Not All Christians... posted by Ben

As frustrating as the Republican's attempts to claim all Christians under their conservative umbrella can be, that religious tunnel vision also blinds them to a key fact: not all Christians are conservative, evangelical Republicans.

That happy truth rarely causes them pause, of course, but it does allow for huge potential embarrasment.

For instance, take the graduation addresses that our beloved President will be delivering this spring. One is at the Naval Academy. The other? Calvin College. As the Washington Post reports:

On closer inspection, it turns out that Calvin College is not the bastion of the Christian Right it appeared to be. In fact, judging from my e-mail, it's a veritable hotbed of those other Christian values -- the ones that oppose war, work for social justice, and don't think much of the president at all.

Perhaps Bush and his staff were hoping for a gimme', but having attending a private "Christian" university myself, I know better than to be surprised. Sure, Pacific Lutheran had its share of hard-core wingnuts, but those voices were balanced by (and often in dialogue with) hard-core social justice Christians who were active on a daily basis in trying to live lives of Christian virtue themselves, rather than forcing others into dogmatic servitude.

What does this mean for Bush, though? Take a look at this thought from "Magorn" on Daily Kos:

Fpor [sic] the Public Debate and the furture [sic] of this country this is HUGE.

This could be the moment where true Christians kick off a backlash against Republicans who have hijacked their faith for partisan ends. For too long we've let the Republicans hold the religious and moral high ground without a fight. Its [sic] time for devout Christians who have actually READ the bible (particularly the bits about loving thy neighbor, and loving thy enemy and how great it would be to be nice to people for a change )to stand up and let their voices be heard.

Middle America needs to be clearly shown that the supporting Republicans is NOT required by theirr [sic] faith or morals. There is a vlaid [sic] way to embrace Christian vlaues without embracing the sleaze merchants of the right. These educated and obviously devout Students (hey they CHOSE to go to a Christian College) can help show them the way and re-ignite the public dialogue on what it means to be a Christian.

Now, perhaps this goal is overly ambitious, but is it too much to hope for that Bush find himself held up against a few true Christian values during this little jaunt?

If nothing else, I hear that a number of professors are planning on reading "My Pet Goat" during the speech...