After stewing with anger across 8 years in the wilderness, liberal prelates are shouting Hosanna in expectation of spiritual enlightenment during the Obama reign.
-- From "The Religious Left Celebrates" Commentary by Mark D. Tooley, posted at FrontPageMagazine.com 11/12/08
"We at the National Council of Churches urge all Americans to come together to uphold you with our hands, our hearts and our prayers," the NCC's chief, Michael Kinnamon wrote his congratulatory letter to Obama. The NCC, previously the voice of America's premier religious denominations, once truly walked in the corridors of power. It has never fully accepted its transition from mainline to sideline in America's religious demographic. As recently as 1995, the NCC was invited to the White House to "pray" for President Clinton as he was resisting the new Republican Congress. No doubt, the NCC is praying that its White House visitation rights will soon be restored.
. . . Rev. Kinnamon could not suppress his excitement. "The leaders of this Council pledge to you our unstinting support in the difficult days to come," he promised Obama. "All of us are dependent on God's loving mercy, and we will regularly pray for you and others elected to high leadership. May your wisdom and discernment serve you well, and may your health never wane."
Maybe even more excitable than the NCC was the United Methodist Council of Bishops, who were meeting in Georgia during the election, and could barely contain their joy.
United Methodism's chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill, Jim Winkler, who once called for President Bush's impeachment before retracting the call amid controversy, was also looking forward to ending his exile from White House events. "Barack Obama is a person of deep faith," he enthused. "I fully expect The United Methodist Church, for the first time in many years, will be welcomed in the White House." [Note: President Bush is the first Methodist president since William McKinley]
Another likely White House religious visitor during the Obama years is Sojourners chief Jim Wallis, who has been feverishly attempting to create an Evangelical Left that would undermine evangelicals' traditional conservative voting habits. This new Evangelical Left, largely a repackaging of the old Religious Left for a new audience that cannot remember the 1960's, wants to persuade evangelicals that Global Warming and opposing U.S. military actions is more important than upholding traditional marriage or opposing abortion.
Wallis claimed that his campaign was successful. "Polls leading up to the election showed a significant break from the previous generation on issues like gay marriage and abortion, which while still a top concern, it is not the only one," he rejoiced. . . Wallis, an old 1960's student radical who now wants to be seen as a soothing centrist, claimed, "These religious voters refuse to be distracted by the culture wars of the previous generation."
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