Contact: Kevin Doyle, www.hwjv.org, 917-596-4444

NEW YORK, October 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- A group of faith centered Americans who are proud of both of our faith and our country has banded together to try and debunk what seems to be accepted as fact: That Jesus belongs to the conservative right republicans.

In looking at the policies of the republican party: more war friendly, tax and program cutting, pro-gun, pro-big business... it didn't seem to fit. So we looked into scripture to come up with a rational argument that maybe the republican candidate is not Jesus' candidate after all.

What we found was amazing. On almost every important election issue there was good reason to believe that the democratic candidate was at least as good a choice, if not better for what we commonly accept as Jesus' teachings brought to life in policy.

Even if people don't have their mind changed, we hope it will cause some people to think. There shouldn't be an automatic answer to the question H.W.J.V. But hopefully from the site people will find pause for thought and ammunition for spirited discussion.

Below is excerpted from the website "About Us" page:

Who We Are:
A group of faith centered Americans who are proud of both of our faith and our country.


What We Believe:
We believe in Jesus' original teachings of love, forgiveness, peace, and caring for the less fortunate.

We believe that Jesus is a progressive, not a conservative. If you look at his policies on taking care of the poor, the sick and welcoming foreign strangers, he's more progressive than either candidate in the race. This is something that is lost in all the rhetoric and boiling down to single issues.

What we don't believe
We don't believe Jesus or religion should be used as a wedge issue. We cannot accept that religion, God, Jesus or morality belong more to one political party or the other. We find it offensive that the Republicans and conservative Christians have hijacked the political lives of faithful people by telling them there is only way to vote if they're not going to commit a sin. This is wrong.

We believe there is a strong case--based on scripture--that Jesus would be very progressive politically and that he would support programs and views that are very far from the conservative agenda. We believe he would be appalled at many of the ways we conduct ourselves as citizens and neighbors and members of the world community.

We believe that this hijacking of America and of religion by the conservative wing of the Republican party is causing many of this country's and the world's ills. And the worst part is that it's being done under the guise of divine infallibility.

This must stop.

What we hope you come away with

We hope we provoke you into thinking for yourself.

You don't have to agree with us. But hopefully you'll see there are many interpretations of the word of the Lord. And you should run far away from anyone who tells you their interpretation of the gospel is the only interpretation.

We hope you come away with a feeling of freedom. Freedom to choose whom to vote for based on YOUR beliefs, YOUR relationship with God and the real issues at stake.

And to you who maintain an open mind and constantly challenge yourself to find God's guidance in challenging times, instead of increasingly hardening defense of a narrow view, we say good luck and God Bless.

What Obama Believes:

"We think of faith as a source of comfort and understanding but find our expressions of faith sowing division; we believe ourselves to be a tolerant people even as racial, religious, and cultural tensions roil the landscape. And instead of resolving these tensions or mediating these conflicts, our politics fans them, exploits them, and drives us further apart."

- The Audacity of Hope

"Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

- Democratic National Convention Keynote Address