{"id":221,"date":"2008-10-22T11:57:45","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T11:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/a-good-month-for-religious-plu.html"},"modified":"2008-10-22T11:57:45","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T11:57:45","slug":"a-good-month-for-religious-plu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/a-good-month-for-religious-plu.html","title":{"rendered":"A Good Month for Religious Pluralism, but Not Great"},"content":{"rendered":"

October has been a good month for religious pluralism in America.
\nNot great, but good. This past Sunday on Meet
\nthe Press<\/i> former Secretary of State Collin Powell condemned the religious
\nbigotry that has emerged during the campaign, saying:<\/p>\n

\n

“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but
\nwhat members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as,
\n‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is
\nnot a Muslim, he’s a Christian.  He’s always been a Christian.  But
\nthe really right answer is, what if he is?  Is there something wrong with
\nbeing a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Congratulations to Secretary Powell for his willingness to
\nchallenge those on the right who use the Muslim community as their punching
\nbag, and to those on the left who seem less than enthusiastic about speaking in
\ntheir defense. <\/p>\n

Thankfully, Secretary Powell is not alone. His comments echo
\na commentary CNN anchor Campbell Brown delivered on her program earlier this
\nmonth entitled “So what if Obama were a Muslim or an Arab?” In it she asks:<\/p>\n

\n

“When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in
\nour country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of
\ndishonorable or radical?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Alongside these great statements by Powell and Campbell is
\nthe continued distribution of 28 million copies of the movie Obsession<\/i>. This film, despite what its
\nmakers tell us, is a pervasive demonization of Islam. <\/p>\n

I have been happy to see a broad range of people from across
\nthe religious and political spectrum speak out against both Obsession,<\/i> and the false rumors about
\nSenator Obama’s religious background. But, I remain concerned about the staggering
\nnumber of people who are choosing to stay silent.  <\/span>Now is the time for all fair-minded,
\nfreedom-loving people to condemn the poisonous onslaught of religious prejudice.\n<\/p>\n

Religious freedom is a founding principle of this nation. Basic
\nto American identity as envisioned by our founders is every citizen modeling
\nnot merely tolerance, but respect and understanding.  <\/span>Right now it is particularly crucial that
\npolitical leaders – on both sides of the isle – not only pay lip service to
\nreligious freedom, but embody it. <\/p>\n

October has been a good month for religious pluralism in America. Not
\ngreat, but good. What would make it better would be if a presidential candidate,
\nasked about being a Muslim, were to respond by saying, “I am not a Muslim, but
\nso many patriotic Americans are.” What would make it exemplary would be if a
\npresidential candidate whose allies seek to use religion as a political weapon were
\nto put a stop to such divisive tactics. What would make it terrific – and most
\npatriotic -would be if faith were not a factor in presidential politics.
\nPeriod. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October has been a good month for religious pluralism in America. Not great, but good. This past Sunday on Meet the Press former Secretary of State Collin Powell condemned the religious bigotry that has emerged during the campaign, saying: “I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,51,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08","category-media","category-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nA Good Month for Religious Pluralism, but Not Great - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/a-good-month-for-religious-plu.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Good Month for Religious Pluralism, but Not Great - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October has been a good month for religious pluralism in America. 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Dr. Welton Gaddy, leads the national nonpartisan grassroots and educational organizations, The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and serves as the Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, Louisiana. Rev. Gaddy is the host of State of Belief, a weekly radio show by The Interfaith Alliance that is carried on AirAmerica. State of Belief is based on the proposition that religion has a positive and healing role to play in the life of the nation. Rev Gaddy is one of 20 international religious leaders on the Council of 100 Leaders, a group created by the World Economic Forum to improve dialogue and understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds. In addition to being the author of over 20 books, Welton provides regular commentary to the national media on issues relating to religion and politics. Some of his appearances include CNN Presents: The Fight Over Faith; PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers; PBS Frontline's The Jesus Factor; PBS's The Newshour with Jim Lehrer; NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw; CBS Evening News with Dan Rather; ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings; numerous National Public Radio stations including KQED's Forum in San Francisco and KCRW's The Politics of Culture in Los Angeles; CNBC's Capital Report; CNN's The World Today with Wolf Blitzer; CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff; PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly; CBS's Freedom to Pray; C-SPAN's Washington Journal; NBC's Dateline. He is the former host of Morally Speaking on NBC affiliate KTVE in Monroe, Louisiana. Founded in 1994, The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) has grown into a national grassroots organization of 150,000+ individuals of faith and goodwill drawn from more than 75 different religious traditions or beliefs with a cyber-network of 10,000 activists and 75 local activist groups. Dedicated to promoting mutual respect, cooperation and civility, TIA strives to promote religion as a positive and healing force in the life of the nation. While ministering to churches with a message of inclusion, Welton emerged as a leader among progressive and moderate Baptists. Among his many leadership roles, he is the immediate past President of the Alliance of Baptists and is a twenty-year member of the Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance. His past leadership roles include serving as a member of the General Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Chair of the Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. Prior to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, Welton served in many leadership roles in the SBC including membership on the convention's Executive Committee from 1980-1984 and Director of Christian Citizenship Development of the Christian Life Commission from 1973-1977. Welton received his undergraduate degree from Union University in Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/wgaddy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}