Disclaimer: This article does not discount the faith of those true pacifists who have plumbed the depths of their Christian conscience and ardently believe that there is no such thing as a just war, or that no person should ever be turned away regardless of individual circumstances.
The growth of leftist Christianity within Catholicism, Mainline Protestantism, and even among Evangelical Christians, is a frightening phenomena that has received scant attention. Last week’s news of the arrest and deportation of the Sanctuary movement’s spokesperson, Elvira Arellano, highlights not only the strength of the left within urban churches, but Marxist Christianity (or Liberation Theology) is a fast-growing evolution of heretical Christianity effecting every little congregation is the U.S.
Elvira Arellano became the face behind the nation's immigration debate when she sought refuge from immigration authorities in a Chicago church a year ago.
U.S. immigration officials had ordered her deportation for working at O'Hare International Airport using a false Social Security number.
But Arellano holed up for a year in the Chicago sanctuary so she wouldn't be separated from her 8-year-old U.S. citizen son.
Many traditional American’s have failed to realize the actual links between today’s political movements and our churches. Many of these links come through denominational sponsored charitable networks and coalitions such as the National Council of Churches.
The National Council of Churches Supports the U.N. . . .It's not as simple as the NCC agreeing with your philosophy...it's the matter of a percentage of the funds you give to your church being sent to the headquarters of your denomination and from there, likely, a donation made to the NCC. These figures are difficult to confirm, but the National Council of Churches must be funded in some manner. On the positive side, family.org reports that donations from mainstream churches have significantly declined, but have been replaced with funds from political-action groups - and numerous qualify as "far-left" activism.
Some political movements have made genuine progress for humanity in this country. One example comes from the Black church in America. There is no doubt that the civil rights movement would have gone nowhere if it were not for the political activism within the Black churches in America. The strength of the Black churches in America is evidenced by the fact that until recently almost every Black politician who managed to gain national recognition had a Rev. next to his/her name.
It would be a grave mistake to discount the growing political activism and influence the leftist church is exerting on the questions of warfare and of immigration. The New Sanctuary movement is already becoming entrenched within many Christian denominations. This is an excerpt from their web page:
The New Sanctuary Movement is a coalition of interfaith religious leaders and participating congregations, called by our faith to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters residing in the United States. . . .
Called by faith to respond . . .
Unfortunately, there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing who masquerade as Christians within denominational leadership, and these Marxists have found the key to manipulating the church faithful into funding those groups that foster attacks on the sovereignty of these United States.
The left is gaining converts daily by an appeal to a false Christian guilt that would equate law-breakers who leave their country to improve their economic condition with slavery or with political refugees who are facing torture, death, or genocide within their home nations. Here’s an example of the sweetly twisted rhetoric:
"The Gospel message calls us to welcome the stranger and to stand in solidarity with the least of these," said Chett Pritchett, Wesley Theological Seminary student. "It's not a political issue, it is a Christian issue." . . .
Make no mistake. This IS a political issue!!!
Nowhere do any of these open border Marxist activists mention our Christian duty to protect, to defend, or to preserve our nation against an invasion of people that come here illegally flaunting our laws with no intention of assimilation and who would destroy the very fabric of our nation. No where do these open border activists mention that it is every Christian’s duty to protect the future of their country for their children. Nowhere do these leftists mention the long-standing traditional Christian understanding of just warfare as they sabotage the war in Iraq.
How do the leftist Christians manage to out trump years of Christian tradition? The first step (begun many years ago) is to promote the “social gospel” which emphasizes social justice and at the same time denigrates individualism. Christians are urged to think with a group mind in terms of “community” rather than individual moral choice or even individual salvation. Jesus is portrayed as a revolutionary freedom-fighter. Aggression against the enemy is only fostered if it is the undefined “oppressed people” seeking justice against any form of established government anywhere. It is a revolutionary gospel that hides its true objectives from the church faithful and couches its opposition to Christian tradition in the gentlest religious imagery. Popular in Latin America, Liberation Theology foments world-wide revolutions with the final objective – world-wide Marxist Christianity.
Independent congregations are not as at risk of succumbing to the New Sanctuary Movement as are the denominations. If you are a member of an old venerable Christian denomination the odds are about 99.9% that the movement for sanctuary is well under the control of the growing number of leftist leaders within your denomination’s headquarters and, of course, within the hallowed halls of university seminaries.
Here is a partial list of participating denominations from the New Sanctuary Movement’s web page:
Denominational/Interdenominational National Leadership Present: Unitarian Universalist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, United Methodist, Union of Reform Judaism, Interfaith Worker Justice. Additional religious traditions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, American Friends Service Committee, Evangelical Christian, Muslim, Sikh
For those who would like to explore the traditional perspective on just warfare obtain this book.
The Virtue of War: Reclaiming the Classic Christian Traditions East & West
Here’s an excerpt from a review:
The preeminence of pacifism within the Church as the proper reaction to military conflict is so established within contemporary Christianity that it is sometimes forgotten that this has not been the historic Christian position. Orthodox theologians Alexander F. C. Webster and Darrell Cole remind us of this fact in The Virtue of War, an important apologia for the Christian tradition of the just war. . . The most renowned figures in both Catholicism (St. Ambrose, St. Augustine of Hippo, St Thomas Aquinas) and Protestantism (Martin Luther, John Calvin) all supported the idea of the just war although their presentations and arguments may have varied in approach. . .
Here’s an excerpt from another review of the above book by James V. Schall, S.J. , a professor in the government department at Georgetown University. His latest book is "Roman Catholic Political Philosophy" (Lexington).
The occasion of this book is, no doubt, the aftermath of September 11 and the need to see the proportions of a new kind of war in our time, a new kind that is a very old kind. With the paradox that "war is a virtue" or a "positive good," the authors force us to look again at actions designed to face evils that few are willing to meet because they cannot understand how doing anything effective can be just. This book is another way of looking at the problem, an ancient way, as it turns out.
It should be noted that defending our country against those who would destroy it (from within or without) falls within the theology of Just Warfare!
Some short excerpts from related articles worth reading:
The Battle for American Unity: . . In the last century, many Christian churches began to focus on inclusiveness and Christian unity became the primary core value. Divisive moral issues were ignored or downplayed. Individual behaviors were never judged. Emphasis was always placed on God’s forgiving love rather than on individual accountability to God.
Your Mainline Christmas Sermon: . . . Just as few Americans are very much aware of the growing influence of Islamofascism on American politics, even fewer Americans are aware of the Marxist trends (born of Liberation Theology) that are fast overcoming mainline denominations and informing new ministers in mainline Protestantism! Catholics and Evangelicals are not immune to this growing trend either.
United Nations Entrenched Within Most Christian Denominations: . . There are over 100,000 local congregations and 45 million Christians supporting the above goals – and most of these Christians don’t even know what they are supporting or that much of their money is going to tax-exempt leftist foundations!!!
Obama’s Liberation Theology Church “. . .The black Christ is he who threatens the structure of evil as seen in white society, rebelling against it, thereby becoming the embodiment of what the black community knows that it must become. . .”
What other’s are saying:
The New Sanctuary Movement is a religious and political network of radical left congregations who claim America’s immigration laws are immoral and — like slavery and Jim Crow laws — should be repealed. . .
Read Whom would Jesus bomb? By Roger W. Gardner
Although I love this very accurate quote from the Vanishing American, I completely disagree with the conclusion .
Certainly the liberalized caricature of Christianity, which is only a shadow of the real Christianity in actual fact, is a religion which would command the West to sacrifice itself for the sake of the 'wretched of the earth.' This version of Christianity preaches guilt for our success and material prosperity, and guilt-trips us into giving away what we have to the victims, and sharing all our possessions with them, including our country. Unfortunately this version of Christianity is growing in numbers of adherents; many formerly conservative denominations and churches are being pulled into the vortex of leftist Christianity by liberal clerics and preachers masquerading as traditional Christians, and many formerly conservative Christians are being led by these pied pipers where they would not formerly have gone, into the globalist, universalist system.
**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.
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