Rise and Shine Religious Left                          

October 24, 2010

Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne

George Bush was a Man of God.  When he was President the entire country was aware of the large role his evangelical faith played in his decisions.  A PBS "Frontline" documentary, The Jesus Factor, profiled how Bush’s connection to the Christian Right enabled his rise to political power.  During his father’s 1987 presidential campaign, after Pat Robertson won the Iowa caucuses, W’s understanding of Evangelical Christians helped bring them into Bush Senior’s fold.  Then, the 42% of Americans who call themselves Evangelical or Born Again Christians helped him win elections.  Faith-Based Initiatives, the assault on a woman’s right to choose, and appointments of social conservatives to judicial posts were just some of the more visible ways Evangelical Christianity used its clout in Bush’s administration.  Kevin Phillips, in his book, American Theocracy, said, “In George W. Bush's Washington [we saw] an elected leader who believe[d] himself in some way to be speaking for God; a ruling party that represent[ed] religious true believers and [sought] to mobilize the nation's churches; the conviction of many that government should be guided by religion and religious leaders.”
Now, in the 2010 election season, we haven’t heard as much about the Religious Right as we have of the recession and the amazing phenomenon called the Tea Party.  But, make no mistake, the Religious Right is still active and is motivating people to vote their religious values based on what political pundits have dubbed “Social Issues.”  These include, as always, anti-gay and anti-choice, ballot measures with some anti-immigrant measures added in, and they have elevated Muslim bashing higher on their list of oppressive behaviors.  Politicians, including President Obama, go out of their way to name their religious affiliations.  In Kentucky, Senate candidate Conway ran an ad criticizing candidate Paul for belonging to a group that mocked another religion.  The ad is seen by many as an attempt to portray Paul, who has been an Evangelical Christian for many years, as anti-Christian.  This is what the pundits seized upon, but I didn’t here much said in defense that it should be OK for a candidate to be of any religion - or no religion.
Unitarian Universalism is a religion which embraces progressive social values.  For the last 30 years we and other religious progressives have watched in dismay as Christian fundamentalists, who promote sexism, homophobia and authoritarian family structures, gained more political clout.  Many of us have first hand experience of how the misuse of religion hurts people.  Some of us fled churches which restricted our natural development or restrained expression of differing views on the world.  We rightly object to the use of religion to justify oppressive social policies and authoritarian political regimes.    The American Right formed an alliance between religious fundamentalists, and secular materialists who have worked together to fund conservative think tanks, media and many successful political campaigns.  Recently, there have been several calls from the Religious Left for concerted effort to counter the Religious Right’s political machine.
Yes, there is a Religious Left.  The Interfaith Alliance is a coalition of people who have similar commitment to progressive principles.  I am a supporter The Interfaith Alliance as do many UUs.  It was formed in the ‘90s to promote interfaith cooperation to strengthen civic participation, freedom of religion, diversity, and civility in public discourse and to encourage the active involvement of people of faith in the nation’s political life.   The Interfaith Alliance includes diverse spiritual traditions – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs – 70 faith traditions in all, as well as many Agnostics and Atheists.  Denny Davidoff, past Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association is a board member.  Another alliance I support is the Tikkun Community.  Tikkun founded the Network of Spiritual Progressives and sponsors conferences on spiritual activism.

There are several books on this new phenomenon - of the left organizing in order to project its ideas into national consciousness.  Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, proposes a "Spiritual Covenant with America" in his book, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right.  President Jimmy Carter’s book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis gives a critique of the religious right.
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TheReverend Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners , a liberal Christian magazine wrote: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, a manifesto for progressive Christians to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice.  “In his estimation, conservatives co-opted religious vocabulary and have used it to polarize.  He says the true mission of Christianity is righting social ills and working for peace.  Wallis sees these as in tune with the values of liberals who so often run screaming from the idea of religion.”

Liberals have long fought to maintain the separation of church and state, and we are proud to be part of that tradition.  However, many liberals go beyond trying to shrink the role of religion in the government sphere and denounce religion altogether.  They reject the notion that religion should have any role in public life at all.  Rabbi Lerner complains the political left “often sees religion not merely as mistaken but as fundamentally irrational, and it gives the impression that one of the most important elements in the lives of ordinary Americans is actually deserving of ridicule.”  

But, the assumption that only secularism will rule in the public sphere no longer holds.  The battle has shifted from a few decades ago when liberals attempted to run religion off the field entirely.  Conservative Christians refused to accept a social order which leaves out religion and forced an end to religious prohibition in schools and in government.  While liberals were busy fighting the last war, our government began listening to a religious point of view quite different from ours.  All kinds of politicians, who long shunned the use of religion in politics, now wear religion on their sleeves, and now we must struggle with the theocratic excesses of the Christian far right.  

Religious progressives were insulted by the way religious fundamentalists used their power with the Bush administration.  The religious alliances of the left say it is time we learned to speak our religious views in public.  We religious lefties claim our social and political proposals are based on love, justice and compassion.  When we disagree with the views of the Christian Right, it is tempting to point out flaws in their theology.  But there is danger lurking there.  No matter how right any one church thinks it is, even ours, none has the whole absolute, final truth.  The moral values upon which laws are created should be based on a consensus of all the people, not on the claims of one particular religion - not even ours.

If we disagree on social issues, it is best to iron out our differences in a public sphere which recognizes a diversity of religious values.  Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, says, “It would seem that moral values-and the freedom to interpret what any one of us may think God wants-is best protected by a deep ethical commitment to the secular state, defined as a state in which the moral authority of government is derived from the consent of the people rather than the President’s link to or intuition about God.”   Another way to put this is, the people who are governed should jointly give their consent to the laws that govern them.
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Can this be done?  Can Americans come to an ethical consensus which will bring justice to all?  As Robert Fulghum says – Timshel; Maybe.  We may be able to bring all the diverse beliefs to the table and make peace.  There are no guarantees; but making America mean something, making America stand for something we are proud of is ours to do.

Timshel; Maybe -  doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.  Rabbi Jack Moline, one of The Interfaith Alliance's Vice Presidents, said the “purpose of religion in a society is to be a voice for the ethical use of power.”  He comes to that conclusion as a result of analyzing the Holocaust where Jews had little or no access to power in their societies.  They died because they had little power to resist the ideologically driven Nazis.  If we learn nothing else from the Holocaust, it should be the danger of being powerless, but it is not just amassing power that matters.  What’s important is that power be used to benefit all the people.  It does matter that we speak to power and that we stand up for our values.  In this election season, most of the political ads I see are distressing, not because of the political positions they take, but because of their mean-spiritedness - from both Democrats and Republicans.

A Grandfather from the Cherokee Nation was talking with his grandson.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."

"One wolf is evil and ugly: He is envy, war, greed, regret, shame, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, selfishness and arrogance."
"The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, justice, fairness, empathy, generosity, true, compassion, creativity, gratitude, and deep VISION."
"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other human as well."

The grandson paused in deep reflection because of what his grandfather had just said.
Then he finally asked: "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"
The elder Cherokee replied, “The wolf that you feed.”

It matters which wolf we feed; it matters that we are motivated from and act on our liberal religious values - please remember this throughout the election season and whether your candidates win the election or not.
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Spiritual activism of the Religious Left arises from our awareness of the interdependence of all life and the resulting  compassion we feel for others, especially for those in need.  Our activism  is fueled by our hopefulness - our hope that we can create a more wholesome and just world.  Religious progressives have always been most effective standing together with the powerless at the margins of power, seeking social justice.  As we experience assaults on the rights of women, gays, people of color, immigrants, Muslins and more, the reasons for forming progressive alliances are clearer than ever.  In order to have influence in this country we need to have access to the power which rests in business, the media and government, and we believe no religion should dominate any of those sectors.  That is why we must move in from the margins and participate in elections and progressive institutions - so we can change the social paradigm to one of hope instead of fear.

The goals of the Network of Spiritual Progressives include:  Challenging the misuse of religion and God by the Religious Right.  In addition to challenging the Right, we challenge anti-religious stereotypes put forth by some on the Left.  “Religion should manifest in social activism aimed at peace, universal disarmament, social justice with a preferential option for the needs of the poor and the oppressed, a commitment to end poverty, hunger, homelessness, inadequate education and inadequate health care all around the world, and a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, environmental protection and repair of the damage done to the planet by 150 years of environmentally irresponsible behavior in industrializing societies.
For some time, Tikkun has advocated what Rabbi Lerner calls a New Bottom Line in America.  Today institutions and social practices are judged efficient, rational and productive to the extent that they maximize money and power.  That's the Old Bottom Line. The NEW BOTTOM LINE Tikkun advocates is: “Institutions and social practices should be judged rational, efficient and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity and behavior, kindness and generosity, non-violence and peace, and to the extent that they enhance our capacities to respond to other human beings in a way that honors them as embodiments of the sacred, and enhances our capacities to respond to the earth and the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement.”

I close with the words of Bill Sinkford, former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association:  “It [is] more important than ever for us to assert our values and our voices, as citizens of this country and the world guided by our religious values in the national debates which take place in Washington.  We do this as a religious people, not in order to impose our religion on anyone, but rather to support the values of diversity and religious freedom in our nation.  Without us, these debates can be dominated by the forces of inequality, discrimination, and intolerance.  With us and the morals we share with other people of conscience, these debates can work towards a world of justice with peace.”  “I urge you to do your part in helping us put our beliefs into action…to bring our voice and our religious principles to bear on the most important social and political issues of the day.”
Amen   Go, speak and vote your religious values.

For more Reading go to:
http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/151713.shtml
for The religious left: An old tradition for a new day.
By Daniel McKanan  
UU World magazine Winter 2009 11.1.09