Looking for Salvation in All the Wrong Places

The overwhelming power of conservative Christians in the current Administration is deeply disturbing. But equally disturbing is the call that has gone out to what is now called "progressive religion" to counter the conservative Christian view of what God wants with a different list of God's desires. The loudest call has come from the Democratic Party, which is undergoing its own scourging rituals. Religionists themselves are outraged by the way fundamentalists have hijacked their God. Memories of the important role played by religious leaders in the civil rights and antiwar movements are cited as proof of the good religion has to offer to the progressive agenda. And, of course, the post-2004 election obsession with "moral values" has enlarged the public space open to progressive religious voices.

The temptation to try to fight fire with fire is understandable. Conservative religious thought has had such a long free ride in the media that it is presupposed to be the true expression of religious belief. Progressives who speak out get covered only when they are the man-bites-dog story. Witness the hurrahs and amazement that greeted an evangelical Christian coalition that took the remarkably benign step of accepting the overwhelming evidence of scientists that global warming is real. At the same time, religious leaders who speak out against the war in Iraq or against draconian budget cuts get very little coverage, since the media still believe religious advocacy for peace and the poor is to be expected and is thus not news.

But there is much that is new--and bears watching--in the way progressive religion is operating these days. Political progressives and just plain old garden-variety Democrats are so desperate to be saved that they seem willing to accept unthinkingly the notion that progressive religion is not only the antidote to right-wing religion but also that progressive God-talk is the best way to express moral values. I sat in silence in the office of a Democratic senator last year as she told me she wanted to get up on the floor of the Senate and ask, "What would Jesus do about the budget? What would Jesus do about unemployment?" There seemed to me to be something seriously wrong with an elected official of a nonreligious state seeking to shape legislation according to anyone's interpretation, however loving and justice-seeking, of what God wants.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
• Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.