Christianity Today profiles the candidates...

[nosmokes]

you wouldn't think this would be his biggest fan base, and it isn't, but it's a pretty decent article, all in all. well, lemm put it this way, it's not the inquisition i was expecting.

the big surprise for me was the less than complete embrace of lil flora. i don't know this magazine, i stumbled across these articles from a google alert on the abu ghraib mess, but i did find this interesting.
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John Kerry

John Kerry's Open Mind
The candidate has roots in liberal Catholicism, establishment Protestantism, and secular idealism.
By Mark Stricherz | posted 09/27/2004 9:30 a.m.

Christianity Today's profiles of this year's election candidates will continue tomorrow with an article on George W. Bush's need to retain the evangelical vote.



Whatever comment you make about John Kerry's Christianity, it will fit somewhere in the spiritual timeline of his life.

Critics say Kerry, a Roman Catholic, has all the form and ritual of religion but almost none of the doctrine. Others see a selfless public servant of iron-clad Christian conscience unafraid to stand his ground on moral issues in opposition to a cardinal or bishop.

The image-buffers in the Democratic presidential campaign don't often allow a spiritual light to shine very far into the interior of John Kerry. But on occasion, Kerry himself opens up. A few months back, as his presidential campaign plane flew over Oregon's Hood River, he stared out the window. Later at an outdoor rally, he exclaimed,

"I was flying down the Hood River and the gorges. I was thinking: God! I need to get back here!

"I was planning on doing a little windsurfing."

Kerry was on his Wheels Up for a Stronger America tour. During a three-day, five-event swing through the Pacific Northwest, during which Christianity Today trailed the Kerry campaign, this was the only time the candidate invoked God's name publicly.

For Kerry, windsurfing is one measure of his spirituality. In a 1998 interview with American Windsurfer, he said windsurfing is more spiritually fulfilling than playing hockey because windsurfing "allows nature to play with you in ways that nature doesn't involve itself with a hockey game."
~snip~
complete article at original
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George Bush

Wooing the Faithful
President Bush needs evangelicals more than ever, but it's unclear how badly they want him for another four years.
By Tony Carnes | posted 09/28/2004

Christianity Today's profiles of this year's election candidates will continue today with an article on George W. Bush. Yesterday, we profiled John Kerry.

"Let me give a big introduction to our brother," said an ebullient Herb Lusk as President George W. Bush walked into a room of Christian leaders in Philadelphia. Lusk, a leading evangelical in Pennsylvania, was welcoming Bush to People for People, a faith-based community service organization, at a midsummer rally.

"Let's not hold back anything in our welcome!" said the man known as the "praying tailback" in his NFL days. Bush's eyes responded, looking bright with the pleasure of friendship. In turn, he saluted Lusk as "a general in the army of compassion." Bush was clearly reaching out to his faith-based supporters.

As well he should. Bush's re-election strategy rests on a high turnout of pro-Bush churchgoers. Christian radio talk-show host Kevin McCullough says, "The church community is more strongly supportive of this President than any other I can remember in my lifetime."

Matthew Dowd, a Bush campaign strategist, told CT that their polling in July indicated 91 percent support from evangelicals.

But top GOP leaders believe that not all evangelicals share equal fervor for the President. They agree with research from presidential adviser Karl Rove, who said nearly 4 million evangelicals did not cast ballots in the 2000 election. That may have cost Bush the popular vote victory.
~snip~
complete article at original

[lilymidnite]

1. Christianity Today is pretty moderate

Or at least was 10,000 years ago, when I used to read it.

[Tangledog]

3. They're a little more to the right

... rather than the center, I'd say, but they're nice about it. They tend to couch a fairly rigorous theology in thoughtful terms, and they have some very good writers. That's probably why they appear a little more liberal than they really are. We're used to noise pollution from the "Christian Right", and when we get sentences that parse and arguments that respect the intellect, it just don't go with what we know.

[tigereye]

2. that was very interesting

Thank you. This issue and the relationship of candidates to faith and religion is much more complex than people think it is.

[lthuedk]

4. Bush a Christian? Hardly

Its not too late for Evangelicals to wake up. Processing Bush is a no brainer:


http://www.light-to-dark.com/bushworm.html


Stephen Pitt

[newyawker99]

6. Hi lthuedk!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MissMarple]

5. Christianity Today tries to be fair.

They do OK.

I was doing some research in the 80's about teen sex education. I think they reported research from the fundamentalist Josh McDowell ministries that found (in the 80's) 50% of all teens had sex, about 40% of churched teens had sex, and 25% of fundamentalist churched teens committed to God had sex.

In the 80's I was quite naive. I thought that 25% of all teens had sex. What an eye opener. I'm thinking all categories have progressed from there.

So, fundies, watch your own children, don't even think to pass judgment on the children of others.