An MSNBC article sent to me by my friend, "The Preacher's Son / Left-Liberal / Big-Heart Christian" Will Hooper, explains the current environment and fundamental split between religion and politics on the left and right. It makes alot of good points, and basically sums up alot of the feelings I've had about the subject.Recently, a man who was enraged by my column sent an e-mail with an exultant sign-off line. He said that in closing he was not only going to mention God, he was going to capitalize the G because he knew it made liberals like me crazy.
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When did it first become gospel that only conservatives knew God? It sure wasn't true 40 years ago for a Roman Catholic kid in a Catholic neighborhood, when the knock on John F. Kennedy was that religion was likely to be too much a part of his politics and he'd be on the phone to the Holy See so often, the pope would be a de facto cabinet member. Jimmy Carter's faith was as much a part of his persona as that Chiclets smile, and I'd like to meet the guy who could go head to head with Mario Cuomo on theology and not cry for mercy by the end of the exercise.
All that made perfect sense to me because I had long ago concluded that I had become a liberal largely through religion. Loving your neighbor as yourself, giving your cloak to the man who had none, blessed are the peacemakers: taken together, all of it seemed a clarion call to social justice and the obligation of individuals and institutions to help those who needed help. Jesus was the first radical rabble-rouser I'd ever read about in school, and the best. I think that he makes some really great points, and I especially like that Jesus line at the end of that bit (hence the bold). The point is that, as Will said to me earlier, "The right has religiousity, the left has faith. The right has moralism, the left has morals." Of course, that's meant not as a broad generalization, but as a general statement. It obviously doesn't apply to the entire spectrum - only the hardliners think like that.
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