surprised to hear there is a Christian Left?

In the late 1960s, the concept of Christianity as a liberal or even hippie religion didn't seem as foreign as it does after two decades of vocal fundamentalism. Nowadays, the word "Christian" more often than not summons up images of people like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, men who have built franchises by preaching extremist positions.

"People are usually pretty surprised to hear there is a Christian Left," says Mark Thomas, a Denver hospital chaplain. "If you ask some of the very educated and spiritually sophisticated people in Boulder what Christianity is about, you'll often hear it's about abortion and gay marriage, two issues that Jesus and Gospels don't have a single word to say about. What Jesus does have a lot to say about is taking care of the most vulnerable among us, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek—these sort of teachings."

....Ehrich, too, urges progressive Christians to avoid answering the strident right wing with a similarly strident list of issues.

"What I have been encouraging is let's get focused," he says. "I think there's a tendency on the liberal perspective to take every issue that anyone has ever cared about and offer it up as a platform of issues. We can't do that. We've got to get focused. We've got to name the one or two issues that are truly worth pursuing."

To decide which issues those are, Ehrich suggests looking at the focus of Jesus' teaching and taking up the issues that concerned him: the abuses of money and power.

But Ehrich also urges Christian clergy to begin listening to the spiritual needs of their membership. He cites a survey he conducted on his website, in which he asked people to share what they would ask God if they had a chance to speak with the Almighty. The results might surprise people.

"The questions are down-to-earth basic," he says. "They have nothing to do with liturgy, nothing to do with who gets ordained, nothing to do with sexuality. The questions were all about faith: How do I believe? Where are you? Who are you? When I die, will I see my wife in heaven? Why did you let that disease kill my child? I just think the leadership of mainline denominations has been plowing a different field. If we would just listen to our members, we would know what to say, we would know what to preach."

The first step to offering an alternative Christian voice is simple, he says.

"We need to talk to each other and we need to listen to each other. It really is not much more complicated than that."

...read it all: Saving Jesus: In the aftermath of the election, the Christian Left searches for its voice by Pamela White, Boulder Weekly