The Religious Left

There is a movement right now for those believers on the left to refute the idea that being a believer means you support the religious Right or President Bush. It's been around for a few years now, but it's slowly gaining more momentum as we head into the 2008 election. And it's kicked up enough dust that some Conservatives are writing about it, including Suzanne Fields in her latest article.

Unfortunately here treatment of the subject is pretty slim. She notes that the three candidates for the Democratic Party Nomination all have religion as part of their story. She then complains that liberals who snickered at President Bush's faith are likely to ignore these Democrats faith.

She's right. But Suzanne Fields own faith must be pretty shallow not to see a difference between the faith of a Hillary Clinton and a George W. Bush. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barak Obama aren't justifying their policies by referring to God's will.

That is not an insignificant distinction. Once you put God on one side of a political debate, you've created an untenable situation. Republicans do this all the time, which is why they feel so damn comfortable describing liberals as evil doers and monsters. God wants one thing, we want the other - obviously the best thing you can say about Liberals is that they are deluded.

On the other hand Liberal believers usually talk about God as a motivator. He leads them to do good, to want to do good. Obviously they see fighting for social reforms and better living conditions for the poor as Good. They are able to recognize, however, that Conservatives believe that fighting to oppress Gays and support big business are "Good." Hence they are more likely to be understanding of their political enemies (perhaps a little too understanding).

I don't know how far this holds up - but it makes sense to me.