The Religious Left—prophetic politics—is in the house, says, Jim Wallis, founder and executive director of Sojourners and author of the Amazon.com best-seller, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. (Disclosure: If you click the Amazon.com button to the right to buy the book, I get a little something-something.)
At a recent Demos Forum, Wallis reminded us that faith, religion and moral values fueled the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. More recently, the civil rights movement was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who embraced the kind of faith that could move mountains and Bull Connor.
Dr. King didn’t impose his religious beliefs on anyone. He didn’t pronounce that God was on his side. Instead, “with a Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other,” he persuaded Americans to find common ground by moving to higher ground. Dr. King made everyone feel included in a moral conversation about politics.
By contrast, “Republicans have used faith and values as a wedge to divide rather than to bring us together across those red and blue lines.” To win elections, Republicans have reduced moral values to abortion and gay marriage. Wallis asked: “How did Jesus become pro-rich, pro-war and only pro-American?"
Wallis believes that America is ready for a new conversation about faith and values that is not controlled by the Republican Party:
Perhaps the most mistaken media perception of our time is that religious influence in political life only equates to the politics of the Religious Right. The biggest story that the mainstream media has yet to discover is how much that reality is changing.
Though Democrats are uncomfortable talking about faith (Remember Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s God-talk on C-SPAN after the election?), Wallis believes the progressive religious option is possible, available and increasingly visible.
In a future post, I’ll talk about jackleg preachers who are being co-opted by the lure of faith-based lucre. But today’s lesson is God is not Republican or Democratic. Spread the word.
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