We Cannot Be Everything and Still Be Something

The leaders of the Religious Left are so often troubled by the moniker "left" that they use language like this. Not left, not right, not center. A brand new paradigm will be created where people come together to honor life, raise the minimum wage, provide health care to all, and save the environment… Unfortunately, this does not happen.

Rachel has already written a great post about the new survey from Faith in Public Life. I agree with a lot of what she wrote, but I got a little flummoxed when I read the following in a blog post from my from my friend Mark Silk:

On the strength of a post-election Faith in Public Life survey, Jim Wallis makes so bold as to claim (in a conference call today) that a new faith coalition is in the offing. It will be led by blacks and Latinos, and will include young and moderate evangelicals, progressive Catholics, mainline Protestants, and miscellaneous others. It will not be a religious left, and certainly not of the right, and more inclusive than a center. As the late Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko described his own ideology, Mobutuism: ni à droite, ni à gauche, ni même au centre. Call it the Grand Coalition of the Common Good. (emphasis added)

The underlined section is much of what I feel has stifled our movement in the past and in the present. The survey from Faith in Public Life shows what the members of the Religious Left have been saying for a long time. It is widely known amongst the left (and now the media) that Catholics and Evangelicals (as a group) reject political labels and care about issues of the common good. Kitchen table issues are what all American’s care about, religious and irreligious alike. The only difference is in the framing of the issues and the language that moves these individuals to action.

This leads me to my problems with Wallis’ language. "It will not be a religious left, and certainly not of the right, and more inclusive than the center." What does that mean? The leaders of the Religious Left are so often troubled by the moniker "left" that they use language like this. Not left, not right, not center. A brand new paradigm will be created where people come together to honor life, raise the minimum wage, provide health care to all, and save the environment… Unfortunately, this does not happen.

I am a Democrat. I’m a Faithful Democrat. I’m proud to be part of the Left because being a part of an actual political movement is what is needed to organize to do the things I just listed. I understand that people of all beliefs and political inclinations agree with me on the importance of the common good. But I do not believe that a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independents are going to forget their partisanship to join a new faith coalition. Of course there is a new coalition out there, and it is led by blacks and Latinos, and young progressive Catholics and Evangelicals, but they are members of the blossoming Religious Left, and must embrace that in order to enact the change they want to see.

The Religious Right was successful in the 1990’s because they did not care about being perceived as politically right. They only cared about getting their narrow definition of Christianity and morality legislated. The Religious Left is a broad inclusive coalition, and rightfully so, but it cannot be everything. It cannot be the right, or the center, or create its own new political paradigm. There will probably be 58 Democratic Senators, 259 Democratic Representatives and a Democratic President. Now is the time to bring common good legislation to the forefront. But it must come from faithful Democrats. So please read Rachel’s post, and hopefully our leaders will take the recommendations because we can grow our numbers. Just remember that the survey shows that a progressive agenda is desired by the American electorate, and there is no reason to hide from that.