After the U.S. Presidential elections, various voices from religious groups are now heard. However, we should listen to each voice very carefully.
Some Christian representatives have been already loosing the core Christian values and simply acting as if they were civil groups. There are some Muslim groups who claim that they have no hidden agenda and move closer to the political power. It is true that the world is rapidly changing and we should be adaptable to the transformation of the society. But at the same time, we must be stick to the core values and the basic principles which should not be so quickly changed.
For example, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the CAIR below seem to appear moderate, authentic Islamic groups. However, I sometimes have a deep question why they make a noise every time the others wonder their original intention. If they were truly moderate Muslim Americans and had nothing to hide, then they could behave more patiently and politely, and would not offer any (death) threats to the people who oppose their views. (Lily)
WorldWide Religious News（http://wwrn.org）
(1) What do religious leaders want for Obama’s next four years?
by Adelle M. Banks ("The Washington Post," November 7, 2012)
Washington — Addressing poverty. Seeking reconciliation. Protecting religious freedom. Religious leaders already have their wish lists ready for President Obama’s second term. Here are 10 officials’ thoughts about what they’d like to see in the next four years. Some responses have been edited for length and clarity:
Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council
It’s an opportunity to build on the foundation built the last four years, one of engagement and more inclusion of American Muslims in policy-making, both on the domestic and international fronts. Key issues will be bolstering partnerships with law enforcement for national security, working within faith-based government programs, and building bridges with the Muslim world that will help the U.S. navigate new frontiers of democracy and old battlegrounds of violent extremism.
Kathryn Mary Lohre, president of the National Council of Churches
As followers of Christ, we hope and work for a world in which people have nutritious food to eat, safe water to drink, affordable places to live, access to quality medical care, and opportunities for fulfilling work. Recent figures show that more than one in seven Americans — and one in five children — are living in poverty. President Obama, we now join others in calling you to account for this commitment ... to adopt and implement bold policies that will provide for “the least of these” (Matthew 25), addressing the root causes of poverty, and creating life-giving vocational opportunities. Eradicating poverty is a moral issue. As we join you in partnership, we will join you also in prayer.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
President Obama’s re-election offers an opportunity for the gifted motivator to convert rhetoric into action. My prayer is that our president advances an agenda that protects life, strengthens the family, protects religious liberty, while globally advocating for religious pluralism, especially in Muslim nations. In addition, I pray that our president engages his Christian optics in the spirit of reconciliation for the purpose of healing our nation. This will require him to provide not just political but moral leadership that refuses to sacrifice truth on the altar of political expediency. Let President Obama re-emerge with the spirit of his 2004 keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, resulting in a collective understanding that the kingdom of God is not red state or blue state, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops hopes the 2013-2016 Presidential administration:
・ Will back legislation that protects the vulnerable, including infants in utero or the elderly in their waning days on earth and everyone in between.
・ Will support efforts to help immigrants seeking refuge and citizenship in America.
・ Addresses the problem of the widespread poverty that stands as blight upon our nation.
・ Recognizes the need to show support for religious liberty, a concern of many different religious groups.
・ Supports legislation on the institution of marriage that guarantees a child’s right to be raised in a loving home by a caring mother and father.
・ Works to restore civility in dialogue and bipartisanship in government so all Americans can work as one for the spiritual and material health of our country and our world.
The Rev. Carroll A. Baltimore Sr., president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention
It is my sincere desire that President Obama will lead in addressing the issues of poverty and its long-term effects on our entire society. We rarely hear the term “poverty.” It’s a very revealing term and other words have been substituted to remove the reality and responsibility that we have to deal with poverty. Over the past decades, we have cut critical social and educational programs that have plummeted countless children and adults into poverty. The economic implications of poverty are felt globally, and really need to be addressed on an international scale. We need to enact policies and practices that lift people out of poverty. The religious community, and other entities are doing a great deal to help, but our policies and laws need to be revisited. It is impossible to secure the future of our children under these circumstances. As we claim to be the wealthiest nation in the world, my desire is that President Obama will lead the way in bringing other global leaders together and develop global policies and practices that will alleviate the staggering number of children and adults experiencing abject poverty.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
The people have spoken. Now the really difficult battles are about to begin. Our nation is in dire need of sound, principled leadership. I submit the following requests, which I believe are essential to the future stability and prosperity of our nation:
・ Defend the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death in all laws and all medical programs, government and private;
・ Respect and protect religious freedom and freedom of conscience for all Americans in any medical delivery and health insurance programs;
・ Defend the sanctity of marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman in federal and state law;
・ Forge a bipartisan program to cut the national debt and stimulate economic growth;
・ Lead a bipartisan effort to bring about significant, meaningful, fair, and just immigration reform;
・ Unequivocally support Israel’s right to exist within secure and defensible borders and her right not to be threatened with nuclear annihilation by the genocidal regime in Tehran;
・ Lead a national bipartisan effort to reduce the impact of hardcore pornography and to eliminate the sex trafficking for which pornography produces the consumer demand.
Clearly, this would be an ambitious agenda. Yet I believe the American people are ready and would help advance each of those goals. We are ready for principled leadership. I commit to pray that God will enable President Obama to lead us to real, God-honoring solutions that will make a significant impact toward us becoming a more moral, more unified people.
The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World
This election is the first step in what we are hoping will be a strong U.S. commitment to ending hunger — both domestically and globally. For more than a year, Christian leaders have come together to advocate for the formation of a “Circle of Protection” around funding for programs that are vital to hungry and poor people. As people of faith, it is now our responsibility to hold our newly elected president accountable for taking a stance against hunger and poverty.
There is more than enough food to feed the more than 7 billion people around the world, yet hunger and poverty persist on a large scale, even in the United States. Finding solutions to these issues will require the dedication of all leaders — whether they be Republicans or Democrats. As the new president takes his oath of office, we want him to lead the way in ending hunger at home and abroad. During his four-year term, we expect the president to set a goal to end hunger while ensuring that we do not balance the federal budget on the backs of hungry and poor people.
Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals
Most campaign speeches end with the words “God bless the United States of America.” I believe God has blessed our nation and my number one prayer and hope for the president over the next four years is that God will continue to bless America under his leadership. My desire is that President Obama and his administration will bring Americans together in peace without a national crisis and will fulfill the vision of the Old Testament prophet Micah: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
I would like to see a president committed to continued American leadership in the defense of civil liberties. The president should work with Congress to end indefinite detention without trial of citizens and others. The president should also lead a vocal campaign in opposition to anti-Islam legislation that is sweeping the nation. And I think it is time we found out why some American citizens, almost exclusively Muslim, are being denied the fundamental right to return to their country.
My “wish list” for the White House:
・ Repeal the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.
・ Work to pass both the End Racial Profiling Act and Safe Schools Improvement Act.
・ Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and end the unconstitutional practice of prolonged detention outside of our nation’s justice system.
・ Reassess the nation’s CIA/military drone strike program that has led to civilian deaths in Pakistan (now being expanded to the Horn of Africa) and harmed America’s image and interests.
・ Reassess the nation’s policy of assassinating American citizens overseas.
・ End the questioning of Muslims at the U.S. border about their faith and religious observances.
・ Reassess the nation’s policy of preventing some American Muslim citizens from returning home after overseas travels.
・ Review the nation’s Watch List program to make it easier for individuals wrongly placed on the list to have their names removed.
・End the CIA’s relationship with the New York Police Department to spy on American Muslims.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Someday, a president may take the oath of office and find himself with a prospering nation, budget surpluses and a world at peace. Jan. 20, 2013 will not be that day. Instead, the newly inaugurated president will face a host of challenges at home and abroad. The voices of people of faith “speaking truth to power” as the president decides how to meet those challenges will be more vital than ever.
During the campaign, discussion of our responsibilities to provide a safety net to the poor were alarmingly absent. Our voices must be raised on behalf of Americans struggling to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, even as some misguidedly call for weakening parts of that safety net from food stamps to Medicaid to Social Security.
It is unlikely that we will quickly find consensus on gay marriage; allowing states to continue to make their own decisions is the right course to follow at this time. But until the past few years, there was significant Republican support for a law that would ban employment discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity. A concerted effort for passage now could attract the support of those Republican legislators determined to heal some of our nation’s wounds.
So, too, on immigration. Actions must be taken to address the plight of undocumented immigrants who too often live in the shadows even as they contribute to and are a vital part of the fabric of our communities, including implementation of the Dream Act provisions the first Obama administration began. The results of this election reflect the need for both parties to address the needs of the Latino community more assertively than they have before.
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(2) What’s next for religious conservatives?
by David Gibson ("The Washington Post," November 7, 2012)
Mitt Romney failed in his bid to win the White House back for Republicans, but the biggest losers in Tuesday’s voting may be Christian conservatives who put everything they had into denying President Obama a second term and battling other threats to their agenda.
Instead of the promised victories, the religious right encountered defeat at almost every turn. Not only did Obama win convincingly, but Democrats held onto the Senate — and the power to confirm judges — and Wisconsin elected the nation’s first openly gay senator, Tammy Baldwin.
Meanwhile, Republican senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock went down to unanticipated defeat in large part because of their strongly anti-abortion views, and an effort in Florida to restrict abortion failed. For the first time ever, same-sex marriage proponents won on ballots in four out of four states, while marijuana for recreational use was legalized in two out of three states where the question was on the ballot.
Even Michele Bachmann, an icon among Christian conservatives, barely held onto her House seat in Minnesota while Tea Party favorite Allen West lost his congressional district in Florida.
“Evangelical Christians must see the 2012 election as a catastrophe for crucial moral concerns,” R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote in a sobering post-mortem.
“DISASTER,” David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network wrote on his blog. He then amended his lament to read: “COLOSSAL DISASTER.”
Yet as bad as the results were for social conservatives, they may now face an equally difficult fight as they try to defend their agenda. Sifting through the electoral rubble, some conservatives and GOP leaders argue that the party’s positions and presentation on issues like gay marriage and abortion rights turn off more voters than they attract.
This internal battle is in many respects the natural aftermath of a painful political loss, and Republicans are already involved in a process of soul-searching — and back-biting — that will likely continue for some time as the GOP tries to figure out how it can find a winning formula.
But this time around, more than in previous election cycles, Christian conservatives are a particularly large target, and they are feeling especially exposed to criticism.
Even before the votes were counted, for example, Romney’s shift to the center — he studiously downplayed social issues like gay rights and abortion in the last month of the campaign — coincided with a surge in the polls and bolstered arguments that the party should soft-pedal traditional sexual morality in order to win elections and promote economic conservatism.
As Jennifer Rubin, a conservative columnist who backed Romney, wrote Wednesday in The Washington Post, “the issue of gay marriage is a generational one, a battle that social conservatives have lost ... The American people have changed their minds on the issue and fighting this one is political flat-earthism.”
Christian conservatives are not about to accept that view, however, and in the hours after Romney’s defeat they seemed to take two main tacks in rebuttal.
One was to double-down on their agenda by pinning the blame on Romney and his campaign for not stressing social issues much more forcefully.
“Mitt Romney is a good man, but let’s just be honest — we Republicans nominated the most liberal Republican nominee in history,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who joined a Wednesday morning webcast with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
Jordan said that doubts about Romney’s convictions, as well as his campaign’s modulation near the end, disappointed values voters and doomed the ticket.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the Susan B. Anthony List, a leading anti-abortion lobby, agreed.
“What was presented as discipline by the Romney campaign by staying on one message — the economy — was a strategic error that resulted in a winning margin of pro-life votes being left on the table,” Dannenfelser said. “Victory was handed to the opponent.”
The other tack that emerged, however, was to concede that Christian conservatives may need to change the tone if not the substance of their message in order to appeal to voters who are increasingly non-male, non-white and even non-Christian. The electorate today is increasingly Latino, and younger, and both those groups are turned off by anything that smacks of righteous moralizing.
“No party can win if it is seen as heartless,” said Mohler. “No party can win if it appeals only to white and older Americans. No party can win if it looks more like the way to the past than the way to the future.”
Indeed, exit polls indicated that evangelicals turned out more strongly for Romney (or against Obama) than they had for any other Republican in history — but that nearly 80 percent margin was still not enough in raw numbers to put the GOP ticket over the top.
“My message really today is we have more work to do to become more diverse, but the party has to start building bridges and practicing the politics of addition to bring more people in,” Ralph Reed, head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said at a morning-after briefing in Washington.
“My corollary message,” he added, “is there is no inherent conflict between those folks coming in and us. In most cases there’s a great deal of commonality.”
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