Three Presbyterian ministers share leadership in effort to boost liberal vote in election By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, November 1, 2006 Claiming they drew their political agenda from Jesus, a group headed by three Presbyterian ministers is trying to boost the liberal vote in the Nov. 7 election. Their platform reads like a playbook written by many of the social and political views expressed by general assemblies and Presbyterian leaders. The Christian Alliance for Progress: The Movement to Reclaim Christianity and Transform American Politics has a predictable left-leaning platform. It favors abortion, gay rights, economic justice [redistribution of wealth], fetal stem cell research and environmentalism and opposes military efforts to stem terrorism. Most notably, though, it's against the Christian right – which it views as bigoted, dogmatic and "anything but Christian." The alliance identifies five leaders on its Web site, including the three Presbyterian ministers: Timothy F. Simpson, a college professor who is an at-large member of St. Augustine Presbytery in Florida. Gwin Pratt, pastor of Lake Shore Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Fla. Elizabeth O'Neill, pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, Ala., a congregation that is affiliated with the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an activist group for ordaining homosexuals and same-gender marriages. Of the other two leadership members, one is identified by his pseudonym – "Faithful Progressive" – because, the alliance says, Faithful, who says he is the John Kerry Internet Town Meeting Organizer, gets into some sensitive legal problems. So did Simpson and Pratt. They were arrested on Sept. 26, along with former General Assembly Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, in Washington, D.C., during a demonstration against the U.S. military involvement in Iraq. The alliance's mission statement says its members "believe we have an obligation to reclaim the vocabulary of Christianity from extremists and to restore the morals and values of Christianity. We bring together progressive Christians and other Americans who share our passion and convictions. We will use the collective power of our individual members to help shape the political realities in our country and to strive to build a more just and compassionate nation." "The movement developed because Christianity has been usurped to advance an extremist agenda that is un-American and that violates the values Jesus lived and taught," the alliance says. "We are reclaiming Christianity in America." The organization has issued its own manifesto, called The Jacksonville Declaration.

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