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One reason they dont is that some of what those congregations offer is already embodied in liberal politics and culture. As the sociologist N. J. Demerath argued in the 1990s, liberal churches have suffered institutional decline, but also enjoy a sort of cultural triumph, losing members even as their most distinctive commitments ecumenical spirituality and a progressive social Gospel permeate academia, the media, pop culture, the Democratic Party.

But this equilibrium may not last, and it may not deserve to. The campus experience of late suggests that liberal Protestantism without the Protestantism tends to gradually shed the liberalism as well, transforming into an illiberal cult of victimologies that burns heretics with vigor. The wider experience of American politics suggests that as liberalism de-churches it struggles to find a nontransactional organizing principle, a persuasive language of the common good. And the experience of American society suggests that religious impulses without institutions arent enough to bind communities and families, to hold atomization and despair at bay. . . .

Do it for your friends and neighbors, town and cities: Thriving congregations have spillover effects that even anti-Trump marches cant match.

Do it for your family: Church is good for health and happiness, its a better place to meet a mate than Tinder, and even its most modernized form is still an ark of memory, a link between the living and the dead.

I understand that theres the minor problem of actual belief. But honestly, dear liberals, many of you do believe in the kind of open Gospel that a lot of mainline churches preach.

If pressed, most of you arent hard-core atheists: You pursue religious experiences, you have affinities for Unitarianism or Quakerism, you can even appreciate Christian orthodoxy when its woven into Marilynne Robinson novels or the Letter From Birmingham Jail.

You say youre spiritual but not religious because you associate religion with hierarchies and dogmas and strict rules about sex. But the Protestant mainline has gone well out of its way to accommodate you on all these points.

I appreciate that by staying away from church youre vindicating my Catholic skepticism of that accommodation but really, arent you being a little ungrateful, a little slothful, a little selfish by leaving these churches empty when theyre trying to be exactly the change you say you wish Christianity would make?

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Shouldn't liberals be going to liberal churches? - Patheos (blog)

The BC Liberals say they stand corrected after falsely accusing a retired civil servant of being an NDP plant after she encountered Leader Christy Clark in a grocery store and told her shed never vote for her.

However, the party did not issue an apology to Linda Higgins, which some have been calling for after last weeks encounter. The incident, captured by TV news crews inside a store in North Vancouver, sparked its own hashtag on social media, #IamLinda, which critics used to vent their own reasons for never supporting Ms. Clark.

On Tuesday, after days of controversy, the Liberals issued a statement that said: Were happy to stand corrected, though the party did not elaborate, despite a request to do so.

The statement cited Ms. Clarks previous statement that we are fortunate to live in a democracy where respectful disagreement is possible, though it did not include any apology to Ms. Higgins or express any contrition.

Ms. Higgins told The Globe and Mail that she was in North Vancouver last Thursday having had lunch with her husband. When Ms. Clarks leadership tour arrived for some mainstreeting, Ms. Higgins decided she wanted to talk to the Liberal leader about her concerns about education policy, housing affordability and other issues.

The face-to-face chat was brief.

I would never vote for you because of what Ms. Higgins said.

Ms. Clark cut her off. You dont have to thats why we live in a democracy. She then walked away.

Ms. Higgins has denied she was there at the behest of the NDP.

As the hashtag took off, campaign director Laura Miller suggested on Twitter that Ms. Higgins was sent by the NDP to disrupt Ms. Clarks campaign.

Several party officials shared Ms. Millers post, while Sam Oliphant, a former press secretary to Ms. Clark who now works on the campaign, also used a tweet to question Ms. Higgins allegiances.

The party initially refused to say anything about the encounter or whether it stood by the claims about Ms. Higgins, a 61-year-old former social-worker assistant.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Ms. Clark declined to answer questions about whether the party had any evidence to justify claims by senior Liberal officials or why the party would not apologize.

Youll have to speak to the people that tweeted that out, Ms. Clark said. I dont have the answer to that. What I am spending my time talking about while I am out here is what I stand for and what I believe in and our plan for the province.

Ms. Higgins told The Globe that an apology would have little value because it would not be sincere, but rather forced by the pressure that the Liberals have come under over the situation.

In a statement, NDP Leader John Horgan said Ms. Clark has even made up some details about her encounter with Ms. Higgins that are disproved by video of the meeting. After the encounter, Ms. Clark told reporters Ms. Higgins said she didnt vote for her previously, had never voted Liberal and would not vote for again. The suggestion is disputed by video of the encounter.

Mr. Horgan said the discrepancy is typical of Ms. Clarks approach to such disputes.

When Christy Clark gets into trouble, she just makes stuff up, Mr. Horgan said in the statement. I think she owes Linda an apology.

Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver said, on Tuesday, the lack of an apology to Ms. Higgins by either the Liberals or their leader has sustained the controversy.

Mr. Weaver said there was nothing wrong with Ms. Higgins initial comment nor Ms. Clarks response, which he described as fair, although it was done a bit flippantly.

However, he said the Liberals went too far thereafter.

When they accused this woman of being a spy, they crossed the line, he said.

Its not the first time Ms. Clark and the BC Liberals have been under fire for making false allegations. In February, Ms. Clark apologized after accusing the NDP of hacking the BC Liberal Party website. Her allegation came after a party document was sent to a journalist.

Follow Ian Bailey on Twitter: @ianabailey

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BC Liberals take back claim woman was NDP plant in #IamLinda debacle - The Globe and Mail

(Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post)

The Democratic Party should not impose support for abortion rights as a litmus test on its candidates, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday, because it needs a broad and inclusive agenda to win back the socially conservative voters who helped elect President Trump.

This is the Democratic Party. This is not a rubber-stamp party, Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters.

I grew up Nancy DAlesandro, in Baltimore, Maryland; in Little Italy; in a very devout Catholic family; fiercely patriotic; proud of our town and heritage, and staunchly Democratic, she added, referring to the fact that she is the daughter and sister of former mayors of that city. Most of those people my family, extended family are not pro-choice. You think Im kicking them out of the Democratic Party?

Those comments from one of the Democrats most powerful and high-profile women come at a moment of opportunity and struggle within the party. It has been shut out of power in Washington, controlling neither house of Congress nor the White House, and its ranks have been decimated at the state and local level.

Given Trumps unpopularity and the recent stumbles that Republicans have made in Congress, Democrats have great hopes of making significant gains in the 2018 midterm elections. But the opposition party is also gripped by an internecine battle for its own identity, moving leftward with calls for ideological purity by portions of its activist liberal base while also trying to reach out to the rural, working-class Americans who turned against Democrats last year.

Abortion has become a flash point.

Newly installed Democratic National Committee Chairman Thomas Perez and former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came under criticism by abortion rights advocates during their unity tour last month, when they appeared together at a rally for an Omaha mayoral candidate who has sponsored legislature bills to restrict abortion.

Perez responded with a statement declaring that support for abortion rights is nonnegotiable for Democrats, and that they should speak with one voice on it.

At the time, Pelosi bristled at the party chairmans comments, saying on NBCs Meet the Press on April 23 that of course it is possible for an abortion opponent to be a member of the Democratic Party. She added that she has served for many years in Congress with colleagues of her party who do not share her own liberal views on the subject.

On Tuesday, she went further, arguing that the Democrats cannot afford to enforce an ideological test on the abortion issue.

In our caucus, one thing unifies us: our values about working families, Pelosi said. Some people are more or less enthusiastic about this issue or that issue or that issue. Theyll go along with the program, but their enthusiasm is about Americas working families.

She also suggested that the partys presumed rigidity on social issues is one reason that Democrats were unable to appeal to segments of the electorate that might otherwise have been in tune with their broader agenda.

You know what? Thats why Donald Trump is president of the United States the evangelicals and the Catholics, anti-marriage equality, anti-choice. Thats how he got to be president, she said. Everything was trumped, literally and figuratively by that.

Pelosis comments drew a guarded rebuke from Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy organization.

Encouraging and supporting anti-choice candidates leads to bad policy outcomes that violate womens rights and endanger our economic security, Hogue said via email.

The platform approved by Democrats at their national convention in Philadelphia last year went further than the Party has ever gone to stand up for the womens rights. It didnt just seek to protect abortion access it sought to expand it, Hogue said. If the Democratic Party is going to gain back power, it cant go backward, it cant back down and it cant trade away these principles.

Polling indicates that a significant portion of people who consider themselves Democrats do indeed have misgivings about abortion, which has been legal nationally since the Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Surveys by the Pew Research Center have generally found that about 3 in 10 Democrats say that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Pelosi expressed doubt whether any hard-line antiabortion candidate could win a Democratic presidential primary. She also noted that the debate over abortion no longer boils down to whether a candidate is for or against the basic right to the procedure, but rather over whether and what types of limits should be imposed.

As a result, within the Democrats, I dont think that youll see too many candidates going out there and saying, Im running as a pro-life candidate, she said. Its how far are you willing to go on the issue but lets not spend too much time on the subject.

Its kind of fading as an issue, she said. It really is.

Pelosi pointed to Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) as a case study in how the Democrats tolerate diverse views. Casey describes himself as personally opposed to abortion, but he has also fought alongside other Democrats against efforts to withdraw federal funds from Planned Parenthood.

Bob Casey you know Bob Casey would you like him not to be in our party? Pelosi said.

That name has particular resonance within the party. Caseys late father, Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, was denied a speaking spot at the 1992 Democratic National Convention when he asked to present a minority report opposing the partys platform plank on abortion, which declared reproductive choice as a fundamental right that should receive government financing.

In the wide-ranging interview, Pelosi expressed satisfaction at the fact that Republicans in Congress have thus far failed to overturn the health-care law that was the signature domestic legacy of the Obama administration and one of her own greatest legislative accomplishments when she was House speaker.

Pelosi was able to win passage only after adding assurances that the new law would not use government funds for abortion. She also recalled: Look, we worked with the nuns. The nuns helped us pass the Affordable Care Act. The nuns. The Catholic nuns thank God for the Catholic nuns. The Catholic hospitals are speaking out against the current GOP legislation to overturn the law.

Do we subject them to a test and say, Before you speak out on this bill, we want to know where you are on this, that and the other thing? Pelosi said. No. No.

David Weigel contributed to this report.

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Pelosi: Democratic candidates should not be forced to toe party line on abortion - Washington Post

President Trump, smarting at the notion that he was outmaneuvered by Democrats in their first real legislative showdown, is musing openly about seeking to scrap one of the last remaining checks the minority party has, even suggesting he might welcome a government shutdown this fall to further that end.

From the Rose Garden and his Twitter account Tuesday, Trump did little to hide his frustration with hardening conventional wisdom that the $1-trillion spending plan Congress expects to vote on this week represents a setback for his governing agenda, despite his party having the strongest grip on power in the capital in more than a decade, controlling the House, Senate and White House.

Meanwhile, members of both parties were at a loss to explain how what had on Monday appeared to be a rare bipartisan achievement in Washington had evolved 24 hours later into the source of recriminations.

As has often been the case with the president, this episode began with a morning series of postings on social media, in which Trump seemed to concede the funding package he signed off on over the weekend one that largely preserves funding for items he promised to slash, but does not advance his promised border wall was full of concessions to Democrats.

He then laid out options that could absolve him of the need for such compromise in the future: for voters to swell the partys ranks in the chamber to surpass the 60-vote threshold to overcome filibusters, or for Senate Republicans to eliminate the ability of any senator to demand a three-fifths majority to advance major legislation.

He capped that with a remark that seemed to embrace a fiscal crisis as a way to push his agenda.

Our country needs a good shutdown in September to fix mess! the president tweeted.

Aides later said Trump bristled at comments from Democrats claiming victory in the spending fight, as became clear when the president appeared in the Rose Garden hours later.

Flanked by members of the Air Force Academy football team in military dress, Trump boasted of the deals higher spending levels on defense, historic investments in border security, and funding for charter school programs. Put together, he said at the event congratulating the team, our Republican team had its own victory under the radar, Trump said.

And we didn't do any touting like the Democrats did, he added, before praising new military spending that he said fulfilled a core campaign promise.

Democrats had indeed been quick Monday to hail provisions of the spending bill that protected their priorities while averting what they called poison pill amendments like one to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. But legislative leaders from both parties were also eager to sell the package as an example of compromise that was possible if all sides acted in good faith.

This deal is exactly how Washington should work when it is bipartisan: Both parties negotiated and came to an agreement on a piece of legislation that we can each support. It is truly a shame that the president is degrading it because he didnt get 100% of what he wanted, Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) groused at having to respond to another presidential Twitter flurry as he faced reporters shortly after the tweets were posted.

When you look at the bill, there's a lot of good conservative wins here, he insisted.

On Monday morning, Trump had indicated he was satisfied with the agreement and noted both sides could claim victory. But by late Monday, Trumps budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, was dispatched to the White House briefing room to proclaim victories for the administration.

I'd be hard-pressed to figure how we could fund more of the priorities, he said then.

By the time the budget chief spoke to reporters again Tuesday afternoon, he said Democrats had tainted future negotiations.

The president is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike the football and make him look bad, Mulvaney said. If Democrats dont change that posture, he added, a shutdown may be inevitable.

It wasnt clear why the president believed a government shutdown a costly, inconvenient and embarrassing affair would be beneficial at a time when Republicans control the White House and both chambers in Congress. The White House also could not clarify whether Trump was calling for an actual government shutdown; his tweet put the term in quotation marks, which he sometimes cites later as a sign he was not speaking literally.

The last federal shutdown occurred during a standoff between President Obama and Republicans in 2013 over healthcare, lasting 16 days. In Congress, neither side of the aisle wanted a repeat of that.

That the president would say, in effect, what this country needs is a good shutdown just speaks in volumes as to his insensitivity to what a shutdown means, or his lack of knowledge of what a shutdown means, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in an interview.

She questioned whether the comment was reflective of the advice of Mulvaney, a former South Carolina representative whom she called a ringleader of the 2013 shutdown.

Whats he complaining about? That left to their own devices, the Congress came to agreement? she asked, noting that securing Democratic votes in both the House and Senate has become essential to any government funding effort.

If the House and Senate do pass the spending bill this week as expected, it will fund government operations through the close of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. White House officials say Trump will be in even a stronger negotiating position by then.

We're hopeful that we can see as we go through the 2018 process more of a Republican-driven process, especially in the House, which would be a little bit more typical, Mulvaney said Monday.

But on the legislative front, it's unclear just what else Republicans will be capable of passing, given ongoing internal divisions and an emboldened Democratic minority.

Trump has been increasingly focused on the filibuster hurdle in the Senate. He called the chambers rules archaic in an interview on Fox News last week, one of many he sat for that was intended to promote his accomplishments during his first 100 days.

But while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was willing to deploy the so-called nuclear option to change Senate rules and allow Trumps Supreme Court nominee to advance with a simple majority vote, he and other Republicans have indicated that they are not inclined to lower the voting threshold to overcome a filibuster for legislation.

There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis not interested in changing the way the Senate operates, McConnell told reporters Tuesday. That will not happen.

The Trump administration is set to release a more detailed budget blueprint for 2018 later this month, part of a process that Republicans hope will be a vehicle to enact a far-reaching tax plan. First, they still hope to restart an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

It is possible for Republicans to secure both without Democratic votes, McConnell said.

On everything else, the Senate has been known for its bipartisanship, and you're seeing a perfect example of it on the spending bill that will be on the floor this week, he said.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

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Trump talks of possible shutdown next time as Democrats claim victory in spending fight - Los Angeles Times

Weve all heard plenty of theories for why Donald Trump won the election: racism, sexism, xenophobia, and, well, Russia. And a number of arguments have more to do with why Hillary Clinton lost than anything Trump did to win.

But now the Democrats say their own data reveals specifically why Clinton lostand it complicates any attempt to rationalize the bizarre results as a case of racist white men unleashed.

Thats because Democrats say the real reason the election went the way it did was because of the number of voters who cast their ballots for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 andswitched their allegiance to Trump in 2016.

We have to make sure we learn the right lesson from 2016, that we dont just draw the lesson that makes us feel good at night, make us sleep well at night, Democratic strategist Matt Canter said of the findings.

The report came on the eve of remarks by Clinton, who said she would have won the election if not for FBI Director James Comey revealing that she was under investigation by the agency over leaked emails from a private server she used while serving as secretary of state.

According to a report by McClatchy, the so-called Obama-Trump voters accounted for a two-thirds majority of the reasons Clinton ultimately lost the electoral college vote. McClatchy says several members of Clintons campaign team have reached a similar conclusion based on the same data.

Interesting for those thinking ahead to 2020 isthat, according to Canter, turning out more of the Democratic base wont be enough to sway the next election in their favor. Instead, the party will need to win over more moderate butconservative-leaningwhite,middle-class voters that helped Trump win swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

This idea that Democrats can somehow ignore this constituency and just turn out more of our voters, the math doesnt work, Canter said. We have to do both.

The good news is that Obama did well with these voters in two elections, meaning these voters are less ideological and more likely to vote for the candidate best aligned with their economic and personal interests.

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Democrats Say They've Figured Out Exactly Why Trump Won The Election - GOOD Magazine