Can the Cause of Economic Justice Revive the Religious Left?
Washington The religious left was never as cohesive and effective as the religious right. But a new report based on interviews with religious progressive leaders finds that the Obama era may have further weakened Democrats interest in the non-secular.
The recent report from the Brookings Institution argues that religious progressives could be heading for a renaissance if they can focus on what some see as the civil rights issue of our time: economic justice.
The report, by the institutes Governance Studies Program, is based on polling and interviews with many of the top players of Washingtons religious left. This includes John Carr, formerly of the U.S. Bishops Conference, evangelical writer Jim Wallis and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform Jewish movement.
It starkly lays out the challenges facing religious progressives activists and voters who see their faith lived out through social justice, particularly work for such causes as immigration reform and limiting budget cuts for the poor.
Religious progressives played a massive role in everything from the New Deal to ending slavery. Can they again be as influential?
The report, co-written by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., argues that the success of Obama and the Democrats in 2008 led not to a redoubling of interest on the progressive side of religion, but quite the opposite. . . . Engagement with religion has atrophied. Many saw 2012 as a year when the gap widened between secular and religious progressives because Obama and other Democrats had gained traction by pushing on socially liberal issues such as abortion and contraception on which there is not unanimity among religious progressives.
The report lays out the key challenges for religious progressives, including:
The numbers. Even as the religious conservative movement is failing to attract younger people, 56 percent of Republicans call themselves religious conservatives, while only 28 percent of Democrats call themselves religious progressives.
Religious progressives are not homogenous and thus not as cohesive. Their views on abortion and gay marriage can vary, and their congregations are more politically diverse and thus harder to rally.
Democrats are ambivalent about the role of religion in politics.
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Can the Cause of Economic Justice Revive the Religious Left?