If you’ve watched 6 minutes of news in the last few weeks, you know what this is all about: Christian leaders hurling attacks and using faith as a weapon to score political points. From presidential candidates to public leaders, rhetoric in recent weeks as gone from ‘heightened’ to ‘dangerous.’
To counteract this incendiary environment, prominent evangelical, mainline, and Catholic pastors, theologians and denominational heads have joined together to take a stand. The open letter, which currently has over a hundred signers, supports the President in light of the recent attacks by Franklin Graham (see clip below), but the letter also speaks to the larger issue at hand, specifically that, “No politician or government will ever reflect God’s will perfectly, but we prayerfully call on political leaders and members of the media to return to the issues Jesus and the prophets were most concerned about and to stop using faith as a weapon to advance partisan politics and self-interest.”
The letter, posted here, is gaining ground in the press, and has been signed by Sojourners’ Director of Mobilizing, Lisa Sharon Harper.
This letter comes after Sojourners launched a Faith and Election Pledge, which was signed by more than 1,300 local pastors to commit to not attacking personal faith or religions beliefs and abstaining from engaging in uncivil or ad hominem attacks against candidates or public figures.
Soon after, Franklin Graham clarified his statement.
Carrie Adams is the Communications Associate for Sojourners. Follow Carrie on Twitter @MadameCAdams.
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