Where is the Religious Left?
April 27, 2004
Guest posting at Political Animal, Bruce Reed says:
I’d feel a lot better if our side spent less time running down the religious right, and more time building a religious center-left.
Political Animal
To which one commenter responds (in a separate post):
Maybe the “liberal” Christians didn’t bother to show up. Whose fault is that? Not the half a million or more who showed up. Comment from dave
I think I know why Bruce and Dave didn’t see the religious left. Not because they were not there, but because the religious left has an aversion to little fish symbols. Not everyone who is Christian wears it on his or her sleeve.
I have known many Christians who were quietly Christian, believing that their lives — not laws or t-shirts — were supposed to be the expression of their faith. No doubt many an atheist marched next to one or more of these Christians on Sunday and didn’t even know it.
Another reason the religious left is so often invisible is because they have significant tolerance of and respect for other religions. They demonstrate this by not advertising or broadcasting their faith, especially when doing so would risk alienating the otherwise amiable folk nearby.
Not to mention that broadcasting one’s faith is considered by many on the religious left as an attempt to curry favor by appearing religious rather than actually being religious. Or that so many people feel that by broadcasting your religion you are implying you are better than everyone else.
The only major exception to this general rule are the Fundamentalist Atheists, who feel free to repeatedly and loudly proclaim all religious people as “stupid sheep” (or worse) without respect for the context of the situation or the sensitivities of those around them. Like Fallwell or George W., they have no qualms calling themselves better than other people because of their beliefs.
I am sure this Sunday that many an atheist loudly insulted a half-dozen or more religious people around him and didn’t even realize religious people were around. Not that he would have cared if he knew.
Now, I disagree with Kevin Drum that we need to pander and talk about God more at political events. In fact, there are a lot of Christians — both liberal and Fundamentalist — who think talking about God at political events cheapens religion, and would love to hear a whole lot less of it.
But a little more basic civility would be nice. Not because we need to pander, but because it’s generally a good idea to be polite to one’s allies.
Posted in Religion
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April 27th, 2004 at 10:54 am
Amen. That is EXACTLY how I feel. Every point. Thank you.
April 27th, 2004 at 11:56 am
Good entry. I have been as guilty as anyone of being intolerant of religion. I have tried to tone it down somewhat [in large part due to you] over the last couple of years. I would like to think that I make the point that it’s only fundamentalists that I think I schmucks, but I’m sure I cross the line now and then.
April 27th, 2004 at 12:07 pm
It’s funny. Even some of the most atheistic people I know (like my SO) have religious leanings of a sort. Or beliefs that lean over and shake hands with religious beliefs.
Things just aren’t as black and white as we’d like to think.
April 27th, 2004 at 12:23 pm
The thing to understand about the religious left, whether it’s Christian or Jewish or whatever, is the tolerance and reconciliation thing. Being from the religious left myself I feel that it’s one of the enormous strengths of what I believe (and closest to what Christanity teaches as it’s written in the Gospels) but at the same time unbearably frustrating. After the Episcopal Church voted for an openly gay man to be elected bishop this summer we had one of our priests, a lesbian, preaching that all views should be listened to and respected. This I found amazing - how could she say that we should listen to views of people who find her very existence to be an abomonation? When I asked her, she replied that it’s what she believes and is the face of her faith that she wants to present to the world. I guess that’s why she’s a priest and I’m not :) My view is that the fundamentalist gay-haters have no place in my church, even though it goes against that church’s teachings to take that attitude.
April 27th, 2004 at 12:41 pm
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST. This felt like you read my mind and heart… and I’m sure a lot of others felt that way too.
I’ve been struggling lately because I’m so tired of some folks (mostly members of the religious right) automatically assuming that because I’m left-leaning politically, I must be a loud, God-hating athiest with absolutely no respect for a higher power or a tradition of belief, etc.
I’ve also been assaulted by the conservative religious and bibilical literalists who think my liberal religious views mean I - personally - am going to dance around a golden calf and encourage their children to do likewise.
But you’re right — I have respect for where people find their faith. Who am I to question that? Or make laws that reinforce my way of believing?
You’ve put all of that into MUCH better words than I could. I thought the problem was there was no proof of life where the religious left is concerned, and that’s why we get walked on. But, actually, that is how it should be to some extent. Faith is personal. We should let it be.
A beautiful, beautiful post.
April 27th, 2004 at 12:53 pm
Well, I do think we are going to have to make some noise — all of us, from liberal catholics to buddhists to neo-pagans. We’ve let ourselves be defined by fundamentalists both anti- and pro-atheist, and a lot of people don’t even believe we exist.
Somehow there has to be a way to demonstrate religious people are not all intolerant, politically-motivated, science-hating conservatives without it coming across as evangelical.
April 27th, 2004 at 2:25 pm
This is why I’m so adamant about participating in Pagan Unity Campaign’s “I Am” program. It’s not about preaching or proselytizing; it’s about letting our elected officials know we exist, and that we vote. Campaigns like this would be a lot more effective if they were taken up by the “mainstream” religious left. And they’d be even more effective if we all worked together.
April 29th, 2004 at 7:02 pm
This IS a great post. Not just because I was discussing the dilemmas of leftwing Christians about 5 minutes before I read it, but because you describe the leftist Christian perspective so aptly.
One other reason that strikes me as to why leftist Christians are ’silent’is that sometimes we are sitting on the fence.
I feel very strongly about social justice issues, and believe that the plight of sick, hungry, imprisioned and poor should be utmost on any Christian’s agenda.
On the other hand, I happen to have what would definitely be characterized as a ‘fundementalist morality’ when it comes to issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
Where is my voice in the political spectrum? In the watery centre - I am passionate about compassion AND morality? In the right, where justice reigns over mercy? In the left, where mercy blinds justice? It’s a quandry!
January 10th, 2007 at 8:16 am
[...] I sat down today to write on this topic, then remembered that I wrote about it nearly two years ago. Topics of religious tolerance have been very much on my mind recently. In part because of the uproar over Richard Dawkins, but probably more because we’re having a baby. And people seemed to really like the post way back when: [...]