{"id":207,"date":"2006-11-10T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html"},"modified":"2006-11-10T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-10T12:00:00","slug":"jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

NOTE: On Wednesday morning, just after writing his initial reaction to the election, Jim Wallis received word that his father had suddenly passed away. He is now in Detroit with his family, and funeral services will be held Sunday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. After reading all of the comments to his piece, we thought we should answer in Jim\u2019s absence.
<\/em>
At Sojourners\/Call to Renewal\u2019s national conference in June, Sen. Barack Obama delivered a major speech on faith and politics<\/a>. He spoke eloquently about his personal faith and how it influences his political views and activities, drawing accolades from many quarters. But some liberal bloggers (who sounded like secular fundamentalists) immediately decried the speech, repeating the argument that religion should not be brought into politics.
<\/em>
By saying, \u201cIn this election, both the Religious Right and the secular Left were defeated,\u201d Jim\u2019s point was this: contrary to those who say faith has no place in politics, and that Democrats in particular should keep their faith to themselves, this election saw many Democrats win who speak openly about their faith, and how it informs their political views. This articulation was one of the reasons they were successful. Some are political liberals, (Governor-elect Ted Strickland (OH) is a liberal former Methodist minister) and some are conservative, (Representative-elect Heath Shuler (NC) is a conservative Southern Baptist) but both spoke of their faith in their campaigns, and both were elected.<\/p>\n

And, as Amy Sullivan pointed out in The New Republic<\/em><\/a>, in a number of states, \u201ccandidates and party leaders sat down with evangelicals and Catholics who had never been contacted by a Democrat before.\u201d Rather than writing off all religious people as conservative, Democrats made a point of outreach to the religious community, listened to their concerns, and answered their questions. \u201cIt turns out,\u201d she concluded, \u201cthat moderate evangelical and Catholic voters are willing to push the button for Democratic candidates. But sometimes it helps to talk to them first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the questions, one comment got it right. \u201cCapitalized letters matter, folks. Jim means Secular Fundamentalists, not all secular people. \u2026 Jim has continuously expressed his gratitude for the connections he’s formed with the secular Left.\u201d That is indeed what Jim meant. In God\u2019s Politics<\/em>, Jim contrasts the Religious Right, who \u201cwould impose the doctrines of a political theocracy on their fellow citizens,\u201d and secular fundamentalists, who \u201cwould deprive the public square of needed moral and spiritual values often shaped by faith.\u201d Secular fundamentalists, he wrote, \u201ctell us that religion should be restricted to one\u2019s church or family. No talk of faith, they say, ought to be allowed to seep into the public square for fear of violating the First Amendment or alienating the non-religious.\u201d Yet, \u201cWe can demonstrate our commitment to pluralistic democracy and support the rightful separation of church and state without segregating moral and spiritual values from our political life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, many of our friends and allies are \u201csecular but spiritual moral citizens,\u201d who \u201cstrive to maintain high moral values,\u201d \u201cwith moral compasses,\u201d who live \u201ca moral and ethical life.\u201d Jim often says that \u201creligion has no monopoly on morality.\u201d After saying this, many secular people who believe moral values should shape our public life come up and thank him for making them feel welcome. It is indeed in the \u201cinterest of all progressive people of conscience to work together to promote our shared values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Carr is chief of staff and Duane Shank is senior policy advisor at Sojourners\/Call to Renewal.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: On Wednesday morning, just after writing his initial reaction to the election, Jim Wallis received word that his father had suddenly passed away. He is now in Detroit with his family, and funeral services will be held Sunday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. After reading all of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist? - God's Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist? - God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NOTE: On Wednesday morning, just after writing his initial reaction to the election, Jim Wallis received word that his father had suddenly passed away. He is now in Detroit with his family, and funeral services will be held Sunday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. After reading all of the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-10T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist? - God's Politics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist? - God's Politics","og_description":"NOTE: On Wednesday morning, just after writing his initial reaction to the election, Jim Wallis received word that his father had suddenly passed away. He is now in Detroit with his family, and funeral services will be held Sunday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. After reading all of the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html","og_site_name":"God's Politics","article_published_time":"2006-11-10T12:00:00+00:00","author":"jmcgee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html","name":"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist? - God's Politics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-11-10T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2006-11-10T12:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/bdb748767d0f27ba523435391c927150"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2006\/11\/jeff-carr-and-duane-shank-what.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jeff Carr and Duane Shank: What is a Secular Fundamentalist?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/","name":"God's Politics","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/bdb748767d0f27ba523435391c927150","name":"jmcgee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b07\/b071769d942178df26e06d8859867b37x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b07\/b071769d942178df26e06d8859867b37x96.jpg","caption":"jmcgee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/author\/jmcgee"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}