There are no “major Moderate Christian Voices,” unless you count the Pope. Moderate Christians tend to be, well, moderate, and make for boring news reports. Around Chicago we have Fr Michael Pfleger generally speaking sense, but by being in your face and on the news all the time he is more like a radical voice, only one many people can agree with (but not everybody). The Venerable Fulton Sheen was a good choice, but a pre-req for getting venerated is being dead.
We live in a mostly-secular country, where the squeakiest wheels get to bloviate. A lot of people who happen to be Christian talk about what a tool Robertson is, but none speak as major Moderate Christian Voices.
That doesn’t answer my question as to whether there is an effort being made at all, though. For example, when Vero Beach first announced that this far-right dunderhead was going to speak at their prayer breakfast, were there any protests from moderate Christian leaders there that it might inappropriate for someone like him to speak at their prayer breakfast?
Hey that was real cute, and so original an idea-take a big bow. In the meantime, he’s touring the country and spreading his crap…but since “he only speaks for himself”, no one could possibly be listening and contributing money to the causes he speaks at, right?
I said exactly what you thought I should be saying, word for word. Want I should set up a Kickstarter so I can pursue him all over the country and refute him publicly?
Seriously, I have no Earthly idea what you want from us. The whole concept of being a “moderate” is that we don’t look for the microphone. The very notion that his is extremist behavior is demonstrated by the fact that we’re not all lined up behind him to support his idiocy.
I know, maybe we can take his ass out back and kick the shit out of him. Prove what good moderates we all are, prove that we won’t tolerate his kind. Yeah, that’s it.
What an incredibly vile thing to say. And you know it was preplanned. Any outrage or criticism of his remarks will just make him feel even more satisfied.
This represents the fallacy of equivocation: the OP suggests that Robertson is inciting violence. You then say that the point is he is “rabble rousing,” which is a phrase that could be applied to calls to violence. But I suspect, if pressed on the issue, you’ll acknowledge he’s not inciting violence and you meant “rabble rousing,” Ina. More general sense.
I haven’t a clue whether there was opposition from moderate Christian leaders, but I would think it unlikely they would garner the same amount of media interest as extremists.
No, the concept of being a “Moderate” does not mean you step back and just let the extremists hog the microphone, and it doesn’t mean you let them get away with shit. If there truly is a moderate Christian majority that think that letting jackasses like Robertson speak on their behalf(and that is the message that is getting out there to the contributors and voters), then there is nothing wrong with Church leaders of supposed moderate Christian groups to make their voices known and at least try to put a stop to this shit. Where is the fear here-that it might look like Christians are turning on each other?
Back in post #5, Guinastasia said they do it all the time. Where are these public efforts to denounce these far right-wing Christians and say that they do not represent the majority of Christians in this country?
There is a missing element here. You moderates are the only people that people like Robertson will listen too. Criticism from other Christians. If an Atheist, the ACLU or MSNBC criticize him, he is simply not going to listen. In fact it will just make him feel like he is doing the right thing when we criticize him. You’re not responsible for his remarks but you’ll are the only people he will listen too.
It is to laugh! He will pay NO attention to us because he is not speaking as an ecumenical Christian, his mind open to discussion, but as a closed-minded nut. I’m as much a heretic to him as any member of ISIS.
But the Moderate Christian leaders don’t have to speak to him to get their point across, do they? It’s already well-known what his opinions are and what type of speaker he is, and it was advertised well in advance that he would be the speaker. If any of the local Christian leaders or any of the sponsors objected that this fruitcake would be the lead speaker at one of the main Christian events of the season, I can’t seem to find any mention of it at all.
