If one believes that the government has a place in helping to defend the dignity of outsiders, or, at least, of helping to ensure their material wellbeing (a point basically any medieval political thinker would have agreed with—the whole community being prior to its parts), then it’s not hard to understand how one could come to “basic” Left-leaning positions—a reasonably-robust welfare state, certain subordinations of the individual to the community, a desire to limit the power of profit-driven corporations, both in terms of political and economic clout, etc. Liberal Christianity may occasionally be this-worldly enough to excuse such behaviors (as its secular counterpart often is), but an authentically-Left Christianity cannot. Its commitment to orthodoxy and orthopraxy can find no room for those who would grind the poor into the dust or otherwise put things before human dignity. Christ was not born so that we might be further mired in depraved acquisitiveness.
Opposition to the death penalty is a bit trickier, but one can, at first glance, see that a radical acceptance of the dignity of the human person (the same thing that leads many Christians to oppose abortion) can drive a desire to see capital punishment eradicated.
On LGBTQ issues, one sees much the same argument. Many say, for example, that Fr. James Martin may not admit he wishes to change Church teaching, but that he secretly does, that he hints at this fact. Maybe; maybe not. But Fr. Martin aside, it seems entirely possible for someone to decide that the acceptance of LGBTQ people requires loving them in spite of whatever differences might exist between their practices and those of straight Christians. Admitting that does not make one heterodox; in fact, it might make one committed both to orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
Does all of this mean that a “Left” Christian must merely support whatever “the Left” says? No, of course not! That’s the point here—that such a provisional Leftism comes from right belief, not the other way around. Thus there are bound to be myriad disagreements among those who are Christian and who label themselves as “Leftists.” Such conflicts might be even more marked with their secular counterparts. A Christian Leftist is not Nancy Pelosi, nor Bernie Sanders. He or she may have things in common with such politicians, but may also disagree profoundly about other things.
To be faithful and to be of the Left are thus not antonyms. Everyday this is misrepresented as people employ caricatures to defang and denounce their opponents. But such need not be the case. In fact, for many Leftist Christians, their actions spring from being filled with faith, hope, and love through their orthodoxy. This is more than may be said for many lukewarm “Right” Christians, for whom vague ideas about the culture mean more than actual belief (this is not universally the case, but it is a reality with which we must reckon).
Recognizing these facts, I hope we might pray together:
A mystery! Strange and wonderful I see! Heaven is a cave on earth! The cherubic throne is the Virgin! The God Whom cannot be contained is placed in the manger, a noble place, O Christ our God. Him do we praise and magnify! (Canon of the Nativity of Our Lord)
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