[Marxism] salon.com: Democrats need to get religious

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Along with the Nation Magazine, salon.com was a leading voice of the
ABB camp. It is a strictly online publication that relies on the deep
pockets of Silicon Valley billionaires who a NY Times Magazine article
described as being in the driver's seat of the DP today. I love the
business about "But if Democrats continue shipping in the Prada and
Birkenstock crowd to talk about abortion, gay marriage and Iraq to
small-town Main Streeters on their way to Home Depot, they're toast" in
the article. It is a sign that the Democrats intend to adopt social
conservatism to go along with their economic conservatism. And when
somebody comes along to run against Kerry in 2008, who will have
converted to the Baptist Church conceivably, and his even more
disgusting Republican opponent, we will be instructed by the Nation and
salon.com not to obstruct his chances.)

Losing my religion
My mother is a black evangelical Christian -- and a staunch Democrat.
The party failed her and millions of other religious folk, and that has
to change.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By ZZ Packer

printe-mail

Nov. 20, 2004  |  In the aftermath of Bush's reelection, Democrats are
doing a lot of soul-searching about how to break the Republican lock on
the red states. They need to pay attention to a forgotten group:
religious Democrats.

My fellow blue-staters may not understand evangelicals, but I do -- I
was raised as one. My church's brand of evangelicalism was so strict
women couldn't wear pants, makeup or jewelry. My church believed in
speaking in tongues; believed that a good Christian went to Wednesday
night prayer meeting and Thursday night Bible study, in addition to
Sunday school, Sunday worship, Sunday dinner at the church and the
two-hour Sunday fellowship that followed.

And I'm the bluest Democrat you ever saw.

Granted, I grew up in the black evangelical tradition, which differs
from its white counterpart in one crucial respect: Black evangelicals
have historically voted overwhelmingly Democratic because of civil
rights, whereas white evangelicals in the South were often
segregationists. For that reason, the Democrats will never win over all
the white evangelicals -- nor, in the case of those who have remained
unreconstructed racists, should they want to. But they should be trying
to win over religious moderates, white, black and Latino. In fact, they
have to.

Religious Democrats don't run the party. They don't tend to be
high-profile strategists or spokespeople. But there are a lot more of
them than the party elite realize -- and they are uniquely positioned to
roll back the raging red sea. These people know how to talk to the folks
in the red states and swing states for a simple reason: More often than
not, they live in them.

They also have another major advantage over their conservative
counterparts: They have the Bible on their side. Democrats of faith
don't have to "cloak" their political message in religious metaphors,
the way the right is fond of doing. Promoting peace and brotherhood over
needless war and intolerance; understanding that we have an obligation
to help poor children and their parents, not merely protecting those
parents' rights to have children -- these are deeply Christian values.
Any Christian can understand that the parable of the Good Samaritan not
only urges us to help our fellow man, but cautions against xenophobia.

Yes, the GOP convinced many Christians that the Democrats were less
"moral" than the Republicans, and issues like abortion, gun control and
homosexuality played a large role. But people who take hard-line stands
on these issues make up only a minority of Christians. Most red-state
social conservatives voted the way they did not out of intolerance or
bigotry, but simply because they feared change. Their discomfort with
gay marriage and a pro-choice platform does not de facto equal
homophobia and anti-choice; it is just that: discomfort. Republicans
exploited that discomfort and fear the same way they exploited
Americans' fears of terrorism. And liberals can fight back on the same
moral ground: They can address that discomfort and fear without
abandoning their core values.

Moderate religious-minded folk understand that claiming that the
Democrats are "for abortion" is like saying every gun owner is "for
homicide." By and large, they're for real solutions: Rather than
foolhardily trying to legislate all sexual behavior, they advocate sex
education, birth control and the morning-after pill to reduce unwanted
pregnancies. They understand that when Jesus said, "He who is without
sin, cast the first stone," he was explicitly rebuking the sanctimonious
moralists not just of his day, but of ours.

Religious Democrats can talk about these issues in ways that moderate
Christians, both in the heartland and on the coasts, understand. But if
Democrats continue shipping in the Prada and Birkenstock crowd to talk
about abortion, gay marriage and Iraq to small-town Main Streeters on
their way to Home Depot, they're toast.

full: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/11/20/religion/index.html

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