Regan Offers Christian Theocracy, Environmental Regress for Raleigh
Mike Regan – the first-term Raleigh City Council member who plans to challenge second-term Democratic Mayor Charles Meeker this fall – was the subject of a revealing profile in last Wednesday’s News & Observer. Regan is a Republican real-estate broker who represents suburban North Raleigh’s District A.
Turns out that despite his political ambitions, Regan doesn’t really believe in government. Explaining his vote against a community center expansion in a poor neighborhood, he said he doesn’t “trust government to be the vehicle through which our money flows.”
He does, however, believe in private corporations, which he wants to take over city services. He also believes in Jesus. A born-again Christian, Regan is publicly outspoken about his faith and offers to pray before important council decisions. His beliefs also inform his council positions. For example, when the N&O asked why he opposed anti-crime programs for youth, he said kids don’t need programs – they need “the Lord.”
A member of North Raleigh’s fundamentalist Bayleaf Baptist Church, Regan is no love-thy-neighbor kind of Christian. He led the fight against council’s decision last year to add “sexual orientation” to the list of personal characteristics the Human Relations Commission should disregard on its mission of promoting human dignity, equal opportunity, and harmony. At one public meeting on the matter, Regan denounced homosexuality as “evil” as hundreds of his supporters cheered.*
Regan has not been very kind to the environment, either. Nowadays growing numbers of born-again Christians are embracing environmental stewardship; for example, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) last fall adopted an “Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility” that stated the importance of protecting the environment and the critical role government must play. But Regan has not used his office to enhance environmental protections.
During the 2003 campaign, he praised the city’s investment in parks and greenways. Once on council, however, he put forth a budget plan that included a $1 million cut for parks and recreation. He also fought the city’s tree-protection ordinance – one of Meeker’s priorities – on the grounds that it violated private property rights. He even cast the lone vote against water-conservation measures put forth by a task force in the wake of a severe drought.
Though Regan’s positions place him outside the political mainstream, that won't stop him from promoting his radical vision.
"I am not running to represent this city," he told the N&O. "I'm running to lead this city. I'm going to be upfront. If you don't like what you hear, don't vote for me."
* The Biblical book that fundamentalist Christians use to justify their condemnation of homosexuality also forbids the eating of pork, but Regan has not yet extended his levitical jihad to North Carolina’s barbecue industry.
posted by Sue Sturgis @ 12:18 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Faith vs. Works
Regan is merely expressing the common misinterpretation of Martin Luther - the founder of all protestant religions, which comprise the majority in the US.
While Luther himself saidin Thesis 43: that "Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons"
He is more often associated with the assertion that Salvation is not by works, but by faith. as in this passage:
"For in the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith"
Romans 1:17
Thus Regan is merely restating the common moral defect of protestant churches when he suggests that wayword kids don't need "concrete programs" - what they need is an abstraction. - They need faith.
While it is well and good to sit in a pew and be told that you lack faith, that faith is the solution to your marriage, your finances, and the lack of equality in society - it is equally true that talk alone, or ever good-thinking alone is inadequate when it comes to being a good neighbor.
The Samaritan who comes upon the dying man does not - a Regan does - suggest that the dying man just needs the Lord. Those sentiments belong to the passing Pharisees. The Samaritan understands the critical role of "concrete actions" and for this Christ has made him the quintessential religious example.
The Faith-only ideology which permeates the do-nothing, say-everything version of Christianity is a moral defect in what often passes for religious compassion.
Wayword kids need to be included in their culture. We have laws that prevent people old enough to kings, that they cannot participate in transportation, jobs, our economy, our democracy, and they mustn't ride pollution-free vehicles such as skate-boards, and in some cases, we even exclude them from our tax-funded social events - although we are quick to send them naked into our oil wars so we can drive around in the smog of our Hummers.
Perhaps kids just need what every other discriminated class needs - equality.
I was arrested for encouraging kids to "Participate in making the roadsides clean of litter" - and I would suggest that as long as we discourage people from engaging kids in public service we are going to struggle with amoral behaviour.
Benjamin Gatti
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