Friday, August 22, 2008

Donald Miller to pray at DNC


Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz will be praying at this year's Democratic National Convetion. Christianity Today inverviewed Miller about the opportunity to pray at the DNC. They also asked him questions about issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage.



Where do you stand on issues like abortion and gay marriage?

The issue of abortion is a very sensitive one and it’s an important issue. I look at from a perspective of, what’s the best that we can do. As we elect a Republican House and Senate, and as we elect Republican leadership in the executive branch, we see very little changes on that issue. We’re electing someone who agrees with us on abortion, being sort of a tragedy in our country, and yet can’t get anything done. It’s kind of like saying, I want a pilot on my plane who feels this way about abortion, but he can’t fly the plane. The executive branch doesn’t have that much power, it has some power, but it doesn’t have much power. You look at the reality of that and say, what can I do to defend the sanctity of all human life, including the living, and the marginalized and the oppressed and the poor? What can we do to better social conditions so that less women are put in situations where they feel like they need to have an abortion. What does looking at the issue holistically look like. I hope the Democrats will listen to those of us who lean toward pro-life and those changes can be made.

In terms of gay marriage, I see it as a constitutional issue. Until we become a theocracy, I think that judges should look at it from a constitutional issue. Whether I think homosexuality’s wrong, personally? America is not God’s country. It’s not considered a Christian nation anymore. You have to look at everybody, not just Christians and say, what are the rights of these people based on this constitution. That’s another difficult issue as well. I get a bit frustrated when the evangelical position is reduced to two issues. So many other issues are not a concern to us. What happened was, in my opinion, the Christian positions has been reduced in order to manipulate us. If we give them these two issues, we can do whatever we want.



Any Thoughts?

After reading the interview I have a few follow up questions:
1. What does it mean to "lean pro-life"?
2. Why is it that when conservatives mix God and politics it's dangerous?
3. Why is it okay for political liberals to talk about their candidate being God's man?
4. Does Donald Miller really believe that the Muslim world not liking the U.S. is a recent phenomena?

2 comments:

Noel said...

Hummm, He's using a lot of words, to say very little. He appears to be side stepping the issues so as to avoid being direct and honest. Unfortunately the truth divides. He seems to be shying away from these truths. I think the Bible calls this middleground "lukewarm."

Unknown said...

http://blog.amoslanka.com/2008/08/22/donald-miller-at-the-dnc-and-the-pandering-of-politics/