27 March 2006

The Progressive Christian Blogger Network

I've just joined the Progressive Christian Blogger Network in the hope of finding some kindred spirits, but I'm not very hopeful.

Much of the Internet, including the blogosphere, seems to be dominated by the USA, and US political, social and religious divisions make little sense to me. They're always on about the "Religious Right" over there, and when I've encountered it, I've found myself totally out of sympathy with their style, if not with all their causes. I generally agree with the "Pro-Life" position, but to me that means being opposed to war and capital punishment as well as to abortion, and especially to the recent US-led wars of aggression in Yugoslavia and Iraq.

And when it comes to wars of aggression, Bill Clinton doesn't seem to count as a member of the "Religious Right", but his warmongering doesn't seem to be any better than George Bush's.

But still I hope, and so, for what it's worth, there's now a "Progressive Christian Blogroll" here mainly to make it easy for me to look at some of the blogs listed, and blog them here if there's any good stuff on them.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you are apart of the network. I agree, though, with what you said. Though I am progressive politically, I realize that there are hypocrisies on both sides of the political fence and constantly deeming the Religious Right, while ignoring the sins of the Left, is duplicitous. I have some good friends who are "Religious Right" folks, and they have a lot of valuable ideas to offer our country and the church. It would be wrong of me to ignore and demean them simply because of their political affiliation. As a Christian, I must listen to what they have to say, whether I agree with it or not, respect them as Children of God, and be open to discussing the issues with passion and tenacity, while still maintaining humility and a Christ-like spirit.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

Steve Hayes said...

Back in 1963, when South Africa introduced 90-day detention without trial, it was condemned as a human rights abuse in the UK and US media, and in every democratic country in the world.

Yet last year, when Tony Blair wanted to introduce 90-day detention without trial in Britain, and his own Labour Party back-benchers rebelled against such a violation of human rights, the British media said without hesitation, without a blush, that Tony Blair had "the high moral ground".

As a liberal, I'm against big government. I'm against the kind of government snooping and interfering implied by the US Patriot Act -- we had more than enough of that here in South Africa in the days of apartheid.

But in the US, it seems, "conservatives" say that "liberals" stand for big government!

Most of these terms just don't seem to mean anything. We seem to live an an Orwellian world where war is peasce and peace is war, where big is small and small is big (at least as far as governments are concerned).

Unknown said...

I am a member of PCBN at The Eagle's Nest at http://eaglesplace.blogspot.com but I'm not on the blogroll. I don't know if anyone is maintaining it anymore. I have been out of touch with your doings and with SAMS for a few years due to ill health and other distractions. Through Travis's site I have re-discovered you. So you are now in my feed. I used to be on an email group that you ran. Blessings and bliss, Brigid Walsh

Steve Hayes said...

If you'd like to be back in touch, the Christianity and Society discussion forum is still going strong -- hope you can join us there.

Brodie said...

i was in the states recently and felt very european!

Steve Hayes said...

I was in the states 11 years ago, but I'm not sure what I felt! I'll have to reread by journal at the time. I also visited Russia, and felt more at home there.

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