{"id":45,"date":"2008-12-01T08:06:23","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T08:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/is-there-a-religious-left.html"},"modified":"2008-12-01T08:06:23","modified_gmt":"2008-12-01T08:06:23","slug":"is-there-a-religious-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/is-there-a-religious-left.html","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Religious Left?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not yet, according to Jeff Sharlet<\/a>.  Sharlet was recently asked to contribute to a book on the supposed Religious Left, and he has posted the draft of his chapter at The Revealer<\/a> (to which you all should subscribe).<\/p>\n

\"liberal_boy.gif\"<\/span>This is a question that interests me, in part because I’m now commonly placed in the “liberal” camp, not only by self-proclaimed conservatives, but also by emergent movement leaders who wish that the theological provocations of McLaren, Pagitt, and Jones would just go away.  I’ve been invited to a summit of leftward theologians in March who have a Ford Foundation grant to “rekindle theological education” among progressives.<\/p>\n

\"christian<\/span>I go into meetings like that with healthy doses of trepidation and skepticism.  I don’t consider myself a “liberal” in the common, popular use of the term<\/a>* (although I clearly am — as are most of us in this democracy — in the philosophical use of the term<\/a>).  I tend to think that the bipolarities of “liberal v. conservative” are a holdover from Enlightenment epistemology and, as such, are less and less helpful.  I thought of this again as I heard Pat Buchanan proclaim on Morning Joe<\/i> this morning that Obama’s cabinet picks thus far are “center-right.”  I continue to think that BO was elected because Americans see in him a pragmatism reflective of William James<\/a> and John Dewey<\/a> (but the roots of which go back to Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/a>).  It’s this progressive pragmatism<\/a> that is America’s real contribution to epistemology.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to Sharlet.  He writes, in brief, of the institutionalization of the Religious Right, and of the half-hearted attempts at a Religious Left.  Then he sets forth his proposal that a new movement be formed, not from homogeneity, but from strife.  Money quote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\nBut
\nlife, Darwin reminds us, is not a value, it’s a fact, and one defined
\nnot by harmony but by struggle. The good news is that that is the good
\nnews: the rowdy, pluralist approach to politics embraced by religious
\nleftists is the fundamental faith of America. Not perfect harmony;
\nglorious cacophony. “The noise of democracy,” according to President
\nJames Buchanan, who was a failure in nearly every respect but for the
\nhigh regard in which he held the American sacrament of arguing.\n<\/p>\n

Brothers and sisters: Let us argue. It’s what we do best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am currently reading Sharlet’s latest, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power<\/i><\/a>, about the mysterious “Fellowship<\/a>” that puts on the National Prayer Breakfast<\/a> every year.  Sharlet’s writing is breathtakingly good, and his research is unparalleled.  His earlier book, Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible<\/i><\/a>, (and eponymous website<\/a>) is similarly excellent.<\/p>\n

\"Liberal-Definition.gif\"<\/span>*I’ll admit it, I do drive a Volvo<\/a>.  But I do NOT drink lattes (unlike some people I know<\/a>, who drink “venti-non-fat-vanilla-latte-extra-hot-with-a-shot-of-protein).  I drink my coffee black, like all good Scandinavians. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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Not yet, according to Jeff Sharlet.  Sharlet was recently asked to contribute to a book on the supposed Religious Left, and he has posted the draft of his chapter at The Revealer (to which you all should subscribe). 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