Poor Ralph Reed

Gee, Ralph, you're right–I don't know where any of us got the idea that all you guys care about are those two issues [abortion and gay marriage].

This week marks the launch of yet another new player in the progressive religion and politics world–God's Politics,
a blog written by Jim Wallis and friends (of which I will be one) and
hosted by Beliefnet.com. To get things started, this first week will be
anchored by a debate between Wallis and Ralph Reed over what we mean
when we talk about "values" and whose values we're really including. 

This debate is timely, as later this week the denizens of the Christian Right (plus a few others, such as the desperately-looking-for-evangelical-validation Mitt Romney) descend on Washington hold their "Values Voters Summit."

I love the language they've chosen to describe the summit–it's purpose is to "remind" American voters what the real values are. That's interesting…why would they think that people are confused or have forgotten? Is it because religious Americans are talking about the environment and poverty and the war in Iraq and inequality?

Even more amusing is Ralph Reed's wounded protest that Wallis unfairly characterizes religious conservatives when he says they seem to focus on abortion and gay marriage to the exclusion of other issues. But, but, but…we care about poverty and foreign policy and minority home ownership! cries Reed. It's setting up a straw man to claim otherwise.

It's true that there are some religious conservatives who have, very recently, become involved with issues of global poverty and AIDS (Rick Warren), sex trafficking (Sam Brownback), and the environment (Rich Cizik and Ted Haggard). But it's beyond disingenuous for Reed to claim that those issues get anywhere near the amount of play that the Christian Right devotes to the dynamite duo of abortion and gay marriage.

I don't remember hearing about poverty during any of the three Justice Sunday events. Haven't seen a word about sex trafficking or human rights in the promotional material for the Values Voters Summit. Can't recall the Focus on the Family alert about environmental legislation. And the voter guide that Rick Warren sent out before the 2004 election that highlighted five "questions to ask when considering who to vote for"? Abortion, abortion, gay marriage, human cloning, and euthanasia.

But for a final piece of evidence, simply scroll down to the end of Reed's post, where he poses a challenge to Wallis, asserting that voters will never believe Democrats are sympathetic to their "religious concerns" until they address "abortion and marriage."

Gee, Ralph, you're right–I don't know where any of us got the idea that all you guys care about are those two issues.