"Fight against gay marriage and abortion but also broaden the agenda to include....the environment"

[Flabbergasted]

Baptists to stay in political arena
Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:57AM EDT

By Ed Stoddard

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Conservative Christians in the United States must press the fight against gay marriage and abortion but also broaden the agenda to include protecting the environment, a leading evangelical says.

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Southern Baptists needed to remain firm on the social issues that have defined much of their political activism and their association with the Republican Party.

"We need to continue to take stands against those who would define the family in ways other than a man and a woman. That may be seen as negative but I think it is biblically responsible," he said.

"I feel strongly that we must be very pro-life ... and I believe that is an appropriate political involvement," he told Reuters late on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting.

But Page also advocated taking up an issue that liberal evangelicals are working on: the environment.

"It would be a very positive thing for Christians to be far more conscious of the environment and how to care for it and guard and keep as the Bible commands," said Page, who is a pastor of a large church in South Carolina.

But he took issue with those who said that evangelicals should back out of politics.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1334508620070613?src=061307_1129_DOUBLEFEATURE_gaza_fights_intensify

[closeupready]

1. If they are prepared to give up their tax exemptions, fine.

Just don't pretend to be a church when you are really a political party or a surrogate of same.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Strange priority

since christian conservatives have spent every waking moment doing what they can to destroy the political environment in this country with their faith based hate.

I suggest they give up their tax exempt status and jump into the political arena whole hogged AND LEGITIMATELY!

[Zenlitened]

3. Great news, now we can court their votes!!!

:sarcasm:

[northernsoul]

4. It's a fig leaf

Some of the smarter evangelicals are realizing that our disastrous 6+ year experiment in faith-based governance is going the present them with a collosal PR problem as more and more people are starting to ask about just how this administration felt so enabled to act as it did. So they are proposing some "make-nice" window dressing to obscure their theocratic agenda from the harsh scrutiny it deserves.

[semillama]

5. If they're serious, then good

at this point, we need everyone on board, regardless of their other political beliefs.

[AnnieBW]

6. If they really cared about the environment

They'd be pushing for birth control and family planning, especially in overpopulated countries like El Salvador (which has criminalized abortion).