Jesse Jackson's observation was that "Jesus was a liberal, Herod was a conservative. Moses was a liberal, Pharoah was a conservative." Jesus said the two most important commandments were to love God and love your neighbor. To me, it is not loving God or your neighbor to stir up hatred against people whose lifestyle you disagree with, to invade foreign countries and torture their citizens in order to control their natural resources, or to allow your corporate friends to pump mercury into our lakes and rivers that will cause developmental retardation for generations of children.

Jesus is recorded as spending alot of his time with the sexual and social outcasts of his society, not using them as scapegoats for political gain. Jesus' harshest recorded words were not directed at those regarded sexually immoral but at the legalistic religious leaders of his day. Jesus' friends were not the rich but the poor. And he was executed in a brutal and public manner normally reserved for political prisoners.

Rev. Forbes at Riverside Church has said the election of '04 may be God teaching a lesson to the community of faith for falling asleep for thirty years while conservatives took over the evangelical movement for their own political and financial purposes. The old testament is filled with God using ungodly kings to correct the people of Israel that he loved. Perhaps Bush is our Nebuchadnezzar.  There is a "chad" in Nebuchadnezzar :+(

All that being said, your comment that this is not a "popular topic" may be true as well. The numbers may not justify the outreach. Many of my conservative Christian brothers and sisters may be so rigidly married to their ideology and tribal identity that no theological argument, regardless of it's logical construction or impassioned delivery, can distract them from a blinding obsession with sexuality and a simplistic view of the relationship between pregnancy and women's lives.

But the arguments made yesterday all say the key to regaining political viability is speaking of and standing for a set of values that resonates with the hearts of a majority. Most of the non-Christians I know have a sense of right and wrong that is not greatly unlike the definition of right and wrong that comes from my faith tradition. And I believe that progressive Christians and a large body of non-Christians share the values that Dr. Dean has articulated since taking the national stage.

When I hear the receptive change in the tone of voice of the agnostic and/or non-Christian hosts and guests on Air America to Rev. Wallis's arguments, I have hope. Core Democratic values are core Christian values as well. If we can deliver a message that articulates those values with clarity, respect and confidence, I think the Democratic party and the Christian church will be better for it.

IMHO :+)