Apparently the Left (or certain of its pieces parts) now believes that "it’s appropriate to bring faith into the public policy arena." (Where did Michael Newdow go?) Looking for an answer to the Right wing’s religious voting block, the Left has begun its own left-leaning religious movement with groups like the Center for American Progress and the Clergy Leadership Network. As one group said, the idea is to "give voice to people who are religious and spiritual and also progressive who feel their views are neglected in the public dialogue." To be sure, a number of the groups are avowedly "non-partisan" and intend "to act in the ’prophetic tradition’ to ’unite faith communities across the divide on issues of global justice that are receiving insufficient attention,’" but almost all tend to favor the Left’s policies over the Right’s. God speed.
Now believes??
Haven’t you heard of the National Council of Churches? Now, I wouldn’t view these people as religious or moral but they at least claim to be.
It’s a bit odd to say that the "Left" has "begun" movements sympathetic to its goals. I mean, the anitslavery movement was the antebellum equivalent of the "Left," as was the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. Religious groups have also been on the forefront of other movements you’d call "Left," like gay rights, living wage, human rights issues, and, well, then there’s the whole liberation theology thing.
The fact that non-right-wing religious groups are invisible is primarily a function of a) bad media coverage, and b) the contemporary Republican attempt to play to its white protestant conservative supporters. The picture has always been more complicated than you let on here, Nathaniel!
The fact that non-right-wing religious groups are invisible is primarily a function of a) bad media coverage, and b) the contemporary Republican attempt to play to its white protestant conservative supporters.
More important than either of these is that there is no right-wing equivalent to the efforts to remove "under God" from the pledge, or to remove the Ten Commandments or nativity scenes from public buildings. Surely the willingness of many left-wingers to embrace these causes does a great deal to convince ordinary people that the left is anti-religious.
Tlast time I checked, Mr. Lincoln was not exactly a member of the "Left," and the Civil Rights Act was passed with more Republican votes than Democratic ones. While some realignment has occurred, the Left’s legacy has been to tranform notions of equality into sanctioned unequal governmental treatment through programs such as quotas. Quite the civil rights legacy.
"the Civil Rights Act was passed with more Republican votes than Democratic ones"
That may be true, but it’s irrelevant, unless you think that the Republican heirs of the Southern Democrats wear red socks, so to speak. The question is whether a lot of folks in the civil rights movement were both religious and "left," and I think that nobody can seriously claim otherwise.
"there is no right-wing equivalent to the efforts to remove "under God" from the pledge"
Fair enough. But you have to admit that Nathaniel’s view of history seems to start with the Reagan Republican attempt to attract white protestants and anti-abortion catholics.