CNN's Hoover to First Black President of Southern Baptist Convention: Will You Push 'Civil Rights' Issue of Gay Marriage?
Yesterday the Southern Baptist Convention elected their first black president, an historic moment for an organization that got its start defending slavery in pre-Civil War America.
CNN Starting Point host Soledad O'Brien interviewed Fred Luter Jr., who will be installed as president Wednesday evening. The interview on the main was fine, but towards the end, contributor Margaret Hoover pressed Luter as to whether he would champion as a "civil rights" cause, "inclusiveness of gay Americans," referring it seems to same-sex marriage. Luter answered in the negative, citing the Bible's teachings on the definition of marriage. It's then that O'Brien retorted that his stance put him in opposition to President Obama, as if to suggest that were a scandalous position for him to be in:
LUTER: ...We're going to embrace them [gays] as far as who they are, but we are also going to stand on biblical principles that the Word of God has already established, that marriage is between one man and one woman.
O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly, sir, in opposition to President Obama.
LUTER: On this particular subject, yes. I support my president. He is my president. I pray for him and Michelle and his daughters on a daily basis. But on this issue, the president and I have two different opinions for sure.
After thanking Luter for coming on the program, liberal contributor Richard Socarides snarked that Luter was "inclusive up to a point."
"Clearly, he is making it very clear that he is inclusive up to a point," O'Brien replied, adding to Hoover, "That was an excellent question there."
Here's the segment transcript, courtesy of MRC intern Kelly McGarey:
Starting Point
June 20, 2012
8:35 a.m. EDT
SOLEDAD O’BRIEN, anchor: It's an historic day for the Southern Baptist Convention. The country’s largest Protestant body has elected its first African-American president, the Reverend Fred Luter Hr. His election comes 160 years after the SBC was founded as a pro-slavery church and just 17 years after its leaders apologized for the denomination’s support of white supremacists and segregationist policies. Reverend Fred Luter Jr. officially becomes president this evening. Nice to see you sir, congratulations to you. Thanks for being with us this morning. I can't say you're surprised, right? You ran unopposed, but it still is a tremendous honor. What's going to be your agenda as the new president?
FRED LUTER, Jr.: Well, thank you, Soledad, for being on the program. I'm very honored to be here with you and with CNN. It was a surprise that I was unopposed, particularly because this is such a large convention and it's the year of the president’s election. I was really, really, really surprised that no one stepped up and wanted to run against me, and then just to see the support I got from the floor, it just brought tears to my eyes. I'm really grateful for that. My agenda will first be, first of all will be learning what I have to do. This is my first time doing this, so I'll be meeting with the staff there at the headquarters in Nashville and talking to other former presidents and find out, you know, specifically my duties and responsibilities. I know I'll be representing our convention across the country and across the world, but there are other things that I need to do as far as working with our Southern Baptist entities and working with other churches and denominations across the country.
O’BRIEN: You have said that you want to help solve the church's divisive civil rights history. What specifically would you do on that front?
LUTER: Well, we cannot deny the fact that of our history. It's there. Everybody knows about it. I'm sure by now they do. But one of the things I'm so proud about is that understanding the fact that every one of us have a history. I've got a history. You've got a history. Everybody watching this program has a history. There's nothing we can do about our past. But there's a lot we can do about our future, and so one of the things I’d like to do is, first of all, say to those outside of the SBC that this is a brand-new convention. Yes, we started out as a result of slavery. But that's behind us now, and we have proven the fact through the years that we want to move on from there, and I think by electing me as president of this convention is exhibit A to the world that this convention is now ready to open its doors to different groups, no matter your background, no matter your race, no matter your color. So that's some of the things that we hope to put out there, that people will understand, that we need to learn to get together here. Because if we don't get together here, we're not going to get together in heaven.
O’BRIEN: Some people might say, though, exhibit B would be what Dr. Richard Land said, who is the head of the ethics committee for the SBC, not too long ago about the Trayvon Martin case, obviously.
LUTER: Yes.
O’BRIEN: And I think he said that the president poured gasoline on racist fires. Then he did an apology, and then a second apology after that. So it's not really, really history for some people in some ways.
LUTER: Yes. You know, that's something that Richard Land - if he can go back and do that over again, I'm sure he would. All of us. I know I've said some things in the pulpit and I’ve said some things in interviews, hopefully not this interview, about you in interviews that I have regretted that I have said.
O’BRIEN: So far, so good.
LUTER: But you cannot deny the fact that there will be some, and there are some, who still has a problem with the skin. And I told folks yesterday that I was talking to, we don't have a skin problem in America, we have a sin problem, and until we deal with our sin problem, we will always have a skin problem.
O’BRIEN: Reverend Fred Luter joining us this morning, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Did you want to jump in and ask some -
MARGARET HOOVER: , Reverend Luter, your election is a huge triumph for civil rights, and I wonder, you know, Pastor Worley, Baptist preacher in North Carolina, has made headlines recently. I wonder if your agenda will include a new civil rights issue, inclusiveness of gay Americans.
LUTER: Can you are repeat that? I didn't hear the last part.
O’BRIEN: Will your agenda include inclusiveness of gay Americans, a new civil rights issue?
LUTER: Well, no, no. I'm a man of the book. I believe in the word of God. I believe in the Bible. And God has specifically spoken about marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. You know, that's biblical. No president, whether it's a president in the White House, no governor, no mayor, no one can change that. God has already established a marriage between one man and one woman. So I will stand for that because that's what the word of God says, and that's what I believe in. We want to love -- I love all of us as believers. All of us love everybody. Including those in the gay community. We're going to embrace them as far as who they are, but we are also going to stand on biblical principles that the word of God has already established, that marriage is between one man and one woman.
O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly, sir, in opposition to President Obama.
LUTER: On this particular subject, yes. I support my president. He is my president. I pray for him and Michelle and his daughters on a daily basis. But on this issue, the president and I have two different opinions for sure.
O’BRIEN: Reverend Fred Luter, nice to see you, sir. Congratulations again on your election.
LUTER: Thank you, Soledad. Listen, thanks for all you've done for New Orleans. We appreciate you.
O’BRIEN: My pleasure. I'm going to be there this weekend. Maybe I'll get a chance to run into you, sir. Swing by church.
LUTER: That would be great.
O’BRIEN: Take care, sir.
LUTER: Thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: You bet.
RICHARD SOCARIDES, writer, NewYorker.com: He's inclusive up to a point.
O’BRIEN: Clearly, he is making it very clear that he is inclusive up to a point.That was an excellent question there.
- Ken Shepherd's blog
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Comments
She's so smug. She really
Submitted by ray johnson on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 6:29pm.
She's so smug. She really thinks she is hot stuff, doesn't she? And she seems to think that she's soooo much smarter and wiser and so on. Ending up at Current TV won't be so bad.
Hoover
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:43pm.
Guess now that the world knows why Hoover is no longer on Fox News.
she really has changed her
Submitted by australia33 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 5:30am.
she really has changed her political leanings now she's with soledad! i thought she was a breathe of fresh air when she was on fox: young, intelligent conservative. i guess shifting channels has also shifted her opinions!
Maybe she's
Submitted by chiefpayne on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:24pm.
homosexual and has the HOTS for O'Brien???
Hoover
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:43pm.
Guess now that the world knows why Hoover is no longer on Fox News.
Smug interviewer vs. Fred Luter
Submitted by rapkiller on Sat, 06/23/2012 - 12:43pm.
["Smug" interviewer should memorize this bit - what I found on the web!]
OBAMA PROMOTES PUBLIC SEX
(and thinks children have a "right" to see it!)
Google “Zombietime” and click on “Up Your Alley Fair.” After recovering from the uncensored photos (!), Yahoo or Google “God to Same-Sexers: Hurry Up” on the “ucmpage” (even Jesus told Judas to hurry up – John 13:27). Also Yahoo “Dangerous Radicals of the Religious Right.” View these before the predicted California earthquake happens a la Rev.16:19 (“the cities of the nations fell”) – and before meteorological "lows" like hurricanes and tornadoes which predictably reflect society's "lows." Gays have invented strange architecture - closets no longer opening on to bedrooms but on to public Main Streets where children can watch police-protected sex between naked men in "Madam" Nancy Pelosi's brothel district! I wonder how soon San Fransicko's underground saint - San Andreas - will get a big jolt out of what goes on above him and will suddenly change the political center-left into the EPICENTER-LEFT!
Since Luke 17's predicted "days of Lot" (see Genesis 19) immediately precede the Second Coming, gays and gay-loving SF politicians are hurrying up, and thus helping to fulfill, Christ's return as Judge and making the Bible even more believable! Not one to mince words, Jesus said in Mark 9:42 that anyone hurting a child in any way deserves to be hanged and have his body thrown into the ocean - and that includes any President whose favorite drink seems to be infanti-cider! It's far from coincidental that the more America elevates gays and other violence, the more the cost of gas, food etc. goes up! If America is smart, it will pick up the big dust-covered book everyone owns and almost never reads - no, not the Sears catalog - and find out that the One who made the universe has some rights too!
Also Google "Obama a Black-Slavery Avenger?," "Michelle Obama's Allah-day," and "Islam Will Purify Jews and Christians."
PS – New pro-life slogans: “Unborn babies should have the right to keep and bear arms – and legs and ears and eyes etc.!” & "Unborn babies should have the same right to be born alive that abortionists had!"
(Obama and his porn-protecting California friends - including Brown and Pelosi - did NOT approve of this message.)
If he does, he won't be the president of the SBC for very long
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 6:30pm.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Different Strokes For Different Folks
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 6:34pm.
Doesn't really apply to anyone but hippies, does it?
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
Inclusive up to a point?
Submitted by tcm14 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 6:49pm.
This describes liberals so perfectly. Does their hypocrisy know no bounds?
His stance
Submitted by bobsmom on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:00pm.
actually puts him upright on 2 legs defending his principles, as opposed to being bent over and driven by someone else's.
Soledad. . .
Submitted by rickbren on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:09pm.
. . . Reverend Luter's position is not in opposition to Barry's. The president's position is in opposition to God's.
THAT
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 10:47pm.
is exactly what I was thinking!
We said!
Submitted by NC Boy on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 2:22pm.
Well said!
Why are so many straight MSM women obsessed with 'gay rights'?
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:09pm.
I just don't get it.
Hoover was really annoying on BOR, so I'm not missing her in the least. Then again, the most annoying person on BOR is BOR.
I'll guess why.
Submitted by Franksam on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 6:23am.
They need someone to do their hair and design clothes..
O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:26pm.
O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly, sir, in opposition to President Obama.
Soledad doesn't care what the Bible says, only what Obama says.
I wish Rev. Luter had said No, it puts President Obama in opposition to God.
Would have been interesting to see where Soledad went with that.
I think another good reply to that would be
Submitted by dzejk113 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:27pm.
"And your point is.....?"
Oh I would
Submitted by chiefpayne on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:27pm.
have LOVED to see O'Brien try to come up with an answer for THAT one. These liberals HATE it when they have to explain their smarmy comments and have to try NOT to make it LOOK like a smarmy comment.
Noah
Submitted by belief101 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:24pm.
I am not a Southern Baptist but I congratulate Reverend Luter on his appointment. I loved this statement:
"We don't have a skin problem in America, we have a sin problem, and until we deal with our sin problem, we will always have a skin problem".
Amen to that sir! I appreciate as a Christian, these men and women who stand on principle.
"O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly, sir, in opposition to President Obama"..
Who the hell cares? You know, there is only one final judge I am concerned about and that is NOT the smug liberals or others who want to change the definition of marriage! I also am dissappointed with Margaret Hoover, who I use to respect and reject the premise of the questioning relating gay marriage to a civil rights issue, and if I were Rev. Luter I would be offended by the question and comparison.
I'm with you.
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:31pm.
I'm glad to see black pastors are standing their ground and yielding to Higher Authority.
As liberals love to say, "Let's be clear...."
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:32pm.
Gay "marriage" is NOT a "civil rights" issue.
They want to make it one, simply because they have decided it should be.
"CNN's Hoover to First Black
Submitted by MightyMouth on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:30pm.
"CNN's Hoover to First Black President of So. Baptist Convention Convention: Will You Push 'Civil Rights' Issue of Gay Marriage"
If he does he ain't a Baptist. Just another political pawn for Obama. God help us!
Being in opposition to the beliefs of the president
Submitted by Calypso Jones on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:31pm.
Is an honorable thing.
Saltine Moon Frye errrr Soldud errrrr
Submitted by Tomorama on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:31pm.
Almost as if, "All blacks are supposed to have the same beliefs and dammit, Obysmal is the sole arbiter of what you people are supposed to think".....
Her response is totally bleeped up.
So we all need to base our thoughts on "what would Obysmal think"?
Saltine Moon Frye here's a newsflash, your hero Obysmal just changed his position RECENTLY because he did it for politics.
Oops, sorry "honey" using facts.
Ms. O'Brien, are you of the
Submitted by MikeB on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:57pm.
Ms. O'Brien, are you of the opinion that Duh Won is infallible when it comes to matters of faith? If so, why aren't you after him to resign or be impeached due to the violation of the left's precious "wall of separation of state and church"?
As for Luter, he should have told Ms. O'Brien that the Church must obey God as ruler rather than men. Yes, we are to love the sinner and hate the sin. Also, the sinners are supposed to repent and change their ways. Even Jesus, after rebuking the Pharisees with his "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", then told the adultress to "go and sin no more."
Ms. O'Brien and the rest of the left love the sin, and those like Dan Savage hate the sinners who do not agree with him down to the last detail.
Equating gay marriage to the civil rights movement should earn Ms. O'Brien a slap in the face for spouting stupidity. Homosexuals and lesbians choose their lifestyles. Until you can point out a lesbian or homosexual gene, you cannot credibly claim that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice. The amount of melanin in the skin, on the other hand, is determined genetically.
The scriptures warn that
Submitted by Slyrr on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 7:57pm.
The scriptures warn that people should fear God rather than men. O'brien thinks that God should bend to Obama's will.
The scriptures also warn that one day, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. O'brien and her ilk had better be prepared to get their knees dusty. If she and her kind believe that the word of God is the only way to salvation, why do they not say that to their viewers and listeners?
I ask, but we all know the answer. It's because she and her ilk don't really believe in God. They'll cite a scripture every so often if they think that they can use it as a weapon to impose their personal beliefs on others, but none of them are believers.
They draw near to God with their lips, and with their mouths they honor him, but their hearts are far from him. They preach for doctrine the commandments of men - having a form of Godliness, but they deny the power thereof.
I'm curious how
Submitted by Shreve on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 8:43pm.
one local SBC congregation is taking this about having a church president who happens to be Black.
They split a few years ago over the baptism of a young Black child.
Can you source that claim?
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 8:49pm.
.
Aside from the facts a new
Submitted by Shreve on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:01pm.
Aside from the facts a new congregation was formed and I have several friends who witnessed it, I have no other sources.
Then I call B.S.
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:20pm.
.
Rad ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 10:03pm.
BS = Biased Source.
Good one. ;o)
MD
Smug liberals with their
Submitted by Smbeane1 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 8:58pm.
Smug liberals with their higher education make me sick!
O'Brien IS CUTE
Submitted by A TEXAS GRIZ on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:27pm.
That is the only reason she is there on CNN. Fox has beautiful ladies but they are smart as whips. O'Brien...she stinks on ice with her bias. How much more obvious does it need to be, folks? Boy Howdy, it is getting old, isn't it?
2%
Submitted by Slyrr on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 9:33pm.
Didn't a recent census determine that only about 2% of the population is gay? Talk about tyranny of the minority....
What part of....
Submitted by stage9 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:11am.
...'homosexuality is a sin' are media dunderheads having such difficulty wrapping their little minds around?
True Christians will NEVER, under any circumstances, endorse sodomite sins or any other sexual sin! Get over it! Move on! Drop it!
Christianity is not beholden to perverse and evil cultural mores, and it never will be.
THE HOMOSEXUAL MANIFESTO
By Michael Swift, "Gay Revolutionary." Reprinted from The Congressional Record of the United States Congress. First printed in
Gay Community News, February 15-21 1987
“We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in yourlocker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.
“Women, you cry for freedom. You say you are no longer satisfied with men; they make you unhappy. We, connoisseurs of the masculine face, the masculine physique, shall take your men from you then. We will amuse them; we will instruct them; we will embrace them when they weep.
Women, you say you wish to live with each other instead of with men. Then go and be with each other. We shall give your men pleasures they have never known because we are foremost men too, and only one man knows how to truly please another man; only one man can understand the depth and feeling, the mind and body of another man.
“All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. Instead, legislation shall be passed which engenders love between men. All homosexuals must stand together as brothers; we must be united artistically, philosophically, socially, politically and financially. We will triumph only when we present a common face to the vicious heterosexual enemy.
“If you dare to cry faggot, fairy, queer, at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts and defile your dead, puny bodies.
“We shall write poems of the love between men; we shall stage plays in which man openly caresses man; we shall make films about the love between heroic men which will replace the cheap, superficial, sentimental, insipid, juvenile, heterosexual infatuations presently dominating your cinema screens. We shall sculpt statues of beautiful young men, of bold athletes which will be placed in your parks, your squares, your plazas. The museums of the world will be filled only with paintings of graceful, naked lads.
“Our writers and artists will make love between men fashionable and de rigueur, and we will succeed because we are adept at setting styles. We will eliminate heterosexual liaisons through usage of the devices of wit and ridicule, devices which we are skilled in employing.
“We will unmask the powerful homosexuals who masquerade as heterosexuals. You will be shocked and frightened when you find that your presidents and their sons, your industrialists, your senators, your mayors, your generals, your athletes, your film stars, your television personalities, your civic leaders, your priests are not the safe, familiar, bourgeois, heterosexual figures you assumed them to be. We are everywhere; we have infiltrated your ranks. Be careful when you speak of homosexuals because we are always among you; we may be sitting across the desk from you; we may be sleeping in the same bed with you.
“There will be no compromises. We are not middle-class weaklings. Highly intelligent, we are the natural aristocrats of the human race, and steely-minded aristocrats never settle for less. Those who oppose us will be exiled. We shall raise vast private armies, as Mishima did, to defeat you. We shall conquer the world because warriors inspired by and banded together by homosexual love and honor are invincible as were the ancient Greek soldiers.
“The family unit-spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence--will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated. Perfect boys will be conceived and grown in the genetic laboratory. They will be bonded together in communal setting, under the control and instruction of homosexual savants.
“All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men. We adhere to a cult of beauty, moral and esthetic. All that is ugly and vulgar and banal will be annihilated. Since we are alienated from middle-class heterosexual conventions, we are free to live our lives according to the dictates of the pure imagination. For us too much is not enough.
“The exquisite society to emerge will be governed by an elite comprised of gay poets. One of the major requirements for a position of power in the new society of homoeroticism will be indulgence in the Greek passion. Any man contaminated with heterosexual lust will be automatically barred from a position of influence. All males who insist on remaining stupidly heterosexual will be tried in homosexual courts of justice and will become invisible men.
“We shall rewrite history, history filled and debased with your heterosexual lies and distortions. We shall portray the homosexuality of the great leaders and thinkers who have shaped the world. We will demonstrate that homosexuality and intelligence and imagination are inextricably linked, and that homosexuality is a requirement for true nobility, true beauty in a man.
“We shall be victorious because we are fueled with the ferocious bitterness of the oppressed who have been forced to play seemingly bit parts in your dumb, heterosexual shows throughout the ages. We too are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of the ultimate revolution. “Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks.”
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
Another good post by Stage9
Submitted by GW on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:31am.
"We shall conquer the world because warriors inspired by and banded together by homosexual love and honor are invincible as were the ancient Greek soldiers."
But I have to break it to this guy that the Greek soldiers weren't invincible. That's why there is no longer any empire based in Greece. This newsflash is just about 2300 years old.
Personally I'm glad Hoover is now on CNN because I never...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:47am.
watch CNN.
O'Reilly used to have her on with Gretchen Carlson and the difference between the two was like night and day. Gretchen was cool and calm while Hoover with her hand gestures, fast talk and nervous manner was just the opposite.
So much so, I never knew what she said after she said it.
Apotheosis!
Submitted by LaVallette on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 5:46am.
"LUTER: ...We're going to embrace them [gays] as far as who they are, but we are also going to stand on biblical principles that the Word of God has already established, that marriage is between one man and one woman.
O’BRIEN: Which puts you directly, sir, in opposition to President Obama."
There you have it folks" The Obummer has been raised to the status of a god with a far higher status than the Biblical Judeo Christian God of Ages, with the right to trump His precepts and mandates..
Will You Push 'Civil Rights' Issue of Gay Marriage?
Submitted by 3_4wanda on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 6:04am.
They just don't get it; Christians live by the Bible. The Bible does not evolve through time; the Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman; the Bible says homosexuality is a sin.
It's an identity thing
Submitted by KornKing on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:01am.
I have no doubt there are Christians who are caught up in the lifestyle, but if they are pushing for acceptance of their sin they have placed that ahead of God and placed their trust in themselves(and their sin) rather than in God.
The older I get the more and
Submitted by Kubrickfilmfan73 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:17am.
The older I get the more and more I become convinced of the following:
1. The basic, fundamental problem of human existence is not, as the atheists and agnostics would like to believe, that God does not exist or that God may not exist. The problem is that God does exist and nobody can manipulate Him.
2. Liberals typically hate God. Why? What exactly is it about the nature of God that liberals dislike? As far as I can see, it can only be accountability (admitting that God is in charge) and humility (admitting that I'm not God). If I'm wrong and liberals hate God for some other reason, then I confess pure, complete, and absolute ignorance as to what that other reason might be.
3. One of two things is going to happen during the course of each individual's life. Either you're going to put God at the center of your life, or you're going to put yourself at the center of your life. Conservatives do the former. Liberals do the latter.
4. As far as politics goes, the only truly "liberating" thing you can do is admit that you're a conservative.
KubrickFF73,
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:53am.
1. neither agnostics nor atheist believe the existence or lack of existence of God is a problem - fundamental or otherwise. Atheist blame a great deal of the world's problems on the human reaction to the group belief in a God. Agnostics tend to range from simply not caring to believing things are much more complicated than we as fundamentally flawed beings can understand.
2. Liberals do not hate God except when support for a particular religion would run counter to the priority of their social expectations. Many Liberals are religious people who just don't comprehend the difference between personal responsibility and expecting the government to act as an agent of charity. I will agree that many do not like the aspect of religion due to the rules they see as being too defining and restrictive. However, the greatest problem from their point of view is that religions preach the need for taking responsibility for your actions and the understanding of sacrifice.
3. Not that simple
4. What about Libertarians?
The Catholic Church has been very vocal in urging governments around the world into social programs that are counter to Conservative beliefs. Conservative and Liberal belief systems are not as easily separated by religious affiliation as implied.
Can you imagine either of two scenarios?
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 1:31pm.
Can you imagine a reporter pointing out that an opinion, related or not to the power of the presidency, was in "opposition to President Bush"?
Now, can you imagine another reporter on a talk show where a conservative pointed out that an opinion was in opposition to President Bush's? Can you imagine the torrents of apoplexy coursing through the media until they had spent themselves on the topic of how fascistic it is to promote the president as some sort of general authority.
It would start on the show itself, then blogged about at Huff Po, reamed by the Daily Show, mockingly defended on Colbert....and then 100 different cable and broadcast news shows would do "what do you think about belonging to a political side where somebody can say something like this?" (usually phrased at "What do you think about Joe Pundit's implication that we need to agree with the president on social matters?") and calls for the entire right to distance themselves from such statements.