Dispatches from the religious left
Page 1
Dispatches
from the
Religious Left
The Future of
Faith and Politics
in America
Edited by Frederick Clarkson
Introduction by Joan Brown Campbell
Afterword by Jeff Sharlet
Brooklyn, New York
Copyright 2009 © by Frederick Clarkson Contributors 2009 © in the author's names All rights reserved. Printed in Michigan, U.S.A. 10987654321 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquires to: Ig Publishing 178 Clinton Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dispatches from the religious left : the future of faith and politics in America edited by Frederick Clarkson. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-9788431-8-2 ISBN-10: 0-9788431-8-5 1. Religion and politics--United States. 2. United States--Religion. I. Clarkson, Frederick. BL2525.D575 2009 201'.720973--dc22 2008032830
CONTENTS
Introduction Joan Brown Campbell 7
Editor's Introduction Frederick Clarkson 10
PART I.
ENVISIONING A MORE POLITICALLY DYNAMIC RELIGIOUS LEFT
Hillel's Questions: A Call for Leadership Marshall Ganz 17
Religious Left: Changing the Script Daniel Schultz 21
Not by Outrage Alone Katherine Ragsdale 37
Religious Right, Religious Left Chip Berlet 43
Who's God? Faith, Democracy, and the Making of an Authentic Religious Left Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou 61
PART H.
MEMOS ON HOT BUTTON ISSUES
A Progressive Vision of ChurchState Relations Barry Lynn 81
Towards a'lheology of Sexual Justice Debra Haffner and Timothy Palmer 89
Reproductive Justice and a Comprehensive Social Justice Ethic Carlton Veazey 99
Creationism, Evolution, and the Integrity of Science and Religion Peter Hess 106
Take it from a Stem Cell Catholic Frank Cocozzelli 114
Are We More Devoted to Order or to justice? Kety Esquivel 120
PART III.
GETTING FROM HERE TO THERE
Wrong about the Right Jean Hardisty and Deepak Bhargava 129
'Thoughts about Power, Organization and Leadership Marshall Ganz 141
Organizing Clergy for Marriage Equality in Massachusetts Leo Maley 153
The Organizing Model of We Believe Ohio Anastasia Pantsios 161
Three Wheels that Need Not Be Reinvented Frederick Clarkson 167
Using New Media to Strengthen the Religious Left Shelby Meyerhoff and Shai Sachs 175
The Funding Challenges of the Religious Left Peter Laarman 181
I Don't Believe in Atheists Chris Hedges 189
Afterword Jef/Sharlet 200
Contributors 205
Acknowledgements 215
INTRODUCTION
REV. DR. JOAN BROWN CAMPBELL
"There is a time when silence is betrayal... that time is now."
-Abraham Heschel
Finally, the Religious Left has found its voice and is willing to own the prophetic tradition that has long characterized its sense of ministry. Religion that is biblically-based takes seriously the issues of poverty, prejudice, peace, and power. The health and well-being of God's children has always been the business of people of faith, and it has never been popular or universally well received.
Our respective religious traditions and the responsibilities and opportunities of constitutional democracy require us not to turn away from an engagement with the powers and principalities of our day. The question is not whether there should be interaction between faith and politics; rather the question is how progressive people of faith should engage in public life.The fact that the excesses of the Religious Right have in the eyes of many compromised the integrity of faith in public life should not deter progressive people from responsible citizenship.
The founders of this nation were in the main deeply religious people, and they were the revolutionaries of their day. The values imbedded in our historical documents are the values shared by every major faith.. .the inalienable rights of every person are to this day life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And yet, in the name of religious liberty and the separation of church and state, good people of deep faith have come to believe that politics corrupts the purity of faith. This is a tragic misunderstanding of both faith and politics.
The writers in this challenging volume of essays reveal with clear focus how we might make more powerful strides toward justice, equality and peace without compromising our faith and without unjustly turning our government institutions into faith-based advocates for religious groups with a particular political bias. These writers remind us that faith has always challenged power on behalf of the lonely, the lost, and the forgotten. If this is Left, then let us claim it as an appropriate call to those whose lives are motivated by faith.
Editor Frederick Clarkson asked an eclectic group of writers, thinkers, and activists for their thoughts on what it would take to make a Religious Left that is greater than the sum of its current parts; a movement that could develop a greater capacity to achieve something that more closely resembles our highest aspirations for a just society. What could we be doing better, much better? In the face of looming global and local problems, essayist Daniel Schultz bluntly observes: "What the Religious Left is doing, isn't working." If we accept that premise, conscience requires that we reevaluate. This book does some of that, while not pretending that the job is anymore than just getting started. Such humility not withstanding, no one should be surprised to see some Conventional Wisdoms fundamentally questioned in this collection. But Clarkson says that this volume should not be taken as a platform, a manifesto, or a blueprint for the Religious Left. Instead, it is best read as a conversation starter, one intended to allow for a broadening and deepening of the kinds of discussions religious progressives need to be having.
This book is bursting with hope, and urgency and possibility from writers who are mostly not the "usual suspects," although in contributing to this book, they may have placed themselves in danger of being so defined. Nevertheless, they seem to have a clear sense of where they stand in history and in the great progressive traditions of which they are a part. Marshall Ganz, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement and the hey day of Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers, who now teaches at Harvard, believes he now better understands what Hillel was talking about 2,000 years ago, while much younger leaders like Osagyefo Sekou and Kety Esquivel struggle with the contemporary meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
This eclectic band of essayists are writing independently of one another and from different parts of the country, all coming out of different backgrounds and experiences. And they certainly show us many things we would not otherwise see or not otherwise notice, and leave us hungering for more. Undoubtedly, if we put them all in a room, they would not agree on all things. And that is as it should be. But I think it would be fair to say that a rough consensus exists for this much: Standing for clear principles while remaining attentive to, but unswayed by, political fashions; understanding our respective faith traditions in the context of the history of our constitutional democracy; respecting the right of religious difference and separation of church and state; and always reevaluating our tactics, strategy and resources in light of our experience; and acting on what we have learned. If this is so, that sounds like a Religious Left that is faithful to its highest calling.
Let the conversation begin!
Joan Brown Campbell
Chautauqua Institution
August 13, 2008
EDITOR'S INT
RODUCTION:
A RELIGIOUS LEFT FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY?
FREDERICK CLARKSON
When Ig Publishing asked me if I'd consider putting together what became this anthology, I was skeptical at first. My experience and expertise over the years has mostly been writing about the Religious Right-therefore I wasn't sure that I was the right person for the job. But then I reminded myself that my roots are in progressive religious politics that go back to the 1970s when, after college, I served on the staff of Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC). CALC was an interfaith outgrowth of Clergy and Layman Concerned about Vietnam, founded by Reverend William Sloan Coffin, Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in opposition to the war in Vietnam. CALC had updated and built on the religious anti-war experience with a broader agenda and a more inclusive organizational name. I eventually moved on, as did CALC.
Since then, I have worked closely with progressive religious leaders and organizations on a variety of projects. And while my knowledge of the progressive religious political landscape needed updating, I felt that my knowledge of the history and political dynamics of the Religious Right was a particular strength to draw on as we contemplated a Religious Left for the twenty-first century. In short, I changed my mind. I can say now with great assurance that knowledge of the differences and the different histories of the Religious Right and the Religious Left is not merely a happy extra, but I would argue, is a necessary prerequisite for envisioning what a more politically dynamic Religious Left could be in twenty-first century America. Sorting out the differences, and discussing what we can learn from formidable opponents, as well as what we must not emulate, is one of the themes of this book.
Indeed, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the Religious Right have been "greatly exaggerated."In truth, the movement is neither dead nor dying, as pundits periodically declare, but is in a state of transition, particularly as the founding generation of leaders passes from the scene. But whatever its ups and downs, it remains one of the most significant social and political movements in modern American history-and there is nothing on the left that is even remotely comparable.
So before I say a few words about Dispatches from the Religious Left, here are a few thoughts about the Religious Right.The Religious Right is a movement that has been best known by a number of major politically oriented ministries and major political organizations operating primarily (but not exclusively) within the Republican Party. However, there is much more to it, as the movement has institutionalized on a scale that is not widely appreciated. A growing number of think tanks, political and media entities, publishing houses, colleges, universities and even law schools affiliated with the Religious Right already play a significant role in American public life, and this is unlikely to change much, even with the recent rise in the fortunes of the Democratic Party and the passing of the leaders of the founding generation of the Religious Right. Indeed, the movement's institutional infrastructure; the ideologies they have promoted; the books they have written; the generations of political activists they have trained and deployed; and the politicians they have elected to office at all levels, and those who aspire to office will be with us for a long time to come.
Meanwhile, the contemporary Religious Left is sufficiently dif fuse that it does not really even qualify as a movement in the broad, social science sense of the term. However, as Daniel Schultz puts it in his essay, "What the Religious Left is doing isn't working," this observation is not intended as an insult, but rather as a blunt assessment of the current state of the "movement."This observation is not intended as an insult, but rather as a blunt assessment of the current state of the "movement." There are many good people involved in progressive religion who are doing great things, and many excellent organizations making strides against the odds. But as any good political organizer, any good businessperson, any good baseball coach-in short, any good leader-will tell you that you have to reevaluate when things are not going well. While religious progressives are concerned about a host of matters-preventing and stopping wars, alleviating poverty, saving the environment, righting racial injustices-much of what is being done is not working, or not working well enough. And, even considering those things that are working well, how can the Religious Left become greater than the sum of its parts? This book is about launching a wide ranging conversation of reevaluation in order to discover what it would take for the Religious Left to become more politically effective.
Unfortunately, our country's experience of the Religious Right has left a bad taste in the mouths of many, leading some to recoil at the very idea of a Religious Left. This is an understandable reaction-but only up to a point. A prospective Religious Left would be in no way analogous to the Religious Right, and to suggest anything otherwise is an exercise in false equivalence. A Religious Left deserves to be heard and evaluated on its own terms. If this volume is any indication, whatever an authentic, revitalized Religious Left turns out to be, it will not be a fun house mirror image of the worst elements of the Religious Right. "Progressive religious groups," Peter Laarman observes in his essay, "have a deep understanding of the need for separation of church and state woven into their DNA." A Religious Left conceived in this way, would be of a profoundly different nature than the Religious Right. And that is just for starters.
That said, Dispatches is not a manifesto, a platform or a blueprint for the Religious Left. And participation in Dispatches does not necessarily imply agreement among the writers. Rather, this is a collection of bold, energetic, highly responsible and forward-looking essays that ask good questions; tell good stories; locate us in history and in our political moment; call for a vision of a brighter future, as well as offering some serious ideas about what needs to be done, and done differently. Part of what these essays do is to model ways of thinking from a variety of perspectives: clergy and laity; activists and academics; journalists; think tankers; professional issue advocates, and various combinations thereof. These are some of the kinds of people that comprise a movement, and no one sector dominates this volume.
But there is one feature I want to highlight. Herein are some remarkable examples of how progressive religious people think and write when unencumbered by the dictates of contemporary fashions in "faith outreach" by candidates for major offices; or framed solely by areas of "common ground" with conservative evangelicals and conservative Catholics. Such activities may be fine, but they do not define what a Religious Left is or should be. Religious progressives cannot, and should not be expected to, elide their deeply held values or be asked to sacrifice the human and civil rights of whole classes of people in the interest of short term political expediency. Astute progressives understand the art of politics includes dialog and compromise, but dialog and compromise are not to be conflated with capitulation, self-marginalization, and betrayal.
A serious discussion of a movement that arises from the values and visions of the great religious social justice traditions will undoubtedly discomfit some-maybe most of us. Nevertheless, I hope that Dispatches from the Religious Left will encourage and inform the kinds of meaningful, spirited and constructive conversations from which people come away transformed, recognizing that new directions are not only necessary, but possible.
PART I.
Envisioning A More
Politically Dynamic Religious Left
HILLEL'S QUESTIONS:
A CALL FOR LEADERSHIP
Dr. Marshall Ganz
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? When I am for myself alone, what am I? If not now, when?
What can our struggle to answer Hillel's questions teach us about congregational leadership, community, and work in the world?
I began my journey as the son of a rabbi and teacher in Bakersfield, California, found myself called to public work in the civil rights movement in Mississippi, discovered a vocation for organizing, and, in the fall of 1965, joined Cesar Chavez in his efforts to unionize farm workers. After twenty-eight years "in the
field," I returned to Harvard, where I now teach a rising generation of students how to turn our shared values into the power to repair ourselves, our community, and our world. This is the work of organizing.
Only as I began to do the work did I learn how central this calling is to our tradition. It may have begun with Moses-an insider outsider, a Jew who was an Egyptian, a man of the oppressed, raised in the house of the oppressor, a man who knew the world's pain but who, at God's insistence, found he could lead others on a journey of redemption. And only as I began to look for words to teach this craft-developing leadership, building community, and taking public action - did I really hear the questions Hillel asked 2000 years ago.
Iflam notfor myself, who will be for me?We are created in God's image-each of infinite moral worth, capable of choice, and utterly unique-but our days are finite, our reach is limited, and we have more to learn than we can ever know. We begin as the children of our parents. As we embrace them and struggle with them, we begin authoring who we are in relation to them. As "works in progress," we grow as siblings, friends, lovers, students, workers, colleagues, congregants, and citizens. Many of us become parents ourselves. In facing challenges, making choices, and living with consequences, in both sorrow and joy, we learn to love what we love, know what we know, and do what we do. To be "for myself" is to honor the sources of my worth, my strengths, and my limitations.
To find the courage, commitment, and hopefulness to face the challenges of our times, why would we turn to marketing mavens, management gurus, and niche strategists when our real sources of strength are in learning who we are, where we come from, and where we are going?
When I am for myself alone, what am I?The implication is powerful. When I think only of myself, I lose my humanity. No longer a "who,"I have become a "what."To be a "self" is to be in relationship with "others" and with God. It is not an option, but is woven into the very fabric of our lives.