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religious left By Mark I. Pinsky | 4 hours ago

Chris King, left, and Bishop Allen T.D. Wiggins interact during a fundraiser in Orlando, Fla., on May 10, 2017. Photo courtesy of Sarah M. Brown

ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) A few days after the Pulse nightclub shootings, in which most of the 49 patrons who were killed were gay and Latino, a local businessman and active Christian layman contributed a guest column to the Orlando Sentineltitled Christian to LGBTs: We are sorry.

I believe one source of hope may come from the Christian church, an institution I have loved and been a part of since I was a little boy, wrote Chris King. Historically, I see a church that has often gotten it wrong really wrong when it comes to serving the needs of the LGBTQ community.

Our job as Christians, straight or gay, is first to create a society in which the voices of fear, shame and hate do not go unchallenged.

King is no latecomer on this issue. His views and his deep commitment to the LGBTQ community were shaped by his gay older brothers suicide in the 1990s, an event that shook his family.

Florida gubernatorial candidate Chris King. Photo courtesy of Chris King

Kings sentiments were not unique, even for straight white believers like himself.What is unique is that they came from a candidate for governorof Floridawho is running as both an evangelical Christiananda progressive Democrat.

The 38-year-old fits the classic profile of an evangelical whose political ambitions are fueled by his faith. He was raised in a congregation that left the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He credits his prominent role in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with helping him win election after election for high school student government. As a teenager, he had a transformative experience at a Christian leadership summer camp in Georgia.

I was inspired to live in a way that was not just for me but was glorifying my God, he recalled.

While a Harvard undergraduate, he claimed that support from a group affiliated with Campus Crusade for Christ cost him a close student election.

After graduating from the University of Florida Law School, he joined a nondenominational evangelical church, where he is now an elder. His wife, Kristen, his high school sweetheart, appears regularly on a daily Christian television show, Welcome Home, hosted by her mother. The programs mission is to point the way to a better life in Christ, according to its website.

Although it makes some of his allies and campaign staff anxious, King has not been bashful discussing the role faith has played in shaping his life on the campaign trail.

As a lifelong believer, he says at campaign gatherings, Faith has been a sustaining part of my life.(He studiously avoids the term evangelical, implicitly acknowledging its negative baggage among many in his partys base.)

King is running mainly on the basisof his success as a private-sector entrepreneur rehabilitating affordable housing. His family company says it tithes its profits.

Tall and handsome, with anincandescentsmile, he supports a varietyof issues:

He opposes a raft of other issues, such as the states voter ID law as well as capital punishment.

He also opposes both fracking and offshore drilling and pledges to refuse contributions from Floridas powerful sugar industry, which he refers to derisively as Big Sugar.

Yet unlike most evangelicals, King unequivocally supports abortion rights.

I think we have an argument we can win, he said, arguing that he is an electable Democrat in a key swing state.

Is King a political unicorn, an oddity, or the answer to the Democrats prayers?

Hes got the goods, said Margaret Altman, 63, a lawyer with the federal government. He has appeal, theres no question. Hes nice-looking, well-spoken, and advocates the same issues that she supports.

Democrats around the country are desperate to find a way to eat into the evangelical constituency that elected Donald Trump, if only incrementally. Nowhere is this truer than in big swing states such asFlorida, where exit polls reported an even wider margin of white evangelicals, 86-14, voted for Trump than the national average (81-19). Just over 20 percent of Trumps Florida vote total came from white evangelicals, according to exit polling.

Kings campaign strategists concede his evangelical faith would only be an asset to be emphasized if he wins the nomination. There is considerable debate, inside and outside the campaign, about whether King or a more experienced, better-known candidate could attract the votes of white evangelicals in a general election.

Shaving the margin of defeat among white evangelicals, in swing states like Florida and nationally, could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Its highly unlikely Democrats will be able to rebrand themselves as the Party of God, but by rejecting candidates who are strong in their faith they are leaving money and votes on the table.

In close elections, being friendly to religion and religious people would change the outcomes, said Jim Wallis, the nations best-known liberal evangelical. These include voters who oppose abortion but might be attracted to the Democrats economic platform, as well as to abortion-rights candidates, although that is the source of fierce debate within the party.

And there is likely to be some secular blowback against candidates like King. But, Wallisadded, If you dont take the concerns of religious people seriously, you lose elections.

But even among Kings admirers in Central Floridas religious community and there are many white evangelical leaders are doubtful about his political appeal.

The Rev. Jim Henry

The Rev. Jim Henry, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, counts himself among the skeptics.

It seems like it would be hard for a practicing evangelical to vote for a Democrat, said Henry, who now pastors the Downtown Baptist Church in Orlando. Icouldnt do it.

Yet at the same time, Henry thinks an attractive Democrat with evangelical credentials could win the support of as much as 30 percent of white evangelicals, including those who are now, in his words, wobbly supporters of the GOP.

Henry compares Kings charisma with that of a young Bill Clinton, and is impressed with the young man.

I like him personally. Hes very polished, polite, carries himself well, he speaks well. If he gets through the primary hell be a formidable candidate for the Democrats. He has stood up for the faith. I think evangelicals will be impressed with that.

But Kings biggest barrier with a majority of evangelicals will be his support for reproductive choice.

Abortion is the litmus test, Henry said. Thats a line in the sand.

The Democratic primary is not until August 2018 and the field is already crowded. At this early point in the race, King making his first run at public office is both a dark horse and a long shot. However, he has raised more than $2 million so far half his own money.

Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida, sees hope for Kings candidacy, if a faint one.

The Democratic Party is often perceived as anti-Christian, he said. Some in the base of the Democratic Party are not anti-Christian, but are very uncomfortable with evangelical Christianity.

Regardless, Kingscandidacy raises another key question for Democrats in the Sunbelt and the heartland: In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, can a party dominated by devout secularists accept an evangelical Christian, even one who is also ideologically center-left?

Im the case study, King acknowledges, of whether faith is a deal killer in the modern Democratic Party.

(Mark I. Pinsky is author of A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed)

See the article here:
Can an evangelical, progressive Democrat succeed in Florida? - Religion News Service

This post originally appeared on Media Matters.

Amid a heated atmosphere of anti-media Republican rhetoric that has at times turned into violence against journalists, McClatchy is reporting that Republican plans for the 2018 elections will feature a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win elections fueled by public hatred of reporters.

An open campaign against an institutional pillar of a democratic state would be a frightening thing to watch. Theres also every reason to believe it could work.

After all, President Donald Trump was elected last November after a campaign that regularly featured scathing personal insults against individual journalists and the institution writ large. His speeches were built in part on jeering at the press to the delight of his audience, including disgustingly ridiculing the physical disability of a reporter who had debunked one of his falsehoods. He threatened to change the laws to make it easier to sue reporters and to use the power of the state to retaliate against news outlets whose coverage he disliked. His campaign manager manhandled a reporter during a campaign event.

Trumps attacks on the press regularly resulted in oceans of unfavorable coverage (but little collective action of the sort that might have brought a change in the candidates behavior). Commentators warned that he was setting the stage for authoritarianism. His mockery of the reporters disability was turned into negative campaign advertisements that were in heavy rotation in swing states.

He won.

In an election decided by so few votes, it is extremely difficult to determine the cause of victory. I wouldnt go so far as to say he won because of his attacks on the press. But they were self-evidently not disqualifying.

Targeting the press might not move swing voters in the 2018 midterms indeed, polls show that voters broadly disapprove of such attacks. But that wouldnt be the purpose of such an effort. As McClatchy explains, this is a base mobilization strategy aimed at getting Trump die-hards to the polls on Election Day.

Those voters are primed for such an effort. Conservatives have inculcated their voters for decades with claims that journalists are biased liberals who cannot be trusted. When Trump took that argument to its natural conclusion, lashing out at reporters at his rallies as a candidate and then as president, those voters cheered him on. Since his election, the president has sought to delegitimize the press and other sources of critical information about his administration, condemning their reports as deliberate efforts to push fake news.

Voters take their cues from their partys leaders, and the available polling data show that the GOP base has followed the president as he has increasingly wallowed in these anti-media conspiracy theories. Polls show that four out of five Republicans agree with Trumps statement that certain news organizations are the enemy of the American people, like the way he talks about the press, and believe the mainstream press frequently publishes fake news. Trust in the press has fallen throughout the public at large in recent years, but the numbers among the Republicans the reported strategy seeks to target are truly catastrophic.

The hermetically sealed media bubble that conservatives have built in recent decades serves both as a cause of this plummeting support for journalists and a key weapon for Republican strategists seeking to utilize this anti-press strategy. In order to build their audiences, outlets like Fox News and Breitbart.com regularly tell their viewers and readers that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. This has led to the creation of a parallel right-wing media apparatus that ensures conservatives can detach from reality in favor of a steady news diet of alternative facts. Those outlets are eager to assist the White House by delegitimizing any negative information reported about the president as more evidence of a biased press, and they will surely assist Republicans in their efforts to win votes by slamming the media.

It is dangerous to weaponize criticism ofinstitutions at the heart of the democratic process for partisan gain. Such an effort echoes ones weve seen before in countries that used to be free. The consequences of this strategy could be dire for our political system.

Republican politicians should refuse to engage in these tactics. Republican leaders should disavow this strategy immediately. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)* and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have an outsized influence on the political strategies their candidates use by virtue of the huge war chests they help assemble. If they want to stop it, they can.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence so far that they will. To this point, GOP leaders have responded to the presidents attacks on the press with polite statements of disagreement and disdain for the idea that they should have to respond to his statements. Since the campaign, they have put their desire for political victories over any worries about the disastrous downsides of Trumps presidency. Meanwhile, rank-and-file members have started parroting Trumps framing of negatives stories as fake news.

With Trumps agenda stalled and few legislative accomplishments to point to, conservatives have seized on a breathtakingly cynical strategy to maintain power. The most frightening part is that it might work.

*CORRECTION: This post originally identified Ryan as representing Ohio he is the representative for Wisconsins 1st District.

Go here to read the rest:
Republican strategists say they will run against the media in 2018. Here's why that could work. - Salon

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, protesters march for action on climate change. (AP Images / Sipa USA)

Greg Lemons is the staunchly Republican mayor of Abita Springs, a bite-size town in rural Louisiana that both draws its water and gets its name from the famous and pristine aquifer that flows beneath its soil. A chatty and cheerful fellow, Lemons like to think of himself as a pragmatic leader, the sort of person who strives to fix problems instead of fight about them. Nevertheless, in late 2014, he found himself in a legal brawl.

It was autumn of that year when he first heard that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources had approved an exploratory drilling permit for a proposed fracking project just outside of town. The project, which had been approved despite the mayors protests, didnt sit well with him. He feared it would degrade the communitys environment, disrupt its quality of life, and ruin its reputation.

We are very sensitive about our water here, says Lemons, adding that much of his towns economic activity, including the locally based Abita Brewing Company, is based on the renowned quality of its aquifer. I was not content to stay silent about it.

In late December 2014, he sued, arguing in state court that the drilling permit violated local zoning ordinances. Though Abita Springs quickly lost its legal case and exploratory drilling commenced, the fracking project ultimately folded for financial reasons. In the meantime, Lemons learned some important lessons.

While he fought the frackers, with their noxious chemicals and earth-shattering drills, the mayor started reading up on alternatives to oil, gas, and coal. He educated himself about solar panels and wind farms, about energy-efficient lighting and electrical vehicles. He learned about the jobs that these technologies could help create and the budget savings they might enable. Being a business-minded member of the GOP, he liked what he saw. Soon enough, he was enamored with the economic and environmental promise of green energy.

It convinced me that we need to develop sustainable energy sources and we need to start now, he says. We should have started a long time ago.

So, alongside other residents in his town of 2,500, he set to work. He formed a committee to research and develop renewable-energy plans for the city. He started replacing all the towns light bulbs with energy-efficient alternatives. He initiated talks with local electricity providers, hoping to obtain solar-powered street lights, install solar panels on municipal buildings, and perhaps even develop a solar farm outside of town in the months and years ahead. He crafted a plan to bring electric vehicle charging stations to Abita Springs. And in March of this year, in order to signal an official commitment to these lofty goals, Mayor Lemons joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, announcing that his town will strive to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Little Abita Springs, in other words, is putting the Trump administration to shame. And its not alone. As the White House withdraws from the Paris climate agreement, as it capitulates to the reactionary agenda of fossil-fuel interests, small towns and large cities alike are stepping into the breach.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors across the country announced that they would still uphold the agreements goals. Thirty cities, meanwhile, have joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, committing themselves entirely to renewable energy in the coming decades. And though large progressive centers like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, often get the most attention, its tiny towns and small cities above all that have acted quicklyand with strong commitmentto reshape their energy economies to save money, create jobs, and combat climate change. From Abita Springs to Georgetown, Texas, and Greensburg, Kanas, little communities laboring out of the spotlight are walking away from fossil fuels, and fast.

There is a really diverse set of cities that have pledged to do this, says Shane Levy, a spokesperson for the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign. Some cities, like San Francisco, Madison, Boulder, which are more progressive, might be making the commitment out of concern for climate change. But a lot of it has to do with cost and autonomy, and some of the more rural and conservative cities are among the leaders in actually following up and making the transition.

Take, for example, Greensburg, Kansas, a tiny heartland town of 700 people that was nearly wiped off the map by a massive tornado back in 2007. After its harrowing run in with the weather, residents decided to rebuild the community around green energy. Just months after the tornado, the city council adopted a sustainable comprehensive plan that charted the course for obtaining renewable power. Five years later, Greensburg started getting every bit of its electricity from solar and geothermal sources as well as a 12.5 megawatt wind farm that sits outside the towns borders. Oil, gas, and coal have been cut out entirely.

Consider Georgetown, Texas, too. Its transition to renewable energy started in 2010, when students at locally based Southwestern University convinced officials there to work with the city-owned utility, Georgetown Utility Systems, to derive all the campuss electricity needs from wind and solar sources. Seeing the budgetary stability that decades-long, fixed-rate renewable energy contracts offered the school, the city soon followed suit and signed up for long-term renewable energy contracts of its own.

It was originally a business decision, says the citys conservative Republican mayor, Dale Ross. Our main mission was to mitigate two kinds of risk: the first was price volatility in the energy market and the second was regulatory risk from government policies. That was the challenge and we found the solution in wind and solar.

But then if you want to get philosophical, he adds, dont we have moral and ethical obligation to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it?

This year, Georgetown, which sits in the center of Texas oil-and-gas country, started getting all of its energy from wind and solar farms around the region. And, increasingly, its in good company.

Small cities like Burlington, Vermont, and Aspen, Colorado, also boast a 100 percent renewable status, while many others are close behind. Grand Rapids, Michigan, for instance, currently gets 27 percent of its energy from green sources and aims to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. This past January, Bowling Green, Ohio, a town of 31,000, unveiled the largest solar farm in the state, a 20 megawatt public-private partnership that will power roughly 3,000 homes.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors announced that they would still uphold the agreement's goals.

We have had a sense that the environment and energy are nonpartisan issues here at the local level, says Bowling Green Councilman Daniel Gordon, a Democrat, who supported the project. We dont have debates about whether climate change is real, everyone agrees that it is.

Then there are towns and cities like Moab, Utah; Pueblo, Colorado; and, yes, Abita Springs that are just getting started.

LeAnn Pinniger Magee, who chairs the mayors Abita Committee for Energy Sustainability, says the towns first step is to install solar panels on its big electric welcome sign and also install an electric vehiclecharging station on site. The project, she estimates, will be completed this summer, and shortly afterward the town plans to launch a solar-powered street light pilot program that, if successful, could save it $20,000 a year in electricity costs.

We are just three months into this, she says but we have so much support from the community that we are confident that we can make some big changes within the next five years.

Mayor Lemons, for his part, likens realizing his towns renewable-energy dreams to eating an elephant.

You take one bite at a time, he says.

It will take a lot of small bites to make up for the Trump administrations decision to skip the meal altogether. Then again, there are a lot of committed people at the table, and more are joining every day.

On June 2, the day after Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, the mayor of Pittsburgh announced his citys intention to generate all of its electricity from renewable energy by 2035. Santa Barbara, California, soon followed suit, declaring on June 6 that it would like to run entirely on renewable energy by 2030. Later this month, meanwhile, the nonpartisan US Conference of Mayors will vote on a resolution that would declare its support for 100 percent renewable energy in cities nationwide.

Its up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation, said Steve Benjamin, mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and vice president of the US Conference of Mayors, in a recent statement about the proposed resolution. Its not merely an option now; its imperative.

Indeed, whether or not the fossil-fuel lobbyists and their friends in the Trump administration want it, the clean- and renewable-energy revolution is well underwayand its urban.

Read more here:
Even Republican Mayors Are Rejecting Trump's Energy Policies - The Nation.

News & Observer

NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone News & Observer In Asheville, the Buncombe County Republican Party wants to hold a debate with a group that doesn't share its conservative views. The party announced Monday that it will make a $100 donation to charity if any organized political or neighborhood group ...

More here:
NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone - News & Observer

Greg Gianforte, the congressman-elect who punched and "bodyslammed" a Guardian reporter, will perform 40 hours of community service and pay a $300 fine after pleading guilty to assault. He must also attend 20 hours of anger management courses.

Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs was asking Gianforte a question on May 24 when the Republican candidate threw him to the ground.

"A Gallatin County judge sentenced Gianforte to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management classes and a $300 fine," Montana Public Radio's Eric Whitney reports.

According to Whitney Bermes, a reporter for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the judge initially gave Gianforte four days in jail, where under the terms of a jail work program he would be able to spend two of those days working.

The judge, for whatever reason, reportedly change the sentence within minutes to specify community service instead of jail time.

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Excerpt from:
Republican Greg Gianforte, who punched reporter, sentenced to 40 hours community service - Boing Boing