candidates has literally not one of those. I will never understand how Evangelicals feel that HE is the one who should have the “Christian” vote.

[icedcoffee]

Trump is the anti-Christ. I cannot understand. I'm glad to see this.

[lilac05]

Aug 5, 2024 12:30:21 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Trump is the anti-Christ. I cannot understand. I'm glad to see this.

He quite literally fits the Biblical descriptions of the anti-Christ…including fleecing “Christians.” How people cannot see it is something I might never understand.

But I’m hopeful that people are getting more vocal in trying to take the word “Christian” back. What Trump’s cult preaches is not one bit connected to the actual teachings of Jesus. I’m tired of being ashamed to call myself a Christian. They don’t speak for me. And I really believe that the Trumpers are the vocal minority in the whole group of people who consider themselves Christians (so FAR more than just Evangelicals).

[sent]

Does Kamala consider herself Christian? She’s had a lot of religions in her life - Hindu mother, Christian father, Jewish husband. I’m curious, in the event the other side decides to make her religion a point of contention.

[4speedy]

I am loving all these targeted rallies, zooms, support groups, whatever we’re calling it. I think this might be the best way to draw the moderates, independents, etc. away from TFG. I can see this making it ok for a lot of groups to vote in a way that is not typical for them. “If other Christians/seniors/republicans are doing it, I guess it’s ok.

Or maybe at the very least, they might hear a viewpoint other than Fox News and decide if that many of their cohort is against TFG, then maybe they should just abstain. I think I almost have my mom talked into being in this category. She doesn’t believe a thing my sister or I tell her, but other senior/Republicans against Trump might do the trick.

[dcn]

Aug 5, 2024 15:40:05 GMT -5 sent said:

Does Kamala consider herself Christian? She’s had a lot of religions in her life - Hindu mother, Christian father, Jewish husband. I’m curious, in the event the other side decides to make her religion a point of contention.

Yes.

apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-religious-faith-black-church-india-1aaa7a87fdbf32e675b9bd55ea072032

[lilac05]

Aug 5, 2024 15:40:05 GMT -5 sent said:

Does Kamala consider herself Christian? She’s had a lot of religions in her life - Hindu mother, Christian father, Jewish husband. I’m curious, in the event the other side decides to make her religion a point of contention.

I see it’s covered in the article above, but before that, I didn’t know for sure. It doesn’t matter to me. Regardless of her religion, she espouses many of the values that are important to me…which also happen to be the big teachings of my religion (and many others as well as valued by many people who have no religion). I love that she confidently expresses all of that without connecting it directly to a religion. It’s just who she is. I don’t see this call as “because she’s one of us”, but “because she values the things that we are called to value, too.”

[heygrey]

Aug 5, 2024 12:27:25 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

actionnetwork.org/events/love-for-the-win-christians-for-kamala-livestream

“This is a hopeful movement of followers of Jesus who believe that empathy matters, that character counts, and that kindness is the better path. We are human beings of deep faith from every disparate corner of this nation who are tired of being defined by cruelty, exclusion, and hatred.

We proudly support Vice President Kamala Harris as she champions true Christian values embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Now more than ever, we need to bring our personal spiritual convictions to bear and to speak with our voices, our time, our resources, and our votes.

Join us in giving, volunteering, and spreading the word about this beautiful revolution.”

Love seeing this. Christians are taught to have the “Fruits of the Spirit”…if God is in you, you will “bear the fruits” of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. One of our candidates has literally not one of those. I will never understand how Evangelicals feel that HE is the one who should have the “Christian” vote.

But, but, but... abortion!!! 


I am 100% with you on this and LOVE seeing a vocal group of Christians come out in support of Kamala. I still have family and friends in the evangelical church and I am hearing more interest in Kamala than I ever have in any other Democratic candidate. I had no hope that Biden could flip any of their votes, but I am feeling a glimmer of hope now that a few will flip and enough will just sit out this election because they don't want to vote for Trump (again). 

[lilac05]

I had a meeting tonight, so I wasn’t able to attend, but if you’re curious, the link to the call is at www.christiansforkamala.net

They raised almost $152,000 tonight. That’s small change compared to some of the other calls…but it all adds up! (Plus, I think a lot of people have given elsewhere at this point.)

[underwaterrhymes]

I’m glad to see all of these different groups supporting them. It always baffles me why so many people cherry pick the worst parts of old religious texts written by men rather than the lovely, inclusive parts. (This is not limited to just Christians, although certainly they seem to be the biggest offenders)

I’m not religious at all and am not a Christian (although I was raised as one). I also don’t care what religion any of our leaders are. What I care about, though, is that Harris and Walz show love and compassion, which is what all major religions purport to uphold. TFG spews hateful crap and they all pull out their spoons. It really demonstrates to me that organized religion has largely been destructive to humanity rather than supportive.

[lilac05]

underwaterrhymes, yes! Absolutely!

I can’t find the quote at the moment, but the other day, I saw something that Walz said about how politicians should not GIVE a sermon, but they can LIVE a sermon. I think he does that well. While he is a Christian, I think it applies to every belief system (religious or not). Character matters so much more than who you give credit to for it.

How “Christians” are called to “follow Jesus” but then a loud portion of them chooses to focus on things Jesus never discussed (abortion, LGBTQ+, etc) and NOT focus on the things he ALWAYS taught about (love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, welcome the foreigner) is something that keeps me up at night, and I will never understand.

[pixy0stix]

Aug 13, 2024 9:24:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

How “Christians” are called to “follow Jesus” but then a loud portion of them chooses to focus on things Jesus never discussed (abortion, LGBTQ+, etc) and NOT focus on the things he ALWAYS taught about (love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, welcome the foreigner) is something that keeps me up at night, and I will never understand.

Agreed. I struggle with Christians calling themselves Christians when they cannot, or do not, follow the word of Christ. It's literally in what we call ourselves.

[katfco]

Aug 13, 2024 9:24:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

underwaterrhymes , yes! Absolutely!

I can’t find the quote at the moment, but the other day, I saw something that Walz said about how politicians should not GIVE a sermon, but they can LIVE a sermon. I think he does that well. While he is a Christian, I think it applies to every belief system (religious or not). Character matters so much more than who you give credit to for it.

How “Christians” are called to “follow Jesus” but then a loud portion of them chooses to focus on things Jesus never discussed (abortion, LGBTQ+, etc) and NOT focus on the things he ALWAYS taught about (love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, welcome the foreigner) is something that keeps me up at night, and I will never understand.

Having grown up in the conservative evangelical world, I've seen a lot of the rationalization. 

Growing up, I was told that it's not the government's job to do all that; it's up to churches. Lots of white saviorism cloaked in charity. 

The shift to be more political started (from what I saw) with Bush. Suddenly, they had "their own" candidate. Finally! A "Christian" was in the White House. Plus, democrats = bad because of homosexuality and abortion. 

Nationalism has always been an underlying concept, because our nation was "built on Christian principles." There's a lot of self-satisfaction that they were fortunate enough to live in this country, and a LOT of talk of the good old days. Family values, Leave it to Beaver kind of thing. 

When you grow up in a rigid way of thinking, it's easy to rationalize anything as long as you can maintain your worldview. I could probably give you examples of how they would use the Bible to rationalize Trump. 

[basilosaurus]

Aug 13, 2024 11:08:38 GMT -5 katfco said:

Aug 13, 2024 9:24:08 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

underwaterrhymes , yes! Absolutely!

I can’t find the quote at the moment, but the other day, I saw something that Walz said about how politicians should not GIVE a sermon, but they can LIVE a sermon. I think he does that well. While he is a Christian, I think it applies to every belief system (religious or not). Character matters so much more than who you give credit to for it.

How “Christians” are called to “follow Jesus” but then a loud portion of them chooses to focus on things Jesus never discussed (abortion, LGBTQ+, etc) and NOT focus on the things he ALWAYS taught about (love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, welcome the foreigner) is something that keeps me up at night, and I will never understand.

Having grown up in the conservative evangelical world, I've seen a lot of the rationalization. 

Growing up, I was told that it's not the government's job to do all that; it's up to churches. Lots of white saviorism cloaked in charity. 

The shift to be more political started (from what I saw) with Bush. Suddenly, they had "their own" candidate. Finally! A "Christian" was in the White House. Plus, democrats = bad because of homosexuality and abortion. 

Nationalism has always been an underlying concept, because our nation was "built on Christian principles." There's a lot of self-satisfaction that they were fortunate enough to live in this country, and a LOT of talk of the good old days. Family values, Leave it to Beaver kind of thing. 

When you grow up in a rigid way of thinking, it's easy to rationalize anything as long as you can maintain your worldview. I could probably give you examples of how they would use the Bible to rationalize Trump. 

I'd argue it goes back at least to the moral majority (that was neither) coalition that rallied behind reagan and his city on a hill bs which predates many of our memories and awareness of politics. I became aware during Reagan's 2nd term when school was teaching about what can and cannot give you aids, heavy emphasis on it's not a gay disease and you won't get it from a toilet seat or playground, the hysteria at the time. I didn't associate it with politics because too young for that, but I know religion in bed with politics was driving a lot of that.

Our senior pastor at one of the larger more prominent churches in the area (pre-mega church era) did a whole sermon that was mostly proper education on hiv transmission. I don't remember much other than him saying people might be offended he was going to use proper language like vaginal and seminal, but it was important for people to have facts. This was probably in 88 or 89. I am sure he wove in a Christian message in about loving others because something that as I grew up and understood more was the core of everything he preached.

That was mainline protestant, not evangelical, and the congregation leaned quite conservative in politics, but that was mostly for economic reasons. They absolutely were the type to say that charities, religious or not, should be the social net, not government. 

I love that this group provides a home for those who believe and grew up being taught that only republicans were Christian. That's simply not true, of course, and it's great to see people living and voting the message of the guy they claim to follow. I mean that sincerely. 

[gerberdaisy]

We've recently started going to church (Presbyterian) and while the Pastor stays apolitical, I just cannot understand how anyone can walk away from service wanting to vote for Trump. The message is all about kindness, forgiveness, treating others well, helping others and loving your enemy...

While I wouldn't consider myself a "Christian" as it is often used, I have actually enjoyed hearing a hopeful message every week and plan on getting more involved in our church. I'm glad to see these targeted groups and hope more will come around.

[wawa]

I'm curious if anybody knows more about the racial demographics of the folks who joined this call or ran the call?

I'm having a hard time articulating my thought here, so I'll just leave it at that question for the moment rather than writing and deleting another 3 paragraphs.

[neverfstop]

I'm so frustrated...we recently stopped going to church & I'm having a hard time going back. I know there are some more progressive churches out there, but I'm so over the Christian nationalism and the strident evangelicals.

This is a really fantastic book if you are interested in how the church got "here".

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
www.amazon.com/Jesus-John-Wayne-Evangelicals-Corrupted/dp/1631495739

[lilac05]

Aug 14, 2024 14:29:36 GMT -5 wawa said:

I'm curious if anybody knows more about the racial demographics of the folks who joined this call or ran the call?

I'm having a hard time articulating my thought here, so I'll just leave it at that question for the moment rather than writing and deleting another 3 paragraphs.

I haven’t watched yet to know who all presented, but it was facilitated by John Pavlovitz and Melynda Hale. Hale is new to me, but Pavlovitz has been in the fight for Progressive Christianity since at least Trump’s first campaign, I believe. He’s not a hand-wringer who just decided to speak up. He’s been “in the ring” fighting for justice, mercy, equality, and love for a LONG time. He’s written a lot of great stuff, in my opinion. Considering all of his previous work, I would assume that they had people from diverse backgrounds including LGBTQ+ and different races.

[lilac05]

Tonight, there was an Evangelicals for Harris (@evangelicals4harris on Insta). I’m not Evangelical & did not attend, but here is their list of speakers:

Ekemini Uwan
Patricia Ruiz-Cantu
Dr. Jemar Tisby
LaTasha Morrison
Lisa Sharon Harper
Sandra Van Opstal
Nelba Marquez-Greene
Jerushah Duford
Russell Jeung
Soong Chan Rah
Dr. Rev. Jim Ball
Rev. Dwight McKissic
Raymond Chang
Matt Tebbe
Joey Cochran
State Rep. James Talarico
Claude Alexander
Lee Scott
Derek Minor

[basilosaurus]

I don't recognize any of those evangelical names, but I've been reading Pavlovitz for years as an atheist generally anti-religion person. He has such wonderful insight, and I'm inspired by so much of what he writes.

[fernweh]

Wow I hope the tables are turning here with the evangelicals but probably not, I’m sure this is a one time thing. I’m not going to lie we had someone on our Democrat primary ballot for Congress. He was running as Democrat but when I went to his website he described himself as “a proud evangelical Christian”. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him because I had a hard time believing he really has the same values as me even though he says he does.

[lilac05]

Aug 15, 2024 6:06:01 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Wow I hope the tables are turning here with the evangelicals but probably not, I’m sure this is a one time thing. I’m not going to lie we had someone on our Democrat primary ballot for Congress. He was running as Democrat but when I went to his website he described himself as “a proud evangelical Christian”. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him because I had a hard time believing he really has the same values as me even though he says he does.

I don’t think the big tables are turning yet, but I think more and more people are starting to connect that they don’t have to take their pastor’s word at face value for everything, and more are seeing what has been co-opted as the “right” way to vote isn’t in line with Jesus’ actual teaching (but based on a few Old Testament verses that have been picked out).

I was recently talking with the pastor of a church we’ve been attending. He had a great point that even 25 years ago, you just kind of had to believe what you were told unless you were really willing to do some research/work. Now with the internet and social media, all of the hard questions and different perspectives are right at everyone’s fingertips. You can’t preach with the same black/white perspective of the past and expect especially younger people to stick around and hear it. Really the only true certainties are that Jesus loves you, and Christians are called to love ALL others the way that Jesus loves them.

I love that these people in the calls are standing up and trying to help people realize that it’s OK to take a harder look at what they’ve been taught their whole lives. I think it’s important that people have a safe place to go when they’re trying to figure out how they really feel. Some have grown up with some really terrible teachings and it takes a long time and a lot of patience to help people walk through that. It’s terrifying for them, as many of them truly believe that *any* deviation from believing absolutely everything they’ve ever been taught means certain damnation to hell for eternal misery beyond their wildest imagination. Watching them “come out of the basement” (@thenewevangelicals) and realize there’s a beautiful world where they are free to truly love people without being punished is a pretty amazing thing. It’s certainly not a job for everyone, but it’s something I have loved doing.

[heygrey]

Aug 15, 2024 6:06:01 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Wow I hope the tables are turning here with the evangelicals but probably not, I’m sure this is a one time thing. I’m not going to lie we had someone on our Democrat primary ballot for Congress. He was running as Democrat but when I went to his website he described himself as “a proud evangelical Christian”. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him because I had a hard time believing he really has the same values as me even though he says he does.

The majority? No. But there is a growing population who still have a faith identity and see very clearly that the Rs do not actually align with their Christlike values. I don't think this is a one time thing, I think this group will continue to grow. It's never going to be the largest part of the D base, but it will continue to sway a few votes every election. 

H and I were raised in a evangelical denomination, trained as pastors, and worked in the church for a few years. We no longer associate with that church, but still have friends from that time in our lives. The older generation isn't being swayed, but I see significant movement among our peers. The people with critical thinking skills are able to see that Trump does not align with the values they hold dearly and that he can say whatever, but his actions do not give credibility to his words.