06/10/2004: "Libs flap gums, wring hands"

Religious folks advocating a politically liberal agenda met in Washington yesterday to see if they can resucitate a corpse. According to the Washington Post:

Speakers celebrated the role of religious liberals in the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War, the nuclear freeze campaign and sanctions against South Africa's former apartheid system. They called for a stronger, more clearly religious voice against the Bush administration's foreign policy and for environmental stewardship, universal health insurance, and efforts to fight poverty at home and abroad.

Yet even as the conference at times took on the enthusiasm of a pep rally, there were sobering reflections on why the religious left lost its prominence after the 1970s and how hard it may be to regain it. At the core of those concerns was a simple set of statistics, reinforced by numerous polls: People who say they are frequent churchgoers vote Republican by a ratio of about 2 to 1.

It couldn't be because the Democratic Party is perceived by many Christians as having a social agenda that runs counter to traditional Christian ethics, could it? Or that the left in America is perceived by many to have an anti-religious, and more specifically anti-Christian bias, could it?

"Church attendance is not the only indicator of living out your faith," said the Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson, executive director of the Clergy Leadership Network, a group devoted to "leadership change" in Washington. "The vast majority of people of faith in this country are center to left, politically. But if you only measure religious commitment by butts in the pews, that's what you get."

What Perterson seems to be saying (aside from the absurd claim that "the vast majority of people of faith in this country are center to left," which has been refuted by every poll taken in the last five years) is that religious people who have nothing to do with religious congregations tend to be liberal. Another way to say that is that people who make up their religion as they go along tend to be liberal. But those folks vote, too.

"It really bothers me that whenever the media and others talk about people of faith, they talk only about the religious right and don't seem to realize there are people like me, who grew up Baptist and believe in God and have strong religious values, but who want different policy outcomes," said Melody Barnes, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

I agree with Ms. Barnes about the media's "religious right" fixation (not to mention the media's tendency to demonize same). But the giveaway in her statement is when she says she "grew up Baptist." People don't talk that way unless what they mean is that they are no longer active in a religious community. Hence, they are no longer part of a movement that can have an effect on public policy by voting strongly in one direction. And that goes to the crux of the problem that religious liberals have�they may be dominant in the leadership of mainline denominations and groups like the National Council of Churches, but politicians instinctively recognize that they speak for no one but themselves, whereas when conservatives like James Dobson speak to an issue, they can mobilize lots of supporters. But that's not what some liberals see as the problem:

"Part of it is our fault. We should take back the Bible, take back the theological principles and not just cede them to the religious right," said the Rev. Susan B. Thistlethwaite, a minister in the United Church of Christ and president of the Chicago Theological Seminary. "It's not good enough to talk in vague terms about values. We can do better than that. We can make the theological arguments."

Take back the Bible and do what with it, exactly? Once you've said that it's out-of-date and irrelevant on one set of issues (sexual ethics), it's hard to then come back and use it to make a case for abortion rights or expanded welfare, isn't it? And making those theological arguments will not get you in solid with your political allies:

But some of the Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims at the conference also said they have felt excluded or even disdained by the secular left.

Natch. Because lots of secular liberals think religion is for weak, woolly-minded, hidebound morons who, even if they vote the right way, are too stupid to be useful in politics. And you know what? When religious liberals hold up the "nuclear freeze campaign" (you know, the one that didn't lead to the demise of the Soviet empire) as one of their shining moments, you begin to wonder if the seculars don't have a point.

(Hat tip: Hampton)