The Rise Of The Christian...Left?

The Wall Street Journal has noticed the growing voice and power of the Christian Left (I come from a family of pro-life Catholic Democrats myself) and the issues that are important to them, mainly climate change legislation and tackling poverty.

This being the Wall Street Journal however, the framing of the article is not the Christian Left, but what the Christian Right has to do to try to stop them:

The religious right and secular conservatives are taking notice. In recent weeks, key religious-right groups such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council have heavily promoted the work of a group called the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. The Cornwall Alliance dismisses global-warming alarms as hype and argues that forceful action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions could cripple the economy and harm the poor. It is organizing conservative pastors to carry this message to the pews.

The religious left has a long tradition of activism on social issues, including the civil-rights movement. But for the past quarter century, faith-based politicking has been dominated by the religious right, which built a powerful army of activists -- and a formidable fund-raising machine -- on the strength of leaders such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority and radio host James Dobson of Focus on the Family.

The religious left's re-emergence as a strong voice -- with the financial backing to make aggressive media buys -- is a "seismic shift," said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University who studies evangelical politics.

"The religious left is experiencing today what the religious right had in 1981," Mr. Lindsay said. "They've finally found a White House that's not just tolerating but welcoming, affirming, of their involvement."

Left-leaning Christian groups also have started to attract funding from secular donors who share their political goals -- and who see Biblical appeals as a promising way to broaden public support.

Oxfam America has worked with churches for years, but on relatively non-controversial campaigns such as staging fasts to call attention to world hunger. Now, the group is teaming up with the religious left to push for congressional action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

E. Calvin Beisner, a spokesman for the conservative Cornwall Alliance, says the right has to respond forcefully to the well-funded campaigns from the religious left, because "they're certainly not being silent."

People forget that it was the religious Left that gave rise to the civil rights movement, both Christians and Jews working together to try to correct an egregious moral injustice. It was the backlash of this that created the religious right in the 80's, that used religion to advance strict moral conservatism instead.

So yes, I guess the Right should have a healthy fear of the religious Left. How nice of the Wall Street Journal to warn us about the Dirty Hippies, or whatever.