The Rise of the Religious Left

Mark Daniels (writing at RedBlueChristian.com) points us to an article from the Washington Post on the rise of the religious left:

The religious right, which helped re-elect President Bush in 2004 by rallying opposition to abortion and gay marriage, is now facing a pushback from the religious left.

With a faith-based agenda of their own, liberal and progressive clergy from various denominations are lobbying lawmakers, holding rallies and publicizing their positions. They want to end the Iraq war, ease global warming, combat poverty, raise the minimum wage, revamp immigration laws, and prevent "immoral" cuts in federal social programs.

Some, like the Rev. Robin Meyers of the United Church of Christ in Oklahoma, marry gay couples and seek to reduce abortions while rejecting calls by the right to outlaw them.

"I join the ranks of those who are angry because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus but whose actions are anything but Christian," declared Meyers, who has written a new book, "Why the Christian Right is Wrong.

According to scholars, the religious left has become its most active since the 1960s when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other clergy -- black and white -- were key figures in the civil-rights and anti-Vietnam war movements.

The religious right grew into prominence because the social and political beliefs it promoted were widely held among average voters, and thus there was a built in and very large base of support already there. The left does not have a similarly large base of support for many of the issues they espouse (like gay marriage, for instance). They might make some noise, but I doubt if they'll ever have the kind of electoral impact that the religious right has had.

Mark Daniels has a good warning for those on both sides of the religious political aisle:

Both the Christian Right and Left risk subordination of the Gospel to political -isms and get the Church off-message. (Here’s a succinct statement of what that message is that doesn’t come from James Dobson or Jim Wallis. It comes from Jesus. You remember Jesus, don’t you?)

Good point.