Forbes: 'God' is wrong distinction

Christian Century, August 24, 2004

Calling the so-called "God gap" between Republicans and Democrats "a trivialization conversation," New York clergyman James Forbes told an interfaith service in Boston during the Democratic convention that the two groups simply understand their religiosity in different ways.

Rather than Republicans being religious and Democrats being secular, "in a family, personalities differ and if it is one family, that family is stronger only as there is respect for the differing perspectives," said Forbes, pastor of New York's Riverside Church.

In his sermon July 29 at the historic Old South Church, where the service included a Muslim call to prayer and the chanting of a psalm in Hebrew, Forbes said, "When God looks down, Cod says, 'Well, they come from different places, but you shall know them by their fruits."--RNS