Many on the left have encouraged this division, in effect saying "Bring it on." If you don't believe me, check out the third installment ofTony Hendra's Christian-baiting Huffington Post article series, entitled "The Rapture is Crapture."
What this has done is to basically give Republicans a big, cohesive, permanent, fired-up, unassailable base of voters, something the Democrats can't possibly hope to match. Good-bye Democratic majority, hello Republican excess. Not a smart move for a liberal movement that supposedly prides itself on intelligence.
But there are signs that things are changing. Tony Hendra's rantings aside, many liberals are coming around to the realization that they need Christians. This is a good thing - after all, it was Christian people power that helped liberals to reform prisons and debt law in the 19th century, and to put restraints on corporate exploitation in the early 1900s. Blacks and Hispanics, two key Democratic constituencies, are strongly Christian. There's no law in the Bible that says Christians have to care about abortion and gay marriage to the exclusion of all other issues. Conservatism has hijacked America's most common religion, and it's time to start taking it back.
An article in this week's New Republic details how Democrats are using environmental issues - called "creation care" by evangelicals - to pry a few Christian groups out of the smothering Republican embrace. It chronicles GOP ne'er-do-well Rick Santorum's painful encounters with religious environmentalists:
And, yet, witness the scene [when Santorum spoke] at Messiah College last month...When the lights came up in the auditorium, panelist Joseph Sheldon, a messiah biology professor, tore into the senator, accusing him of selling out the environment to business interests. Question after question from the packed hall attacked Santorum's votes against the Kyoto Accord and for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...[I]n Pennsylvania, global warming is the deciding issue for some evangelicals.
According to the article, Democrats' appeal to evangelical Christians on issues like environmentalism is useful primarily in "taking the edge off" the Republican advantage:
While the [evnironmentalist National Association of Evangelicals] may not turn out large numbers of its rank-and-file for Democrats, their praise helps blunt Republican attacks. For years, Rove and his ilk have attempted to scare up evangelical voters by crudely portraying Democrats as agents of cultural decay. Those attacks, however, will be far less effective if Democrats can point to the likes of the NAE and its ministers as proof of their faith-friendly bona fides.
Another article, this one in the Washington Post, details how the Religious Left, comprised mainly of non-evangelical Protestant denominations like Unitarians, is staging something of a comeback. These aren't your stereotypical fire-and-brimstone Christians:
Religious liberals say their faith compels them to emphasize such issues as poverty, affordable health care and global warming. Disillusionment with the war in Iraq and opposition to Bush administration policies on secret prisons and torture have also fueled the movement.These are positive trends. Religious liberals and environmentalist evangelicals can do a lot to dilute the Republican near-monopoly on Christianity. But call me a starry-eyed idealist: I think we can go one step further. I think we liberals can win large-scale support - even activist support - from Christian people and organizations.
To do this, I propose a series of steps, none of which have to do with bashing gay marriage or restricting abortion:
1. Stop insulting religious Christians.
Even if not one single evangelical Christian was prepared to vote Democrat, baiting them would be a terrible mistake. Tony Hendra and his ilk want to marginalize one religion, something that our Founders wisely viewed as anathema. The idea that religion is a primitive, vestigial cultural phenomenon that will eventually be driven out by science and logic is just plain wrong. People like religion - it gives them comfort, hope, purpose, and something social to do on Sunday. Biology and math will never do the same. Note to lefties: Even if you believe religion is the opiate of the masses, you should think carefully about your position on opiates.
So no more griping about "Merry Christmas" signs in stores. And give Tony Hendra the boot.
2. Find issues where Christianity and liberalism are natural allies.
There are a surprising number of issues floating around out there on which conservatism isn't protecting Christian interests at all, in addition to the aforementioned environmental protection. Here's a few suggestions:
Human trafficking - though Bush has taken some steps toward stopping this abuse of human rights, he hasn't made it a big issue, and neither have conservatives in general. But this is exactly the kind of thing that can get both liberals and Christians fired up. It's a huge problem in the world, and an opportunity for America to showcase its respect for human life.
Anti-prostitution and anti-porn - One important component of liberalism is feminism, and feminism views prostitution and porn as oppression of women. Christians revile porn and prostitution as immoral. But check the investment portfolios of fat-cat Republican businessmen, and I think you'll find more than one or two porn companies in there. This is, pardon the pun, a match made in Heaven.
Religious freedom in other countries - liberals want to spread liberal freedoms to other countries, and one of the most important of these is freedom of worship. There's plenty of countries where religious freedom is severely curtailed (China, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan come to mind), and in these countries it's usually Christians bearing the brunt of persecution. Liberals and Christians therefore can and should cooperate to fight for religious freedom all over the globe.
Anti-poverty - This is historically one of the main goals of both liberalism and Christianity, and this is the big reason why the two movements worked hand in hand for the first 150 years of America's existence. Time to revive this partnership, and work toward ending poverty in Africa and Latin America.
3. Address the #1 Christian concern.
I know I'm often guilty of assuming that sex is the root cause of political movements (it may have something to do with my age). But in the case of American conservative Christianity, I don't think I'm far off the mark. As American culture became richer - and therefore more sexual - in the 70s and 80s, many Americans felt a disconnect between this new world and their traditional (read: Christian) values and morals. More importantly, sex culture began eating away at the family structure (as it always does), leading to higher divorce rates, teen pregnancy, and lower fertility. Americans who choose to start families aren't happy with a culture of wanton sexuality that seems to always denigrate the family relationship.
Conservatism stepped into the breach, telling worried Americans that they had a plan for curbing the sex culture. That plan basically involved banning abortion (thus raising the risks of casual sex), suppressing homosexuality (which has always been perceived as a promiscuous lifestyle), and hitting kids with "abstinence education." Americans might have turned to Democrats for an alternative to this harsh, divisive, confrontational plan - but Democrats served up a big fat zero, basically leaving Americans with the perception that Democrats didn't care which direction the culture went.
Sex culture isn't just a Christian worry, it's a worry for anyone who's ever tried to hold a family together. Liberalism has traditionally had a strong "protect the kids" streak, and we need to bring this streak to the fore and show Americans that we have a plan for curbing the sex culture. Tipper Gore reassured more than a few people with her crusade against sexually explicit music lyrics, and Clinton made headway with the V-chip. We can continue this push for "family-friendly liberalism" by modifying the sex education curriculum - not to promote worthless "abstinence education," but to teach kids about the emotional (as opposed to only the physical) risks of casual sex. We can push parenthood - especially fatherhood - as an essential American value, and especially encourage black men to get married and be good dads (Pat Moynihan agreed, and he was a true-blue liberal).
And while we're at it, let's point out the Republicans' failings in this area. Let's point to Duke Cunningham getting lobbyists to buy him hookers. Let's point to the fact that it's big businesses that push sex culture on Americans, and it's Republicans who support and protect big business.
We'll never be able to match the stridency of the conservatives' anti-sex movement, simply because the conservatives are pushing tough-seeming policies that won't work and will do harm in the process. But showing Americans, especially Christians, that Democrats care about the family and want to curb the sex culture will remove the single most important block to renewing the unbeatable Liberal-Christian Alliance.
Cooperating with Christianity is the single most important thing the liberal movement can do to get the Karl Rove Show cancelled. It's got to be one component of our effort to build a long-term stable liberal majority in this country. Anyone who can't see that is full of crapture.
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