Surprise,surprise–Jesus isneither ‘Red State’nor ‘Blue State’.
Religious-Right Voters Facing Challenge From Liberal ChristiansBy Cliff MontgomeryAt the turn of the last century, one of the most popular movements among Christians was called the Social Gospel movement. Beginning with a few prominent Protestant theologians, its ideas of social justice, equality, and freedom from economic and political oppression became wildly popular across the religious landscape. It lost much support during World War I, due to its firm belief in non-violence.But it still retained the power to deliver a strong Christian, and politically liberal, message; Martin Luther King, Jr. was the best-known exponent of the Social Gospel in more recent times.Its 20-Century theological opponent, Fundamentalism, has in recent years experienced an immense revival, just as the Social Gospel movement was going through some of its darkest days.But that appears to be changing in a big way.A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterday that it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7th elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justice as well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.The 12-page booklet, called “Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics” (http://thecatholicalliance.org), is part of a broader effort by liberal religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values, said Alexia Kelley, the group’s executive director and a former employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.Secular groups such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club have long published election-year guides to issues and candidates’ positions. Since the right-wing Christian Coalition began distributing voter guides in 1992, however, it has faced little or no competition from liberal or moderate religious organizations.In Roman Catholic parishes, the group Catholic Answers, based in California, had the field largely to itself in 2004, when it distributed 10 million copies of its “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics” (http://www.catholic.com). This year, as in the past, the Catholic Answers guide urges Catholics to base their votes on five “non-negotiable” issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage.”No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church’s moral norms,” it says.But since these beliefs are the whims and fears of those who are neither doctors nor experts in the issues being discussed, it’s hard to understand why their personal views should matter more than anyone else’s.There was also no word from Catholic Answers on how a Church hierarchy that for decades worked to protect priests who were molesting altar boys could suddenly proclaim themselves morally infallible.Thankfully the Common Good guide takes a more reasoned moral approach, saying: “In recent years some have suggested that we can answer this question [of how to vote] by applying a simple ‘litmus test’ of a few selected issues. But common sense tells us that deciding who to vote for is much more complicated.”Quoting documents issued by the U.S. bishops conference, the Common Good guide outlines seven “key themes of Catholic social teaching“–including “prioritizing the needs of the poor and vulnerable”–and lists 18 “issues important to Catholics,” including immigration, the environment, nuclear disarmament and workers’ rights.”Seldom does a single candidate or party offer a consistently Catholic set of positions,” it says, adding that “we often must vote for candidates who may hold the ‘wrong’ Catholic positions on some issues in order to maximize the good our vote achieves in other areas.”In Protestant churches, the Christian Coalition’s guides will face competition this year from “Voting God’s Politics,” a brochure produced by the liberal evangelical magazine Sojourners and the anti-poverty group Call to Renewal. Like the Common Good guide, it discusses issues, not individual candidates.”Even the term ‘voter guide’ has been so tainted by the religious right that people are afraid that ours is going to be just a left-wing version of theirs, a thinly camouflaged signal to vote for particular candidates,” said Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners.”Our guide levels the playing field; it makes clear that God is not a Republican or a Democrat.”In raw numbers, it’s hard to tell how even this “battle of the voter guides” will be, however. Sojourners has so far distributed 50,000 of its brochures, and plans to print 150,000 more. Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, claims her group will distribute “millions” of its guides, which she said it is now compiling, to candidates in key races. But how many guides the Christian Coalition will actually distribute is not known at this time.
