Progressive Christians organize group to counter religious right

A group of Marylanders who describe themselves as progressive Christians is forming a new organization to try to counter conservative religious groups that they say are dominating political debate over moral and religious issues. "We've allowed the Christian right to commandeer and exclusively appropriate the term Christian for themselves," said Paul Verduin of Silver Spring, one of the organizers of Maryland Christians for Justice and Peace. "It is not only the Christian right that owns the name Christian. We refuse to be marginalized by some of their right-wing and extreme positions."

Conservative and fundamentalist churches that once avoided politics have become increasingly active in national and state politics over the last three decades, lobbying state and federal legislators on issues such as abortion, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage.

Conservative religious groups played an important role in some battleground states in the 2004 presidential election, including Florida and Ohio, both of which President Bush won. The 20 people who gathered last weekend at an Episcopal church in Columbia to talk about the future of Maryland Christians for Justice and Peace came from a variety of religious backgrounds—Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic, among others—and have been activists on issues such as war, the environment, civil rights, and help for the poor and elderly.

With the group in its early stages, members are trying to figure out how they will operate and what issues to concentrate on. But the participants in the recent meeting were united in a belief that the most important teachings of Jesus are not those that are dominating the political dialogue in Maryland and the nation.

William Neil, who moved last year to Montgomery County from New Jersey, was drawn to the meeting by a belief that "the Christian right has a monopoly on the debate." "Balancing who brings what into the political system is very important," Neil said. The religious right is destroying the nation's moral compass by directing its energies into two issues, abortion and gay rights, he said. "I think it's a distortion of the Christian gospel."

Carrie Gordon Earll, spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, a national political action group that rallied evangelical Christians during the last presidential campaign, said there is plenty of room in the political system for Christian groups that want to work on issues such as peace and aid to the poor.

But if the organization is being formed "because they want to advocate the killing of pre-born children and approval of homosexual marriage, then they will meet us in the public arena because we oppose those things based on biblical values," Gordon said. "If they are forming this group in the spirit of criticism, I suggest their motivations are misguided," she said.

While several people involved in setting up the new group mentioned the religious right's focus on abortion and gay rights, those issues were not part of the discussion and weren't included in a list of potential issues that might be the subject of lobbying campaigns. "We're at the point where we're trying to figure out what direction to go," said Joyce Fitzpatrick, who came to the meeting from Grasonville in Queen Anne's County. "I'm kind of reserving my judgment right now." (AP)