Mainline Protestants fight back: NYT “conservative beat” reporter David D. Kirkpatrick, with Sheryl Gay Stolberg, bring us signs of a liberal Christianity gearing up for battle, as representatives challenge Senator Bill Frist for his planned participation in an upcoming Christian right event designed to denigrate Democrats as against “people of faith.” Frist is a member of the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A, a mainline denomination that embraces a more ecumenical view of religion. Or does it? A crucial element left unstated in the Times‘ report is the growing evangelical movement within the mainline, as churches bound to a liberal denomination by the economics of bricks and mortar gravitate in spirit to the conservative, combative Christianity currently dominating the country.
